Leeds nostalgia: Spitfires attack RAF in Egypt and.. the Leeds PC who stopped horse charging a crowd

'˜Capitalism does work'. That was the headline on page one of the YEP on May 22, 1948, after Aflred Edwards, MP for East Middlesborough, set off on a business trip to America.

He said: “With all its faults, capitalism does work. We are riding for a fall if we think that any member of the community works for altruistic means alone.”

Edwards was expelled from the Labour Party over his attitude toward steel negotiation, on which he had this to say: “Aneurin Bevan says nationalise and damn the consequences but I won’t be party to it.” He added the government was set to go “nicely, if not rapidly downhill.” He accused the government of handing over power to civil servants and a few generals, adding: “And of course, there must be some plums for the trade unionists of retiring age.”

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In other news, British Spitfires shot down four Egyptian planes in combat during air raids on the British airport of Ramath David, 35 miles east of Haifa. Three member of the British ground crew were killed and six others injured.

However, it would seem from the report that we were attacked with our own planes, with the Egyptian pilots flying Spitfires.

Arab forces claimed to have almost completely surrounded Jerusalem and said they expected to win control of the city by the end of the day. According to a report in the YEP, Jews living in the Jewish quarter were forced to take to tunnel networks to evade bombing. One Jewish Air Force plane, however, scored a direct hit on an Egyptian ammunition train during a moonlight raid in the Gaza area.

And finally, Leeds policeman Harry Gill, stopped a runaway horse charging into a crowd of people at Hillidge Place, Hunslet.