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UK History > Politics (1918-1936) > Flashcards

Politics (1918-1936) Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the Impact of Victorian Britain?

A
  • Technological progress
  • Expansion of communicants
  • Empire
  • Free trade
  • Urbanisation & modernity
  • Huge inequality, grinding poverty & disease
  • Worker exploitation
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2
Q

What were the States of the Major Parties Following WW1?

A
  • Liberalism
    • Reforms after 1870 & 1906 caused division among supporters
    • Struggled to respond to social changes
    • WW1 damaged their reputation
  • Conservatives
    • Increasingly the party for the middle class
    • Strong position following WW1
  • Labour
    • Looked to benefit from the larger amount of voters
    • Increased trade union membership
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3
Q

How can we Explain the Eclipse of the Liberals?

A
  • Long term support shrinking
  • Inability to respond to change
  • Rise of class based politics
  • Impact of WW1
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4
Q

What did Lloyd George Want?

A
  • “People’s Budget”
    • Large tax increases
  • Wants to improve welfare
  • Super tax for the super rich
    • Angered the aristocrats
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5
Q

How did Lloyd George Force the Passing of the People’s Budget?

A
  • House of Lords had more power than the House of Commons so they rejected the budget
  • Lloyd George took the issue to the people and put the Lords in a position where if they again rejected the budget they would be removed
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6
Q

What did the Liberals do for Irish Home Rule?

A
  • Liberals used Ireland for power and in return pushed through Irish Home Rule
  • Angered unionists who wanted to remain
  • As war broke out no agreement was made and both sides were angered
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7
Q

What were the Results of Mass Democracy?

A
  • More diverse groups with different classes, upbringings and genders
  • Engaging the whole of society in politics
  • People in society active in their citizenship
  • Representing and fulfilling the aims and beliefs of a whole society
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8
Q

What were the Political Effects of WW1 for the Liberals?

A
  • Compromised principles
    • Conscription (1916)
    • Rationing (1918)
    • Go against beliefs of freedom alienating their supporters
      *
      *
      *
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9
Q

What were the Political Effects of WW1 for the Liberals?

A
  • Compromised principles
    • Conscription (1916)
    • Rationing (1918)
    • Go against beliefs of freedom alienating their supporters
  • Split in leadership
    • Asquith vs Lloyd George following 1915 collaboration
      • Unsure how to appeal to larger voting group
  • Accountability
    • Troop problems led to
      conscription
    • Lack of accountability
    • Maurice debate (1918)
    • Shell crisis (1915)
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10
Q

What were the Issues with the British Economy?

A
  • Trade downturn post-war
  • Less jobs - due to influx of those back from war
  • High unemployment led to lower overall wages
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11
Q

Further effects due to end of WW1?

A

• Needed extra housing
• Extra education for former servicemen
• Women taking new role in work force
- A necessity rather than choice
• Voter numbers up
- more working class men
- women allowed vote

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12
Q

Why Should Labour Benefit in 1918

A

• Mass democracy - politics aimed towards working class giving them more voters to aim for
• Majority of populous = WC
• Blue collar jobs key party of economy
• Union support + funding
• More WC members in parliament (40 since 1910)

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13
Q

Why didn’t Labour Benefit?

A

• Links with Marxism
• Red scare led to them adopting cautious polices and wanting to look mediocre
- Led to them appealing more towards middle and upper class and they were therefore unable to motivate the WC as they were too moderate
• Not a complete WC turnout as they were unmotivated

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14
Q

What led to the Lack of WC Motivation?

A

• Working class men saw unions as representatives rather than organisations they were involved in due to a larger concern with material issues
• WC women excluded from the culture of workplace and therefore weren’t involved with unions
- Women disengaged as they lead domestic lives - politics a “man’s business”
• Traditional working class (northern industrial) felt left behind
- WC culture not linked to to politics
- Confrontation relationship with managers lead to politicians seen as an authority figure typed as well
• Political discussion not the norm

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15
Q

What Issues with Credibility did Labour have?

A

• Fear of revolution drew concern about Labour
• Parliamentary Labour stayed moderate
• Continued communist present in UK & radical trade unions
• Zinoviev Letters

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16
Q

Was there Any Truth to Arguments about Communist Activity?

A

• Labour offered stability as a competent government
- They achieved their own aim of credibility
• Socialism became a big issue in 1924 as economic problems seemed to have been solved
• Zinoviev letter didn’t have that big of an effect
- More votes than in 1922/23 and linked to the conservatives
• Collapse of the Liberals in 1924 opened the way for conservatives

17
Q

How did Labour’s first moment in control go?

A

• Bad industrial relations in the mid 1920s led to them being seen as the WC representative over Trade Unions
• When they got into power they faced financial problems
- Limited power to spend
• Decades of experience seeking moderation led to compromise when in crisis
• Time in office only lasted 9 months (1924) but helped show their credentials as a party to protect national stability
- Improved house building

18
Q

Why did the Conservatives Dominate in the Interwar Years?

A

• Liberal decline and Labour rise led to conservative dominance with no true party to rival them
• Shifted from class based policies to the party of the nation
• Ability of conservatives to create a place for themselves in mass democracy
• Moderate leadership in crisis
- Baldwin a figure of national stability
• Conservatives understood their voters
• Electoral Dominance

19
Q

How did the Electoral System support the Conservatives?

A

• Conservatives had support evenly spread throughout the nation
- System worked to their advantage
• Large benefit from the opposition split between Liberal & Labour

20
Q

What were the Effects of the Wall Street Crash?

A

• Caused by excessive speculation and too much debt resulting in collapsing banks in the US and became a worldwide crisis
• Government responded by cutting public spending
- Welfare by 10%
- 1930s Great Depression led to millions unemployed
• McDonald’s second government fell in 1931 over issue of welfare cuts
- Party split & McDonald ejected from Labour
• Liberals split over Free Trade with some abandoning the party

21
Q

What were Stanley Baldwin’s Qualities?

A

• Appealed by saying he represented national values
• Prolific public speaker
• First radio broadcast from Prime Minister
• Sought to deal with issues with moderation
• Principled - Gave away war profits
• Able to deal with a constitutional crisis (Abdication of the King)

22
Q

How Was Labours Second Period in Power (1929-31)

A

• More ambitious but due to financial situation they had to hold back to deal with the crisis
• Unemployment rose from 1.5mil to over 2 & interest rates skyrocketed
• Doubled spending on public work schemes
- Worsened debt but gave more jobs
• Cut unemployment benefit big 10%
- Caused a huge split in Labour Party as it went against fundamental beliefs

23
Q

What Happened in the Labour Gov Split?

A

• Following the cutting of unemployment benefits MacDonald and his followers were expelled after following the split they created an emergency coalition
• Labour party were crushed in the following election while the coalition went on to become a permanent government

24
Q

What were Stanley Baldwin’s Aims?

A

• First Aim - To maintain trade due to worries for political stability
• Second Aim - Social improvement and he got 1mil people jobs and built houses
• Further Aims - To rearm as he felt otherwise the LoN would be too weak
- This rearmament lead to economic recovery
• “Our country is leading the world on the path of progress”

25
Q

Why did Constitutional Government overcome Extremism in 1930s?

A

• Divisions between people on war
- Groups who hated war as a result of WW1 experiences didn’t want a repeat
- People who thought crises of the period were due to weak & incompetent settlement of WW1 (wanted to reopen/resettle it on different terms)
• Both had fears of societal collapse
• Worries that another great war will destroy civilisation

26
Q

What Effect did Pacifism have on Politics?

A

• Low WC involvement
- 95% of households took a newspaper but the biggest (News of the World) ironically didn’t cover foreign affairs
• Middle class concerned with peace & did try to influence the political process
• British Union of Facism few up challenging constitutional peace settlement
- Gained support from the Daily Mail
- Seen as radical political outsiders due to dangers of extremism

27
Q

Why did Communism Fail in Britain

A

• Communists struggled to find an audience
- Labour strong and broad enough
• Communists also lacked organisation or middle class leadership
• Absence of core fascist audience
- Constitutional Conservative Party & National Government did enough to battle the fear of socialism

28
Q

What happened to the BUF (British Union of Facism) in 1936?

A

• Year of Destiny for BUF
- Took to streets in East End of London (Battle of Cable Street 4/10/36)
- Big disturbance & damaged BUF rep
- Resulted in 1936 Public Order Act which banned political uniforms and put limits on marches

UK History (3 decks)

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