"the War was well over, there was still rationing, & what the idiot Labour Government of the time called "austerity"."

I have the impression, which may be wrong, that such "austerity measures" happened in Australia too. Of course, at that time Aussie Pollies were often just blind slaves of "Her Majesty", rather than putting Australia first.

Incidentally, I have heard tales from believable sources thatat that time, we had such a glut of things like butter, that they were dumped and buried rather than lift the austerity measures.