'Years of crises" Assess the validity of this view (1914-39)

P1 - Post war recovery/General Strike

1. Post WW1 Recovery → Wide reaching impact socially, economically & politically

• Representation of the People Act 1918 → Democratically extremely significant act 1918 gave all men over age of 21 (& any other who served under wartime) right to vote & some women for first time

• HOWEVER: Liberals struggled in Post war period (DLG had various scandals to contend with eg. Peerages scandal 1922)

• Despite initial boom after war, recession set in by 1920 -21 where unemployment soared & wages declined

• Goddess Axe - attempt to cut public spending

• Industrial unrest continued - worse after 1920 & economic decline eg. Red Clydeside Strike 1919, Miners’ Strikes 1921

2. GS → Continuation of indistrial unrest that developed during & immediately after war, roots lay in long term economic decline of staple industries and strike led by Miners unions but had support of TUC, govt saw it as radical threat to overthrow state & though there were Radicals, TUC was keen to distance itself from these individuals

• Govt well prepared & used British Gazette to publish pro-govt messages

• Strike collapsed within a few days, Miners were punished as wages were slashed & 1927 Trade Disputes Act prevented sympathetic striking & mass picketing

• HOWEVER: Seen as too harsh and approach in long term and costed cons election in 1929

• Failed to address long term, deep rooted problems of mining indistry & problems would continue in 1930s onwards

P2 - WSC & Great Depression 1929-34/Abdication Crisis 1936

1. WSC & Great Depression→ Immediately after crisis, GB's crisis, GB exports fell by 50% & in 1931 the economy shrank by 5%, unemployment hit an all time high in 1932 of 3M

• Labour badly split over how to deal with crisis, Resulted in Macdonald resigning & forming a national Govt in 1931 (dominated by Cons)

• After 1931, there was more clarity, decision to leave GS helped British exports become cheaper & more competitive so by 1937 economic recovery was underway

• HOWEVER → Maintaing GS & continuing to support spending cuts & high interest rates exasperated problems

• Certain areas much more harder hti - North, Wales & Scotland - industries hardest hit was coal, cotton, iron & steel manufacturing , Regionalisation became significant problem & attempts to deal with this eg. Special Areas Act 1934 didn’t go far enough

2. Abdication Crisis→ King Edward VII wanted to marry American Divorcee Wallis Simpson & warned by Baldwin that many in GB would find this moraly unacceptable & would risk a constitutional crisis

• Baldwin & Cabinet presented King with 3 options: Abandon marriage plans, marry & risk constitutional crisis or Abdication→ Edward chose Abdication so matter was dealt reasonably quick

• HOWEVER: Mant including Churchill felt govt had no right to intervene, some may argue King (& Mrs Simpson's) link to Nazi Germany may have been called into question but there is little evidence to support the view that Edward abdicated due to this

P4 - Rise of Extremist Parties (BUF & Communist Party)

1. BUF → Led by Oswald Moseley (former cons & Labour politician) who was inspired by Mussolini in Italy

• General stability created by National Govt eg. 1934 Incitement to Disaffection Act used to prosecute anyone advocating revolution/violence & 1936 Public Order Act banned groups from wearing uniforms & required permissions for marches & demonstrations → 1940 Moseley & key supporters arrested as they posed threat to national security

• MC not hit hard by Depression

• By 1937, economic recovery was well underway

• HOWEVER: Movement did have 50k members at peak & garnered some support from those who felt NG & parliamentary democracy wasn’t capable of working at height of depression

1. CPGP → Membership peaked at 3,200 in 1929, not substantial threat to parliamentary democracy

• HOWEVER - Labour was more important rather than National Govt as they played in part in preventing extremism in 1930s and both party and TUs were led by moderates/opposed to link to any communist eg. Leading trade union leader Ernest Bevin spent much career fighting communist influence of TUs

• Impact of thinkers like Webb & Trade unionists who were sympathetic to Stalin was more significant

Conclusion

• Relentless crises embarked during interwar years

• Govt responses were efficient perhaps eg. Handling of Abdication Crisis by Baldwin & effective attempts to prevent rise of extremist group in posing threats to democracy

• However, for most of period, govt responses were limited in addressing the problems eg. Failure to address problems behind GS (decline of coal staple industry) & GS was a failure as it worsened problems implying statement was wholly correct as crisis were evident and were worsened by the incompetent actions of Govt