1929-39 Flashcards
Who was prime minister and in government in 1929?
Ramsay Macdonald and the Labour Party
Housing Act 1930
- Reintroduced government subsidies for council housing
enabling them to build homes for rent
-Granted greater powers to local authorities to enforce slum clearance - as a result more slums were cleared between 1934-39 than in the whole of the previous half century
Subsidies
a sum of money granted by the state or a public body to help an industry or business keep the price of a commodity or service low.
Coal Mines act 1930
Attempt to ease the Miners still hug over the general strike
Miners working hours were reduced from 8 to 7 and a half hours
Employers entitled to fix minimum wages and production quotas
A commision was set up to consider how unprofitable mines could be phased out with least damage to miners livelihoods
London Transport Bill 1931
Introduced by Herbert Morrison
Became law in 1933
A public corporation responsible for providing cheap and efficient bus and underground for london’s population
What was Ramsay’s main principle for foreign affairs?
Principle of international cooperation and Ramsay Macdonald worked for international conciliation - the action of stopping someone being angry; placation.
What was the young plan and who helped negotiate it
- saw Germany accepted as a n equal nation in Europe
Ramsay Macdonald
Ramsay Macdonald’s relations with anglo soviet
Ramsay’s gov never showed any inclination to follow a socialist path internationally
Didnt want to risk looking like Britain was siding with Soviet ideas
Arguably Ramsay’s achievemnt was that he illustrated to the voters that the Labour party was not as radical as some of the Radical figures who belived in very socialist ideas
However diplomatic progress made - government resumed full relations with the USSR ambassadors were exchanged and embassies established
What was embarrassing For Ramsay Macdonal about how he handled in India
The arresting and imprisonment of Gandhi due to the salt protest caused huge embarrassment towards Ramsays’ Government
As Gandhi walked along a beach with his protesters and picked up a lump of salt from the beach and crushed it in his hands - this was a protetst againts the way people were forbidden to gather natural sea slat and forced to buy heavil taxed governments
This was going against their so called principles
why did Britain face an economic crisis In 1931?
- The Wall Street crash
- Arguably the lack of innovative ideas by Snowden/ Ramsay
who was the chancellor of the exchequer in Ramsay’s labour government
Philip Snowden
What were the negatives of Philip Snowden
had no new ideas, he wasn’t prepared to take risks. He believed in balanced budgets = Not allowing people to exceed income from revenue
What happened at the May committee
Snowden appointed a special comittee to consider ways to get out of the financial crisis
Only new thing was cuts in public expenditure
It recommended a wide range of reductions in pay for teachers, civil servants and those in the armed services - lack of originality
Suggestion that unemployment pay be cut by 10% - many in cabinet believed that if this was to be done it would destroy the very principle for which the labour party had been created - protection of the working class
- Macdonald under pressure from international bankers who were unwilling to advance further loans to Britain unless it reduced its welfare expenditure - told colleagues no alternative but to make cuts - when proposal was put to a cabinet vote - ten of the 21 memebers rejected it
- Split party
Ramsay Macdonald’s ‘Great betrayal’
Cabinet split became known as ‘the great betrayal’
Unable to carry a united cabinet
Macdonald declared his intention of resigning
Howeve when he went to buckingham palace - he instead with the prescene of the King entered into disscussions with conservative and liberal party leaders.
Outcome being the formation of the National government where Macdonald would remain prime minister
Ramsay’s explanation to his party was that he was putting ‘country before party’
Argued desperate financial times that created the need to reduce welfare expenditure
Argued that Britain could not cope without an international loan
Many people of the labour party protested that it had been a plot to retain personal power
He had gone behind their backs
On the other side
Widely accepted
The times regared the establsihement as a triump for democracy
The impact of Ramsay forming national gov on the Labour Party
Labour was now in a position to redelop its ideas and policies
Labour became a centrist party - aim to make party elevtable force by working within the economic constraits that capitalism imposed and not moving too far to the left
Caused quarrels with in the party
