20s Politics Flashcards
Who was the leader of the Liberal Party 1916-22?
David Lloyd George
What were some strengths of the Liberal Party?
- PM who won the war
- Extended national insurance and unemployment benefit
- Maintained a post-war coalition for almost 4 years
What were the acts that the Liberals passed?
- Addison Housing Act 1919
- Fisher Education Act 1918
- 1922 Geddes Axe
- 1918 Representation of the People Act
What was the Addison Housing Act, and when?
1919
Gave powers to local councils, resulting in over 100,000 houses being planned to be built
What as the Fisher Education Act, and when?
1918 Extended education leaving age to 14 Provided nursery school to toddlers Scrapped fees for elementary school Provided free, compulsory health checks for secondary pupils
What was the Geddes Axe, and when?
1922
Cuts in army, navy, education, housing. public health in order to make government savings of £75 million
Actually made matters worse
What were some weaknesses of the Liberal Party?
- Allegations of corruption and sexual sleaze
- 1921 - Over 80 million days lost to strikes
- 1919 - Industrial ‘triple alliance’ was resurrected (miners, railwaymen, and transport workers) - demanded 30% pay rise, Lloyd George was arguably buying time, and rejected recommendations to fix this issue, given by the Sankey Commission
- 1922 - Knighthood Scandal
What was the Knighthood Scandal, and when?
1922
- Sold 1,500 knighthoods to fund his party
- Didn’t get background checks, thus sold honours to someone with fraud convictions
- Ruined Lloyd George’s reputation
What was the Representation of the People Act, and when? (1st one)
1918
Gave more people the right to vote - all men over 21, and women over 30
What was the Labour Party originally?
Established in 1900
Political pressure group
Who was the PM of Labour, and when were they in power? (1st time)
Ramsay MacDonald
1924 - 9 months
What were the reasons for the rise of Labour? (1st time)
- Representation of the People Acts - 3x the size of the British electorate
- 1917 - Began developing local party branches - gave Labour national identity
- Strong sense of class consciousness - proud to be working-class
- Received loyalty from the working man
What were the reasons for the fall of Labour? (1st time)
- Labour was only a minority government, thus relied on Liberals and depended on their support - couldn’t do anything that could be considered extreme
- Conservatives and media suggested there might be Soviet Sympathisers among the cabinet
- Led to Labour trying to seem more moderate - not liked by working-class
- MacDonald, after a vote of confidence, resigned
Who was the PM of the Conservatives? (1924-29)
Stanley Baldwin
Why did the Conservatives perform so well?
- Baldwin was seen as a straight talking man of the people
- Baldwin wanted to be seen as a more moderate politician - gained support also from working people
- Plural Voting (remained until 1948) - Voting in more than 1 Constituency was allowed
- Liberals - plagued by division
- Labour - Found it difficult during interwar period to establish themselves outside of working-class support
- 1921 - Irish Free State gained independence from UK - Liberals lost 80 nationalist MPs
- Funding was never an issue
- Baldwin was the 1st politician to use radio to deliver speeches
When did Labour come back into power? Who?
1929-31
Ramsay MacDonald
What Acts did Labour pass? (2nd time)
- 1930 Housing Act
- 1930 Coal Mines Act
- Amended the Unemployment Insurance Act
What was the 1930 Housing Act?
Cleared 3/4 of a million slum housing, and replaced them with modern houses by 1939
What was the 1930 Coal Mines Act?
Ensure better pay for workers and more efficient pits
What did MacDonald do when amending the Unemployment Insurance Act?
Created public work schemes to ease unemployment
Planned to be funded with over £20 million of government money
What problems did Labour face? (2nd time)
- Gold Standard Crisis 1929-32
What was the Gold Standard Crisis, and when?
1929-32
- Due to Wall Street Crash, £ was being rapidly converted to gold, to keep the country somewhat stable
- This was then depleting the gold reserves
- May Committee (appointed by MacDonald) recommended severe cuts in expenditure
- Ramsay agreed, yet majority of government didn’t
- Resulted in Ramsay resigning
- Sep 1931 - Government abandoned gold standard, thus £ was devalued against the $
- Began a slow recovery
- Ended by mid 1932
