The Labour Government and Its Success in Achieving Its Aims in 1924
In January 1924 Ramsey MacDonald formed labours initial administration
in coalition with the liberals his appointment of red clydesider and
fellow Scot John Wheatley as health minister raised hopes of social
change in Scotland. The labour and liberal governments were able to
out vote the conservatives over political issues.
Wheatley's 1924 Housing Act attempted to initiate an agenda of slum
clearance and subsidised housing but it died with the Conservative
triumph in the General Election in October. In 1929 there was a
minority government so passing laws were complicated, however, the
liberals supported the labour party.
The labour government had many aims for Britain in different areas of
politics. The financial issues affecting the British population and
the government were that the government required to decrease the total
of expenditure; this enabled them to steady the economy and help to
finance the country. In 1929 the country had suffered economic
depression from the Wall Street crash this also contributed to the
decline of trade in Britain and the economy slumping.
There was a large dilemma of unemployment in Britain and the
government wanted to get rid of poverty. Sickness and old age also
contributed to this poverty. The living conditions in Britain were
very low people lived in cramped houses close together, which were a
large concern as this was main cause of ill health, and contributed to
the unemployment, as individuals could not work when they were in
sickness. The 1924 government was determined to reduce this poverty
and harsh living condit...
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...aintain an economic
equilibrium in Britain at this cruel time. This was the major reason
for the split in 1931. It was also not easy for the labour party when
they were branded as a communist party as they lost support, and gave
way for the conservative party to take over. MacDonald was alleged as
an unreliable, erratic prime minister and was a contribution to the
lack of achievements, however MacDonald is not exclusively to blame as
there was other state of affairs out of his control which also
contributed to the downfall and discontinued MacDonald as prime
minister. I consider the labour government as successful in achieving
some aspects of their aims but did not accomplish the criteria of
their principles, and their outlook towards governing Britain was
unreliable and showed MacDonald as an unskilled prime minister.
It must be considered when viewing the achievements of Labour that in 1924, the Labour government was not in a position to push ahead with radical policies, as a minority in the house of commons a Conservative vote and abstinence of a liberal support would have brought the government down. A heavy reliance on the liberals existed in the first labour government which some argue restricted them heavily, policies such as nationalisation and disarmament had no chance of being implemented. Also due to its reliance on the Liberals its relationship with trade unions was damaged as they felt they were not being represented as well as promised. To labour this was a large problem as trade unions provided most of their funds, however to be too sympathetic to the unions would make it difficult to project an image of their party as genuinely national. Labour theorised that a gradual series of changes would be more beneficial to their aims, and using their rise to power in 24 as foundation stone to prove their capability in government, their socialist views were still present, however were a realistic take on Labours ability to bring change to Britain, which was at this point vastly limited.
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