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British Political History - Paper 6 > Interwar Years - Historiography > Flashcards

Interwar Years - Historiography Flashcards

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1
Q

Lawrence (1918-1929) (5)

A
  1. The Grand Narratives explaining the rise of Labour (modernisation, secularisation, nationalisation) are flawed. Labour did not rise from class, but from communitarian ethos.
  2. TP = Great War - extension of the state through rent controls, postwar unemployment support etc.
  3. Labour stood as statist against the rolling back of Tories
  4. 5 million workers demobilised due to war
  5. Tories saw the working class as working classes - groups in working class. i.e. appealed to unions which were undercut by foreign imports (WC tariff support)
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2
Q

Tanner (1918-1929) (2)

A
  1. Prewar politics - localised, variable Postwar politics - nationwide, coordinated
  2. Labour didn’t rise because of the realisation of class consciousness, but because it became the only expression of anti-Toryism.
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3
Q

Clarke/McKibbin (1918-1929)

A

Liberal strength was undermined by the rise of Labour.

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4
Q

Matthew et al. (1918-1929)

A
  1. If class sentiments had developed, the electoral evidence doesn’t support it - it did not reflect solid labour support for Labour!
  2. Benefitted from Liberal disarray in Torquay, Bournemouth and Surrey.
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5
Q

Jarvis (1918-1929) (6)

A
  1. Tories were fearful of full democratisation:
    • Fear of youth - generally more socialist in nature
    • Fear of women - tendency towards egalitarianism
    • Fear of labour - unions for labour naturally-
  2. Tories became ‘consumerist’ about votes - appeal to individual/interest group rather than masses (Conservative Agents Journal).
  3. Deflationary policies still meant appeal to £500 a year man continued
  4. Selbourne - argues franchise makes householder conservative
  5. Tories saw the 4th Reform Act on McKibbinite ‘Franchise Factor’ lines
  6. ‘Prolier Than Thou’ - promotion of working class Tory credentials - candidate in 1924 - Durham miner “spent my whole life down in the pits”
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6
Q

Ramsden (1918-1929) (2)

A
  1. Redistribution, the retention of plural voting and the survival of the university constituencies under the 1918 RotPA all served to offset the unpredictability of the new mass electorate.
  2. Loss of Ireland electorally good for Tories (Liberal stronghold)
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7
Q

McKibbin (1918-1929) (2)

A
  1. Tories attempted to construct new discourse on conventional wisdom against Labour.
  2. ‘Franchise Factor’ - fear that the mass vote would result in the Tory downfall.
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8
Q

Williamson (1918-1929)

A
  1. Tories passive beneficiary of war.
  2. Baldwin tapped and stimulated forces of a ‘morally conservative and religious nation’.
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9
Q

Bonar Law (1918-1929) (2)

A
  • National Union conference, 1917 - ‘our party on the old lines will never have a future in the life of this country’
  • The challenges of democracy and socialism posed three critical changes to the party:
    1. Effectiveness as an electoral organisation
    2. Internal organisation
    3. relationship to alternative agencies of political mobilisation
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10
Q

Constantine (1918-1929)

A
  • WWI led to greater amounts of interaction across class boundaries, as well as involving a nationally cohesive memory of war.
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11
Q

Wilson (1918-1929) (5)

A
  1. Continuity and discontinuity - tariffs, free trade, Ireland, the application of social conscience to living conditions did not disappear, but were marginalised/ reordered in importance during war
  2. Massive state interventionism exposed the issues with laissez faire government.
  3. LG supporting DORA and the destruction of Germany seen as illiberal.
  4. Prewar liberals dependent on Irish vote
  5. Labour inclusion in war government seen as death of progressive alliance as labour no longer subservient to Liberals.
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12
Q

Green (1918-1929) (2)

A
  1. Steel Maitland (Politician) - believed social reform a necessity of an epoch of mass politics.
  2. Supportive of full employment (important - Tory), saw unions as barrier to efficiency
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13
Q

Pugh (1918-1929) (4)

A
  1. Not entirely LG’s fault for Liberal split, Asquith as belligerent.
  2. Suspension of imports from Germany allowed domestic industries to grow in UK - supporting protectionism
  3. Tories minimum 260 seats postwar
  4. Unions boomed - 4 to 6 mil by 1918 (8 mil by 1920)
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14
Q

How many seats did Labour win in 1910 and 1918? (1918-1929)

A
  1. 1910- 42
  2. 1918 - 57 (fielded 332 more candidates however)
  3. 1919 Municipal Elections - 550 from 48 - more significant gain.
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15
Q

how many votes did the Liberals win in 1923 election? (1918-1929)

A

29.7% (1% less than Labour)

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16
Q

Why were Tories more effective than Labour candidates in elections? (1918-1929)

A
  • Tories had demonstrable local credentials (Among a series of other reasons!)
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17
Q

What institutions did the conservatives set up to appeal to marginalised groups? (1918-1929) (4)

A
  • Women’s Institution
  • Women’s Unionist Movement
  • Young Britons
  • Junior Imperial League
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18
Q

Tory Mags? (1918-1929) (2)

A
  • Man in the Street
  • Home and Politics
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19
Q

MacKenzie (1918-1929)

A
  • Deference - Emphasised the continuing vitality of popular imperialism and monarchism during the inter-war period
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20
Q

Close (1918-1929)

A
  • Older Tories believed democracy had been “a blunder, or, at least, a dangerous misfortune”
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21
Q

Who did the guilty men focus on?

A
  • Cato’s Guilty Men focused on Baldwin, as deceiving the nation
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22
Q

What did Orwell call Baldwin?

A

“a hole in the air”

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23
Q

What had happened to Baldwin by 1945?

A
  • Erased from the party public memory
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24
Q

How did Chamberlain describe Baldwin’s ascension?

A

An accident of an accident

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25
Q

What was Baldwin’s motion behind protectionism?

A
  • Industrial protection was reduction of unemployment which remained stubbornly persistent
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26
Q

What was the Conservatives’ mistake in 1923?

A
  • Underestimating the hold of free trade upon popular thought
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27
Q

In Birmingham, 1925, how did Baldwin resist unions?

A
  • ’Truce of God’ and ‘peace in our time’ for ‘a better and happier condition” of the country. Invoked notions of sacrifice, selflessness and Christian ideals.
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28
Q

What was the huge political risk Baldwin took in 1925?

A
  • Took huge political risk in 1925 by offering temp. government subsidy whilst the Samuel report adjudicated on the validity of coal miner agitations for wage increase.
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29
Q

What hopes did the 1926 General strike dash?

A
  • General strike and prolonged coal stoppage temporarily disrupted Baldwin’s hopes of social reconciliation and co-operation in industrial regeneration.
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30
Q

What caused Baldwin to collapse?

A
  • 1927 Trades Disputes Bill due to GS + collapse of Locarno
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31
Q

Why is the narrative of decline as the cause of the failure of the Conservatives’ downfall in 1929? (7)

A

The reality was more complicated.

  1. Cabinet momentum increase in 1928
  2. Baldwin reassertion of control of cabinet, alongside electoral campaigning
  3. Churchill rating relief for agricultural and industrial ventures.
  4. Baldwin convinces Chamberlain to accept ‘ derating’ scheme - showed to be compatible with large-scale reform of local government.
  5. Mond-Turner Talks, TUC industrial cooperation - general arbitration improved.
  6. Cabinet divisons and backbench rebellion assailed w/ regards tariffs, but industrial safeguarding was promised for the future.
  7. Persuaded Churchill that colonial development would benefit trade.
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32
Q

What was the inflationary position of Baldwin?

A
  • ‘non-flationary’*
  • Conventional wisdom dictated that inflation nor deflation, but stability, should be pursued.
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33
Q

What is the Middlemas interpretation of Baldwin?

A
  • Dominance held accountable to ‘character’ and ‘new leadership’
  • Narrative of Englishness - combining all people from Durham miners, Worcester farmers and city financiers.
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34
Q

How did the Liberals fund their 1929 campaign?

A

LG funded it personally, at great cost

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35
Q

What was the premise behind the 1929 Campaign?

A

Safety First (Tories)

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36
Q

Why did Baldwin resign immediately in 1929

A
  • Democratically correct
  • Respect for Labour
  • Belief that a minority government would flail
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37
Q

What were the divisions in the Conservative Party?

A

Churchill called for anti-socialist alliance, Chamberlain for imperial preference

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38
Q

What was the relationship between Baldwin and news lords?

A
  • Beaverbrook + Rotheremere - anti-Baldwin - hate campaign from 1923 onwards
  • Attempted to force removal in 1929 - Beaverbrook promoted Empire Free Trade
    • Rothermere joined in with imperial unity pledges - Baldwin successfully defeated challenges from Churchill and Beaverbrook
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39
Q

Did Baldwin want a consensual National Government?

A
  • Yes - Baldwin did not want the national government to be the conservatives in disguise - more so a consensual government. A non-party solution would blight socialism
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40
Q

What was the most serious count of dissent in Tory ranks?

A
  • Most serious conservative dissent was led by Churchill in 1929-1934 over India.
  • Churchill and diehards did not want to concede dominion to India - Baldwin did. Pressing issue was the challenge to party identity. Indian affair destroyed the prospects for a fused national party
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41
Q

Was Baldwin a diehard?

A

Baldwin was not reactionary or diehard - inherently progressive and modern

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42
Q

What was Baldwin’s style of leadership?

A

co-ordination, arbitration and troubleshooting

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43
Q

When was Baldwin considered dictatorial?

A
  • Considered dictatorial in opposition to protectionism in 1928, and in 1925 over the Macquisten Bill
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44
Q

What was the style of party management?

A
  • Party management was a collective affair conducted by Baldwin with senior colleagues, whigs, and party officials; that he usually received excellent advice, and that his own contribution lay chiefly in well-timed delivery and well pitched speeches
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45
Q

How adept was Baldwin with media?

A

Baldwin good at utilising mass media - i.e. BBC in 1924 for first broadcast political speech “Chief contribution was to become the first politician to master radio broadcasting” “National spokesperson”, first person to give film “serious attention”

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46
Q

What was the outreach of the BBC?

A

Outreach of BBC - 33million, 70% nation

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47
Q

What was Baldwin’s lessons from industry?

A

“Two or three rules- cut your losses, cut down your expenditure,; enter into no new commitments, and hope for the best”

Baldwin believed business should and could respond positively to economic depression, exercising the kind of enterprise which had enabled the Baldwin firms to adjust to new conditions”

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48
Q

Baldwin’s industrial policy

A

Far from having been isolated from ‘modern’ industrial relations, the prime minister had one been exercised by the problem of how to retain industrial peace amid changing economic and social condition.

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49
Q

Baldwin’s interpretation of democracy

A
  • “a fully fledged democracy before we are ready for it”

Requires education

  • “democracy has arrived at a gallop in England, and I feel all the time that it was a race for life: can you we educate them before the crash comes?”
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50
Q

What happened to Baldwin’s company?

A

Could not safeguard - dire straits in 1928

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51
Q

Baldwin’s ideology

A
  • conventional wisdom of sound finance would communalise capitalism thus extending conservative appeal.
  • Presentation of capital helped to provide economic permanence - the wc had substantial savings, which undermined arguments from socialists about the hoarding of capital.
  • Baldwin - Tory weapon was the ‘multiplication of capitalists’ - ‘not to depress people’ with state ownership, but a property owning democracy.
  • Individualism, voluntarism and private enterprise were tenets of property owning democracy, deployed effectively to meet contemp. demands.
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52
Q

What was Baldwin’s mission?

A

Feeding the people was, he declared as PM, “the great mission’ of masters of men“ and “no higher and finer mission can be found on earth”

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53
Q

What was the cost of 1925?

A

“Buying off the strikes in 1925 had been the cost of teaching democracy”

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54
Q

What power did the TUC hold?

A

TUC presented as having despotic power, ‘civil war’ power

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55
Q

Baldwin’s adoption of rurality?

A

dislike for urbanity was not part of a rejection of modernism - tranquility was to assist the execution of urban functions

56
Q

What was the plan to deal with class hatred

A

Present it as foreign import

57
Q

What was Baldwin’s view on the future of empire?

A

gloomy

58
Q

Baldwin’s religiosity

A

“effective politics had to be a christian politics, defending and stimulating the springs of individuality, spirituality and morality” Baldwin did not identify Christianity with Britishness. Nevertheless, expressed a common British belief that Protestantism – Still, in semi-secularised forms, Central to national ideology–that the Lord peculiarly favoured the English and charged them with special tasks.

59
Q

What was the joke about Baldwin?

A

When he spoke, a cross appeared above his head

60
Q

Tory anxieties in 1920s

A
  • independent working class politics might condemn Tories to permanent minority
61
Q

Where was Labour’s chief source of support

A

Celtic fringe, mining communities

62
Q

When was nationalisation important?

A

Nationalisation important 1918-1940, then important rhetorically till 1990s

63
Q

What was Snowden’s belief in Capitalism?

A

Snowden - Capitalism would evolve to be more social democratic- shattered by unemployment of 1920s

64
Q

What did the 1930s see, economically?

A

1930s saw the removal of the pillars of the unmanaged economy - free trade and gold standard

65
Q

Labour drives (6)

A
  • Labour was heavily reliant on foreign policy advice on the so-called foreign Legion – the coterie of veterans from the pre-1914 ranks of radical liberalism
  • Belief in self determination
  • Henderson dominated 1930s foreign policy thought in the Labour Party – Repudiation of pacifism
  • The webb’s argued for a completely reorganised government structure
  • Focal point remained improving the machinery of government
  • Constitutional reform was increasingly set by the moderates and not the radicals within the party
66
Q

Labour success rate?

A
  • Labour never managed to poll more than 37-38% of the vote between 1918 & 1935
67
Q

Where did Labour support in 1918 come from?

A

As miners voted Labour, Labour had a strong phalanx of support when the Liberals were floundering

68
Q

What was working class culture?

A

Working class culture - scurrilous newspapers, gambling, football, horse racing - tory in nature. Political outlook - monarchy good, improving legislation bad, union good, immigrants, bad

69
Q

MacKenzie vs McKibbin

A

Mackenzie emphasised the continuing vitality of popular imperialism and monarchism during the inter-war period, whilst McKibbin argued that Conservative support during this period extended well beyond those who were the objective beneficiaries of deflationary government policies

70
Q

Witherell (3)

A

Popular conservatism of the 1920s:

  • mass organizations
  • propaganda
  • educational activities
  • electioneering involving three sectors:
    • women
    • youth
    • wage earner.

The second element of the popular conservatism thesis focuses on youth, the Junior Imperial League, and Young Britons. - The third component of 1920s popular conservatism was the party’s response to the full-scale enfranchisement of the male working class and the rise of the Labour party. The party sought to develop a mass organization- the Labour Committee-with which to offer wage earners a “different political identity

71
Q

Popular mags catchphrases (3)

A
  • ‘Autumn cleaning, like industrial relations, becomes easier when people cooperate’ - ‘Hanging out close during changeable weather is as risky as voting liberal’; - ‘ Free trade means allowing strangers to steal flowers from your garden’.
72
Q

Jarvis II

A

Target women with propaganda to win support against socialism - Feminism was the pictured as inextricably linked with socialism. Furthermore, the service Republic was represented as a full storm of the feminist utopia. “The mother, instead of cooking for herself, her husband and children at home, maybe ordered by the Socialists to cook or wash up the dishes in some public restaurant where are the families take their meals. “

73
Q

Evans

A

The metamorphosis of Unionism in the aftermath of the 1911 Parliament Act was striking. It precipitated the narrowing of Unionist objectives in Ireland by forcing Conservatives to concentrate upon the exclusion of Ulster; Home Rule might now be inevitable for the south, but the north could still be saved for Britain.

74
Q

Childs

A

A key assumption among such historians has been that class was slowly replacing regional loyalties, occupation, or religion as the major determinant in the formation of political attitudes

75
Q

Hart (4)

A
  1. The divided Liberals had no means of recruiting the support of the million new electors, or even of retaining the allegiance of those who supported the pre-1914 ‘New Liberalism’. 2. After 1918 Labour was the party best able to exploit industrial unrest and to propose (though not to implement) radical solutions. 3. It was not clear until 1924 that ‘the future lay between two distinctly popular parties’ The problem of whether Liberal organization in the constituencies was or was not deteriorating in 1914 has been argued extensively, to no definite conclusion.’ 4. Even if the Liberals were in decline, Labour need not have been advancing. On the contrary, its electoral (as opposed to trade union) base was still closely associated with that of the Liberals, and its inability to win three-cornered contests.
76
Q

Bogdanor Why did 1951 labour government fail ?

A
  1. False teeth and spectacles controversy 2. Korean War mass cost 3. Internal troubles - right wing elements like Gaitskell - no commitment to socialism
77
Q

What did Kruschtev say about Gaitskell?

A

First to be shot outside Westminster

78
Q

Snowden’s first budget

A

Went towards the ‘free breakfast table’ by reducing duties on key staples, but did not introduce a capital levy. Profoundly believed in the morality of the balanced budget, A. J. P. Taylor said his budget “would have delighted the heart of Gladstone”

79
Q

Why did Snowden resign in 1927?

A

Snowden resigned from the party in 1927 because he believed it was “drifting more and more away from…evolutionary socialism into revolutionary socialism”

80
Q

Snowden’s second budget

A

His economic philosophy was one of strict Gladstonian Liberalism rather than socialism.

81
Q

Webb’s critique of politics in 1932

A

became the politics of seduction - left politicians seduced by the power of wealth and status

82
Q

What was a powerful myth of 1931?

A

the Aristocratic embrace of MacDonald, Snowden and Thomas

83
Q

Issues of contention in labour

A

court dress and deference to the king - MacDonald v party.

84
Q

Important considerations

A

Party over leader!

85
Q

Stuart Ball - The Conservative Party and the Formation of the National Government

When did the concept of a national government first arise?

A

During 1930 and 1931, as part of press speculation

86
Q

Stuart Ball - The Conservative Party and the Formation of the National Government

What was an insistence of the conservatives regarding the formation of a national government?

A

economy in expenditure (as in, thrift), reduction of taxation, protectionist policy with a slant toward imperial preference.

87
Q

Stuart Ball - The Conservative Party and the Formation of the National Government

What caused the financial crisis of mid-Aug 1931?

A
  • Banking Crisis of mid-August 1931 was the product of:
    • Banking Crisis in central Europe - which had left London exposed
  • British budget deficit of £120 million for the financial year 1931-2
88
Q

Stuart Ball - The Conservative Party and the Formation of the National Government

Why did Macdonald attempt to resign?

A
  • Found it difficult to escape the solution of Bank of England - to introduce a substantial reduction of expenditure - in particular in the field of unemployment benefits
89
Q

Stuart Ball - The Conservative Party and the Formation of the National Government

Why did the Conservatives force Snowden and MacDonald to field the proposals of economies?

A
  • Conservatives v conscious of PR bombshell of upper classes passing cuts which directly impact WC.
90
Q

Stuart Ball - The Conservative Party and the Formation of the National Government

What evidence suggests that the National Government was only intended to be a project temporary in nature?

A
  • Takes until 1935 for Baldwin to become Prime Minister again
91
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

How were the Tories faring in 19th Century Wales?

A

Well, managed to capitalise on the moral economy.

However, by later 19th century, Liberals more effective on miessage on church disestablishment, temperance, education reform and the land question

92
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

What changed the Welsh constituency?

A

Achievement of the Welsh Disestablishment of the church saw the Liberals undermined, and drove them to the anit-socialist front presented by the conventional wisdom of the conservatives.

93
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

What does Thomas suggest about Welsh politics in 1920?

A

Welsh politics became more British, whereas British politics became more Welsh - specifically, Baldwin ramped up the christian rhetoric in his pronouncements.

94
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

What does Cragoe suggest about the nature of Baldwin’s ‘civic nationalism’?

A

It bound Welsh and English together in a cohesive narrative.

95
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

When did the Conservatives perform best in general elections in Wales?

A

1922, 1923, 1924

96
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

What has Duncan Tanner stated about Labour majorities in the South?

A

Very slim, and precarious, despite the supposed ascendancy of the post-war decade

97
Q

Geraint Thomas - The Conservatives and Welsh Politics

How did the Conservative party promote ‘Labour in the Conservative interest’?

A

Adopting working class ‘patriots’ as candidates - such as Gwilym Rowlands - son of a colliery manager - to contest seats like Rhondda West

98
Q

David Jarvis - British Conservatism and Class Politics in the 1920s

What are the fallacies of writing a history of conservatism during the period?

A

Three-fold:

  1. Fallacy of Conservatism is a non-ideological belief system
  2. Issue of electoral success - the dominance of the Conservatives during the 1980s distorted the literature
  3. Partisanship in literature
99
Q

David Jarvis - British Conservatism and Class Politics in the 1920s

What did the conservatives adopt from the Marxist analysis of class?

A
  • Many conservatives shared, if only implicityl, much of the deterministic class analysis that Marxists struggled to reconcile with the elecotral behaviour during the 1920s
100
Q

David Jarvis - British Conservatism and Class Politics in the 1920s

What did McKibbin highlight in Baldwinite conservatism?

A
  • The party prospered by pursuing a deflationary economic policy designed to embody the values and self-interest of the ‘man on £500 a year’
  • Fiscal ‘conventional wisdom’ of deflation derived from a widely shared value system that juxtaposed the ‘public’ with organised labour, and stigmatised the latter throuhg a hostile stereotyping the latter through a hostile stereotyping of working class culture.
101
Q

David Jarvis - British Conservatism and Class Politics in the 1920s

What continued to haunt conservatives concerning working class pretensions?

A
  • Industrial militancy
  • Growth of trade-unionism
  • Disappearance of traditional small- scale industry ensured that Edwardian fears of a hostile and politically cohesive working class continued
102
Q

J Parry - The Quest for Leadership in Unionist Politics 1886-1956

How did Lloyd-Geoge dig his own political grave?

A

Conservative grass-roots offended by heavy postwar taxation, by government’s perceived failure to check the rise of socialism at home and abroad, and by conceding self government to most of Ireland.

103
Q

J Parry - The Quest for Leadership in Unionist Politics 1886-1956

What is the conventional understanding of Baldwin, how does Parry check this?

A

Conventionally: limited of ability, not aware of surroudings

Check: Forward, honest, patriotic, moderation, sanity, and communicative with the people

104
Q

J Parry - The Quest for Leadership in Unionist Politics 1886-1956

How did the Labour vote fluctuate between 1929 and 1935?

A
  • 1935 Election: 158 seats, 38% of the vote
  • 1929: only 37% of the votes - 287 seats
105
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

Who were the Liberal revisionists?

A
  • Trevor Wilson
  • Roy Douglas
  • P.F. Clarke
  • K.D. Brown
  • Chris Cook
  • Michael Bentley
  • Duncan Tanner
106
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

What are the flaws of Clarke’s Lancashire model of thought?

A
  • Lancashire dominated by the Tories until 1890s, which is odd for the ‘cockpit’ of British politics
  • He suggests the changing fortunes of the Liberal Party were very largely the product of the New Liberal ideas offered to the electorate by C.P. Scott (Manchester Guardian editor) Churchill and LG.
  • Difficult to assert conditions affecting Lancashire were important elsewhere. Little evidence supporting his viewpoint esp. upto 1914
107
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

What could be said of Welsh Liberalism?

A
  • Successful on Old tennents of peace, retrenchment, free trade and nonconformity
  • LG was a new liberal in England and an Old Liberal in Wales
  • New Liberalism was not potent outside of London and Manchester
108
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

What could be said of Welsh Liberalism?

A
  • Lancashire dominated by the Tories until 1890s, which is odd for the ‘cockpit’ of British politics
  • He suggests the changing fortunes of the Liberal Party were very largely the product of the New Liberal ideas offered to the electorate by C.P. Scott (Manchester Guardian editor) Churchill and LG.
  • Difficult to assert conditions affecting Lancashire were important elsewhere. Little evidence supporting his viewpoint esp. upto 1914
109
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

Who contributed to the now dominant concepts on the franchise factor?

A
  • Dr Matthew, Dr McKibbin, Mr Kay
110
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

What does Laybourne counterpost in retaliation to the dominant mode of franchise factor?

A
  • The Liberals, in energetically fighting the war, sacrificed their key socially progressive policies - becoming an effectual party of the right
111
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

What does Laybourne counterpost in retaliation to the dominant mode of franchise factor?

A
  • The Liberals, in energetically fighting the war, sacrificed their key socially progressive policies - becoming an effectual party of the right
112
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

How did Liberal vote fluctuate between 1922-3?

A
  • Actually increased in numbers between 1922 and 1923 - 1923 as last hurrah for liberalism.
  • Issue: Liberals had no way of courting the 15 million new voters - and intellectual inheritance fell to Labour after 1924 ministry
113
Q

Kieth Laybourn - The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism

How did Liberal vote fluctuate between 1922-3?

A
  • Actually increased in numbers between 1922 and 1923 - 1923 as last hurrah for liberalism.
  • Issue: Liberals had no way of courting the 15 million new voters - and intellectual inheritance fell to Labour after 1924 ministry
114
Q

M. Dawson - Liberalism in Devon and Cornwall, 1910-1931

What is the core of Dawson’s Cornwall study?

A

New Liberalism and social reform was not important

  • Devon and Cornwall comprised an important electoral battleground from I886 to I93I, as the large proportion of marginal constituencies offset the relative lack of members of parliament
  • The rallying cry of Gladstonian Liberalism - ‘peace, retrenchment, reform’ - or some variant of it, was consistently and widely employed by Liberal candidates in Devon and Cornwall in the I920s.
  • At every election up to I93I the Liberals emphasized free trade. In I929, for example, a free trade ‘shop’ was set up at Penzance to show the cost of safeguarding - an ‘ocular demonstration of the fact which determined the issue of the Tariff Reform controversy twenty years ago - that you cannot “make the foreigner pay”
115
Q

Barry Doyle - Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation: Politics and Middle Class Culture in Norwich

What does Doyle put forward concerning Liberalism?

A

The closed culture of liberalism meant many maintained their support for the party even into the 1930s - questioning the view that the middle class defected by 1924

116
Q

Barry Doyle - Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation: Politics and Middle Class Culture in Norwich

Who undermined Peter Clarke, and his argument that the Liberals courted class conscious workers over their traditional middle class supporters?

A

Searle, Bernstein and Wald - both at the local and national level, Edwardian liberal party remained heavily dependent on the middle class and activists

117
Q

Barry Doyle - Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation: Politics and Middle Class Culture in Norwich

Why did the Liberals lose support in the eyes of Doyle?

A

Liberalism lost its appeal to the young, as Conservatism became the dominant force in anti-socialist politics

118
Q

Barry Doyle - Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation: Politics and Middle Class Culture in Norwich

What does the Norwich case study show?

A

Middle-class realignment did not occur in WWI - may have been fed up with Liberals in the years leading to WWI, but the strength of their culture meant few could consider voting for, let alone joining the conservatives.

Lifestyle, marriage, residence and social world - Edwardian Liberals and Conservatives remained separate.

119
Q

Barry Doyle - Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation: Politics and Middle Class Culture in Norwich

What does the Norwich case study show?

A

Liberal violation of principles during thr war - subverting religion - caused downfall - however this was not felt immediately.

The ‘Red Letter’ election of 1924 may have annihilated Liberalism as a parliamentary force - took much longer for liberal culture at the local level to dissolve.

Gradual assimialtion of the middle classes might have ultimately led to the decline of the liberals by 1930s or 1940s.

120
Q

Michael Dawson - Money and the Real Impact of the Fourth Reform Act

A

Despite the electoral reforms of 1883-5 election contests before 1914 were still expensive enough effectively to exclude the Labour Party

121
Q

Michael Dawson - Money and the Real Impact of the Fourth Reform Act

What changes through the representation of the people act of 1918 increased the national viabiilty of Labour?

A

Enhancement of the Corruption Act of 1883

  • As WWI was an expensive operation, politicians took advantage of the 1918 Act to reduce burdens which war had made intolerable. In the process, Labour could contest seats in non-industrial centres.
  • After I9I8, Labour was able to mount a nationwide challenge, spending an amount which was higher than it could otherwise have hoped to achieve relative to the older parties, and in most cases retaining its deposit rather than paying a share of returning officer’s costs

*

122
Q

David Wrench - Cashing In: The Parties and the National Government

What is the traditional Labour narrative of 1931?

A
  • Seen as betraying the party, Conservatives thus cashed in on the failings of Labour to bolster political credibility
123
Q

David Wrench - Cashing In: The Parties and the National Government

What is Wrench’s position on the National Government?

A
  • No party served to benefit from participation in the National Government
  • Conservatives, for instance, were constrained to operate cooperatively instead of unilaterally, resultantly, some delay in removing free traders, who presented obstacles in realising the Tariff.
124
Q

Susan Pedersen - From National Crisis to National Crisis

What is the flaw of Skidelsky, how did Williamson respond?

A

Skidelsky wrote during the heyday of Keynsianism - resultantly, saw the failure of the Second Labour Government as unquestionnably on policy, specifically unemployment policy.

For Skidelsky, Labour pledged to fix unemployment - and had perfectly plausible blueprints presented in the plans of LG’s public works agenda, Mosley’s proposals, and the Economic Advisory Council

For Williamson, it was more the case that no government could not have failed following the economic recession of 1929. Moreover, Labour failed on politics - in the voicing of ideas and words -as much as on policy. Political inflexibility and lack of finesse were a major failing of Labour - hampered from the outset as a minority. Party political instability according to Stuart Ball, was felt across the spectrum

125
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

How did the election of 1923 play out?

A
  • Baldwin, beating Lord Cuzon to the leadership of the Conservative party, attempted to gain national ratification for a plan to implement a series of tariffs.
  • Both wings of the Liberal party were able to unite in support of free trade - to win 159 seats
  • Labour followed a similar line, and secured 191 seats
126
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

How did MacDonald populate his cabinet?

A
  • Recent converts of liberalism -
    • Lord Haldane
    • Charles Trevelyan
  • Most had never held a cabinet position in the past - majority were working class in background- ignorant to the mechanism of government- making them dependent on civil service support.
  • Nevertheless, PM used powers vigorously - some felt MacDonald should have been subservient to the National Organisation of Labour.
127
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

What were the policy objectives of the first labour government?

A
  • No grand plan - more an attempt to demonstrate competency.
    • Philip Snowden in many respects very liberal - would not approve massive spending projects - believed the nation should pay its way
      • Actually supported the cutting of taxes
  • Trevelyan - President of the Board of education
    • Increased free places in secondary schools
    • Resotred university state scholarships scrapped by Geddes
    • Worked for the reduction of school classes to a maximum for 40 pupils
  • Old Age Pensions minorly improved
  • Unemployment benefit minorly improved
    *
128
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

How was the Labour government of 1923-24 attacked?

A
  • Criticism of Russian loan policy (to retreive British assets not returned in WWI)
  • Liberal split over Labour laxity over Campbell article (which encouraged troops not to fire on British workers)
  • Zinoviev letter
129
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

Wnat role did lower cabinet ministers play in Baldwin’s government?

A
  • A substantial one. Baldwin did not dominate his cabinet members, permitting significant autonomy
    • Ministers such as Neville Chamberlain executed many executive functions - guiding some 21 bills through parliament.
130
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

How did the government act to inflate the role of the state?

A
  • Subsidising Imperial Airways
  • Creation of the BBC as a public corporation
  • Electricity Supply Act of 1926
  • Chamberlain
131
Q

Syndey Wood | Britain’s Interwar Years

Who drove the new pensions bill?

A
  • Chamberlain - 10 shillings a week provided for those over 65 covered by the Health Insurance scheme. Widows were entitled to a ten shillings a week pension and orphans to seven shillings and sixpence.
  • 1929 - Poor Law Unions were scrapped by Chamberlain. Duty of responsibility fell on the counties.
132
Q

David Wrench - Cashing In: The Parties and the National Government

What is the traditional Labour narrative of 1931?

A
  • Seen as betraying the party, Conservatives thus cashed in on the failings of Labour to bolster political credibility
133
Q

Mary Hilson

What is the essential conclusions drawn from Hilson’s analysis?

A
  • Enfranchisement was not as major a factor as is often suggested in the context of 1918
  • The language of political appeal was not refined for the new female electorate - instead, the prominent motion was towards the men as the defenders of the nation and state, compared to women, who were the defenders of the race.
134
Q
A
135
Q

What does Lawrence argue about the nature of the Women’s Institute?

A

Conservatives less interested - actually TSE opposed to. WI competed with Town Womens’ Guilds - also saw the decline of the Primrose League.

British Political History - Paper 6 (6 decks)

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