As Southern Africa resumes work and production, the coalition government led by Ramsay Macdonald in London, England, encounters a new round of political crisis.
By the end of 1927, the number of unemployed people in the UK had reached 1.25 million, and the situation was unprecedentedly severe.
By the beginning of 2028, in just two months, the number of unemployed people in the UK had doubled to 2.5 million, and the whole society's dissatisfaction with the coalition government reached its peak.
At this time, the coalition government led by Ramsay Macdonald still did not gain the trust of Parliament. The obstruction of the Conservative Party created huge difficulties for the coalition government's proposals. The Liberal Party led by Lloyd George also unfairly distributed the power of the coalition government.
Feel dissatisfied and think the Liberal Party should get more power.
In fact, during the period after the economic crisis broke out, the coalition government did not do anything. Last year, the coalition government increased unemployment benefits and gave more subsidies to the unemployed; at the same time, it passed a bill to improve the salary and treatment of mining workers. This is a revision of the 1926
Public response to the general strike.
At the same time, the coalition government also referred to Southern Africa and legislated to clear slums. This was the beginning of the coalition government losing public support because the coalition government only considered clearing slums and did not have follow-up policies for the poor. As a result, a large number of poor people lost their homes and lived on the streets.
, the Conservative Party took the opportunity to attack the Labor Party, saying that the Labor Party was not worthy of representing the interests of ordinary British people, and described Ramsay Macdonald as a speculator who took advantage of public opinion to seek prestige in disputes.
Under such circumstances, the coalition government has been at a loss when facing the economic crisis and has not come up with an effective response plan. This has also become one of the evidences for the Conservative Party to attack the coalition government.
In fact, Ramsay Macdonald cannot be blamed. The coalition government has inherent shortcomings. The Labor Party chose to govern in coalition with the Liberal Party in order to gain sufficient support. This paved the way for the plight of today's coalition government.
In the coalition government cabinet, Finance Minister Philip Snowden is a staunch supporter of orthodox economic policies and opposes the government's use of fiscal deficits as a means to stimulate the economy.
Dissenters in this regard were Liberal Party leader Lloyd George, Ramsay Macdonald's deputy Sir Oswald Maudsley, and the famous economist Keynes.
Lloyd George and Lord Maudsley, as well as Keynes, all suggested implementing economic policies similar to those in southern Africa to stimulate the British economy to recover from the economic crisis as soon as possible.
The reason is very simple. Since southern Africa has achieved good results by adopting fiscal deficit to stimulate the economy, what reason does the British government have to refuse?
Philip Snowden is the finance minister, and he has an unspoken reason for not allowing anyone to interfere in financial matters.
Although Ramsay MacDonald was good at elections, he was an outsider in economics. Facing the completely different opinions of Snowden, Keynes and others, MacDonald was in a dilemma.
When the time came to 1928, the situation in the UK became increasingly difficult. On the one hand, the coalition government needed to find ways to maintain a balanced fiscal budget in order to maintain the pound on the gold standard.
On the other hand, the coalition government is facing pressure to increase spending to assist the growing number of poor and unemployed people.
At the same time, the British government's revenue has gradually declined due to reduced tax revenue.
At the beginning of January, Stanley Baldwin urged the coalition government to significantly reduce public spending to maintain a balanced government budget.
This requirement cost Ramsay Macdonald his life. The Labor Party is counting on throwing money everywhere to gain higher approval ratings. If it is a small public expenditure, then all the work done by the Labor Party in the early stage will be in vain. This is
Ramsay Macdonald could not accept it in any way.
But Ramsay Macdonald could not ignore the pressure from Parliament.
So in mid-January, Snowden commissioned Sir George May to chair a committee to investigate the coalition government's financial expenditure.
Two months later, George May submitted a report urging the government to drastically cut government employee compensation expenditures as soon as possible, while also cutting public spending, which mainly included cuts to unemployment benefits, to avoid a fiscal deficit.
This report is the famous "Mei Report".
The "May Report" will not say whether it can solve the dilemma faced by the UK. According to the method mentioned in the report, if the coalition government cuts the salary of government employees and reduces the expenditure on unemployment benefits, then the coalition government will not only lose the unemployed
support, and will also lose the support of government employees, which is tantamount to disaster for the coalition government.
At the critical moment, Ramsay Macdonald's deputy Sir Maudsley suggested that the coalition government control banks and imports, and increase pensions to enhance national consumption power. These requests were also not adopted by Ramsay Macdonald.
So Sir Maudsley resigned angrily and established a new party, the British Communist Alliance.
When the news reached Pretoria, Rock was dumbfounded.
The UK has already had the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, and now it even has the *** Alliance. Oh, by the way, the UK also has a king, so the UK now is a hodgepodge, even those who clearly know the direction of history
Rock can't even understand it.
"I have long said that Ramsay Macdonald is a fool, and this was fully demonstrated during his last term as Prime Minister." Winston has returned to Pretoria from London. During his stay in London,
Ramsay Macdonald made it clear that he hoped that Winston could use his position as governor-general to give more influence to the federal government of Southern Africa, but Winston clearly refused.
Winston also has a clear distinction between love and hate in this regard. He will not give any help to the Labor Party, even if the British Labor Party only nominally represents the interests of British workers.
This is the biggest problem in British politics. The Conservative Party does not represent the aristocracy, at least not entirely. The Labor Party does not represent the working class, but the emerging aristocracy, which is mainly the petty bourgeoisie. As for the Liberal Party
The Liberal Party has declined, and now everyone in the UK avoids it when talking about the Liberal Party, and gloating about its misfortune is mixed with strange emotions such as sighs and sighs.
The decline of half of the British political arena to what it is today is not entirely a problem of the Liberal Party, but also related to the political environment. The decline of the Liberal Party indicates that the traditional economic method with "free trade" as its core has lost value. Some people have lost their value for themselves.
Interests may still advocate "free trade", but most people will vote with their feet.
"He is not stupid, but he is forced to have no choice." Adelaide's eyes are complicated. That is the United Kingdom that he once swore to fight for his whole life, but now it has fallen to the point where it is today. As an eyewitness of the United Kingdom from its heyday to its gradual decline, Adelaide,
I can't even tell what happened.
It would be easy to explain if it were replaced by Rock.
“He has not figured out his position.” Philip rarely spoke, and it was not like Philip to be precise.
After all, Philip is also the Prime Minister and has rich experience working in the British mainland. On the contrary, Adelaide spent most of his time working in the colonies, so Philip has a better understanding of British politics.
As mentioned above, the Labor Party is only under the banner of the Labor Party. Most of the supporters of the Labor Party are petty bourgeoisie and political speculators. Ramsay Macdonald is not fully prepared for the rapid rise of the Labor Party.
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"Why doesn't the coalition government launch treasury bonds? If the coalition government launches treasury bonds, it should be able to solve a large part of the problem." Roque is also really surprised. In Roque's view, Snowden has reached the point of desperate measures to maintain fiscal expenditure balance.
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Maintaining fiscal balance is indeed important, but it also depends on the situation. Although the British government is in decline, after all, the accumulation of hundreds of years cannot be underestimated, and it still has strength.
If the UK issues national debt, there should be many people willing to pay for it, and the British government's credibility is indeed good. Compared with Russia, which is a complete defaulter, and Germany, which is capricious, the UK is simply a pure good guy.
"Oh, the Prime Minister would like to, but Parliament will not give the Prime Minister the opportunity to issue national debt." Winston sneered. After the Labor Party and the Liberal Party formed a coalition government, Ramsay Macdonald's support rate in Parliament dropped significantly, and the Liberal Party
They are dissatisfied with receiving too little power, and many Labor MPs are also dissatisfied with the coalition government.
In the view of some Labor MPs, the Liberal Party has no value in joining forces at all. Even if it can join forces, it should be with the Conservative Party.
Here you can see the unrealism of some British people.
Even if the Labor Party wants to unite with the Conservative Party, it must agree with the Conservative Party.
As a result, something unexpected happened. On March 10, the coalition government voted on the May Report, and half of the cabinet ministers agreed to implement the recommendations of the May Report. This decision directly caused a split in the cabinet and caused the British
The guild unanimously opposed it.
Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson was particularly fierce, claiming that he would resign if the coalition government implemented the May Report.
In view of the huge differences caused by the May Report, Ramsay Macdonald submitted his resignation to King George V on March 25. Don’t rush to resign. I will take the first step.
George V agreed to the resignation of Ramsay Macdonald.
Then an embarrassing thing happened. George V looked through the big players in British politics and couldn't find a suitable successor.
I really can’t find it. When March comes, the economic crisis shows no sign of easing. The British economy continues to be sluggish. Parliament and the cabinet are deeply divided. Public complaints are boiling over the coalition government’s cuts in public spending. Government employees are also very dissatisfied with salary cuts. At this time
Having made it clear whoever came to power would be the scapegoat, George V tried to ask Stanley Baldwin for his opinion to see if Stanley Baldwin was interested in taking over as Prime Minister to turn the tide. As a result, Stanley Baldwin was hospitalized due to illness.
