Britain 12- The 1929 election Flashcards
what were modern young women called in the 1920s?
‘flappers’
what did the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph warn their readers about ‘flappers’?
unsuitable for such serious issues such as voting
what was the outcome of the public meeting by the Home Secretary, Johnson-Hicks?
Baldwin pushed ahead with a bill for equal voting, realising anything less would lose the party support and votes amongst women. this act would increase the electorate by 2.2 mill
what was the conservative ‘safety first’ campaign?
Baldwin decided to make his election message focus on fact that he was honest and principled politician who could be trusted to lead the country. portrayed in election posters as ‘The Man you can Trust’
what was the conservative election campaign called?
‘safety first”
what was the Labour Party;s election campaign called?
a ‘socialist commonwealth’
what was Labour’s ‘socialist commonwealth’ campaign?
felt they had showed their viability during brief 1924 administration. not programme of actions but more statement of principles. would reorganise industry in interest of all and result would be a ‘socialist commonwealth’
what was the Liberals election campaign?
‘we can conquer unemployment’
what was the liberal’s ‘we can conquer unemployment’ message?
while other 2 parties stuck to traditional policies, Liberals came up with radical but non-socialist strategy which involved reducing unemployment to ‘normal proportions’ within a year by na extensive scheme of public works
what were the results of the 1929 general election?
Labour majority in the HOC for the first time
give 3 reasons for the success of labour in the 1929 general election
-MacDonald’s constitutional and moderate policies convinced electorate that he could be trusted
-appeal of ‘safety first’ for Baldwin was limited as no perceived threat at time
-key problem = unemployment + felt not be solved by keeping same govt and policies
who did MacDonald male chancellor of the Exchequer?
Snowden
what were the new Labour govt’s aims?
-build council houses
-raise school leaving age to 15
-take govt control over the London transport system
-tackle unemployment
what event occurred in 1929 and was catastrophic for the Labour govt?
The Wall Street crash (September)
what was the position of the liberal party after the 1929 general election?
proved that the Liberal party was In decline and was unlikely to return to its position as on elf the major 2 parties
why was the position of the conservatives after the 1929 election?
still backed by the majority of newspapers, by business and by the middle classes and many of the working class. but now faced a serious challenge form Labour, Baldwin’s ‘safety first’ campaign hadn’t worked and many felt the party needs dot modernise
what were the key economic concerns by 1929?
-decline in staple industries
-high unemployment
-gold standard return in 1925 created more problems than it solved
give 3 changes on the international stage that had an impact on Britain
-emergence of USA as a world power affected Britain culturally + extent of economic impact seen during Wall Street crash
-communist revolution in Russia had created fears of similar in Britain and fuelled Conservative propaganda
-WW1 had undermined British rule in its empire + problem in inter-war years was how to maintain empire
