Conservative/Labour Government 1916-1929

Decline of Conservatives - Just after 8 months of being in power Bonar Law who became very ill resigned and was taken over by Stanley Baldwin Baldwins decision to call an election in December 1923 over tariff reform was disastrous After 10 months Liberals withdrew their support
1. Labour's Successes - With the decline of the Liberals the way was left open for the Labour Party to become a main opponent to the Conservatives and they even managed to get into power
  1. Ramsay MacDonald led Labour into power in 1923-24 but under a minority government Labour felt like an oppositional party despite having a Labour PM as they were heavily reliant upon other party's
  2. Labour raised old age pension and unemployment benefits; Wheatley's Housing Act 1924 0.5million new council houses built, committee on secondary education
2. Soft on Communism
  1. Trade Deal with USSR
  2. Campbell Case - Communist journalist who urged the armed forces to disobey orders if they were sent to put down a general strike
  3. Zinoviev Letter - Supposedly sent from the leadership of the USSR to the British Communist Party to promote acts of subversion in Britain, Labour Party was linked to this plot
Economic Problems 1923-29
1. Staple Industries
  1. Structural Unemployment - Unemployment resulting from changes in the make up of an economy.
  2. Britains share of the world export trade fell from 18% to 11% and there was a drop in value of oversea investments
    1. London no longer the financial capital of the world, USA replaced Britain as the world money-lender
2. Need for Modernisation - Staple industries were no longer in high demand, electricity and oil supplies had taken over the coal industry and Britain was in surplus of it's exports
3. Foreign Competition - Germany, Japan and USA were now leading industrial nations
  1. Also other nations imposed tariffs upon British imports so there was less demand for British trade USSR didn't want to be reliant upon capitalist countries for their trade
4. Shift in location - Before 1914 many industries were based around coalfields but now electricity allowed businesses to move closer to markets. Unemployment was high in North and West of Britain
5. Some Positives - Second Revolution - Chemicals - Motor Vehicles - Electrical Goods (National Grid) - Canned foods Productivity measures of output per worker also increased
Economic Policies
1. Conservative
  1. Stanley Baldwin proposed Tariff Reforms This was miscalculated and resulted in them loosing the 1923 election He also broke off relations with Soviet Union Stopped revival of Anglo-Russian trade which may have been vital
  2. Winston Churchill put Britain back on the Gold Standard 1925 at pre-war rate Exchange rate was too high making British exports uncometitive in staple industries like coal
2. Labour
  1. Labour signed treaty for Anglo-Russian Trade, cancelled by Baldwins government in '24
  2. MacDonald negotiated Dawes Plan '24 and Young Plan '29, both aimed to restore trade with Germany British trade with Germany did revive in the mid-20s
  3. Launched public work schemes aiming to create jobs It was on too small a scale and over too short a period to have any great effect
  4. Subsidies were extended to imperial airways Development of new civil aviation industry was encouraged by this
Industrial Unrest
1. Miners Strike
  1. General Strike
    1. TUC and government - Not a good result for the miners - 100,000 volunteers to move essential supplies along with the army Baldwin did win public sympathy by not directly targetting the TUC or workers
    2. Impact
      1. Government didn't take the necessary steps to prevent the general strike as Baldwin refused to compromise between the employers and TUC Brought out the Emergency Powers Act
      2. Emergency Powers Act 1921 declared a state of emergency Many thought that he was even trying to provoke a fight against the Unions by doing this
      3. Did not harm the unions or Labour as much as expected Trades Dispute Act - no 'sympathy strikes' By not joining in with the dispute Labour had projected an image of firmness and moderation which helped Labour win the 1929 election
      4. Not a good result for the miners - 100,000 volunteers to move essential supplies along with the army Baldwin did win public sympathy by not directly targeting the TUC or workers
    3. Participants - Coal, Iron, Steel, Chemical, Newspaper, Transport Services, all stopped running in support of the Coal miners
      1. TUC called together millions of other Trade unions in support of the Coal Miners around 3 million workers went on strike
    4. Response
      1. Emergency Powers Act 1921 declared a state of emergency Many thought that he was even trying to provoke a fight against the Unions by doing this
      2. Armoured army vehicles were dispatched around London and war ships in the river Clyde, Tyne and Mersey This lasted 9 days
2. Reasons for strikes
  1. Failure in industries and trade, Gold Standard, Communist influence, Government policies
    1. Coal mine owners wanted to decrease wages to increase their declining profits and for the workers to work longer hours The workers refused to do this. Lock-out called by mine owners as workers refused wage cut after 9 month subsidies ended
Decline of Conservatives - Industrial Unrest, Strike, Gold Standard

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Conservative/Labour Government 1916-1929

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