Studied by 22 people
Theme 1: A Changing Political Landscape & Responding to Economic Challenges Changing Party Fortunes 1918-31
How did Lib. Party develop in interwar GB politics?
Coalition + Lib. split
(1910) Lib. retain power & form govt. PM Asquith.
(WW1) Lib. had 💪 representation on coalition wartime govt.
(1916) Lib split + Lib.-Con. coalition govt
Lib. lose 1922, 24, 29 & 31 GE by large margins - 1922 Lab. gain ↑ seats than Lib. & --> main opposition to Con.
Lib. supported minority Lab. govts 1924 & 1929-31.
Why did the Liberal Party fall as a political force in the interwar period?
collapse party unity + econ. problems ∵ WW1 (Asquith, econ., franchise)
electoral system: impact 1918 ROPA
impact 1918 GE
conduct DLG
Why did Lib. decline?
How did WW1 damage Lib. unity?
Its ideals & values had been ignored in quest for military victory.
WW1 👓 govt implement 1914 DORA - gave govt extended powers (conscription & rationing) to ensure victory
Cast aside Lib. concerns for indiv. conscience & liberties citizen
Facilitated split → whilst Lib. exited war divided & weak; Con. & Lab. strength.
(Dec. 1916) DLG, in favour of such illib. measures & losing faith in Asquith’s ability win WW1, ousted 🡹 trad. Lib. Asquith & formed new coalition govt w/Con. backing
Asquith's ousting outraged many trad. Lib. who 👓 DLG as traitor & contin. supp. Asquith, who cont. leader but refus. serve in DLG’s new cabinet → split bet. Asquithian & Nat. Lib.
Split crystallised in 1918 Maurice Debate: Asquith publicly attacked DLG ab. no. troops Western Front in Parl. & demanded enquiry.
Cemented personal bitterness bet. DLG & Asquith.
Why did Lib. decline?
How did WW1 damage econ.?
Unemployment remainedEcon. burden & legacy of war forc. DLG abandon electoral pledges.
1922 econ. slump
unemployment 12% working pop.
inflation 25% - leapt above wage levels
GDP ⬇️ 22%
Exist. social services stretched beyond capacity
1922 'Geddes Axe' → spending ✂ £18 mil. on educ. + £24 mil. for 🏠ing + £79 mil. for defence.
DLG had prom. '🏠s fit for Heroes'.
Diverted <- welfare programme by demands of war.
Unemploym. remained high - average 10%
Why did Lib. decline?
1918 ROPA
Significant Damage
Extended electorate by 13 mil. to include all 👨 🡹 21 + 👩 w/own 🏠 & 🡹 30
🡹 no. WC voters which Lib. failed win over, unlike Con. & Lab
Lib. electoral failure v Lab. electoral succ. 🎭new influx votes 🡹 → power Lab. & decline Lib.
Limited Damage
WC vote alone did not 🡹 to extend where it could have → such a decline in Lib.💺
Even w/o actions DLG, Lab. going become sig. political force as 🡹 WC🧍enfranchised.
Why did Lib. decline? impact 1918 GE
Why did Lib. decline? conduct DLG
national hero after WW1
Made his name as champion limiting rights privileged + the 'man who had won the war'.
1918: split Lib. (coalition Lib. vs Asquithian Lib.) Gained rep. as cynical politician who abandoned his Liberalism in pursuit of power.
Decision to cont. wartime coalition after 1918 extend. the division of the party, mak. wartime split permanent.
Made him dependent on Con.
June 1922 scandal: sale knighthoods & peerages
Openly sold 1500 knighthood & alm. 100 peerages → 1922 Honours List: sev.w. crim. convictions fraud.
Immense damage to credibility - portrayed as corrupt by Con., who used as excuse abandon coalition
Ref. share funds until 1926, when Asquith stepped down as party leader & Lib reunited behind & fully supp. him
W/o 💰, Lib. not afford maintain effective local party machine & field en. GE candidates → unable challenge Lab. overtaking as opposition.
∵ FPTP favoured 2 party system → too little, too late - by time received 💰, had been weakened to point political impotence
1922 GE
Con majority.
Lab 2nd (doubl. their seats ( 57 -> 142).
Emerged as main opposit. party to Con.
Nat Lib 3rd, overtaken by Lab (lost 74 💺)
Lib. now weakened to posit. of political impotence.
DLG resigned & after alm. 17 years of service, never again held office.
rise Lab 1918 Lab.
Formed in 1900 - youngest major political party in GB.
Had emerged <- Labour Representation Committee of the TUC ∴ closely tied to TUs who sought political representation to advance cause working 👨.
(Feb. 1918) Adopted new constitution - Clause VI declared itself socialist party.
Benefitted <- extension the franchise - repres. WC.
rise Lab Why was the Labour Party able to develop in interwar British politics?
preserved party unity.
role TU
electoral system: ROPA
Lib. Split & MacDonald's Skill
reasons for rise Lab How were the Labour able to preserve party unity?
💪 divisions ab. supporting war effort.
(1917) Division healed when Lab ministers resigned <- wartime coalition.
reasons for rise Lab role TUs
War → TU membership doubled to reach 🡱 8 mil. by 1919 - ↑ power & influence
Union backing provided bulk of party membership & funding.
Allowed Lab. to run succ. nat. political machine & field many candidates in elections.
Ideally placed to exploit the internal difficulties of the Liberals.
reasons for rise Lab
Lib split & Macdonald's skill
(post 1923 GE) Asquith feared los. sep. Lib. ident. as party oppos. Con. → backed minor. Lab. govt, thinking Lab. would do bad job & forced rely Lib. support
Mistake ∵ Lab. est. rep. econ. prudence & competence in foreign affairs, prov. themselves effective in office - <del>like</del> Lib.
Con Dom 1918-1931 Why were the Conservatives dominant in interwar British politics?
changes to electoral system
weaknesses/divisions opposition parties
effective leadership & image
reasons for Con.-dom. How did changes in the electoral system help the Conservatives?
Plural voting remained until 1948 which distorted impact trad. Con. voters.
Enabled businessmen who lived in 1 constituency & owned property in another to vote in both constituencies.
Undergraduates to vote in their 🏠 & university constituencies.
Con. extra 14 MPs.
(1918) Constituency boundaries redrawn to reflect population movements. This change gave MC suburbs ↑ representation.
(1921) Irish Free State gained independence --> loss 80 Lib-supp. Nationalist MPs. In contrast, Con. continued to rec. support <- 10 NI MPs
reasons for Con.-dom. How did divisions with the opposition help the Conservatives?
Lib., main opposition to Con. pre-1918, plagued by division.
(1931) Labour govt deeply divided over how to handle econ crisis + ruined in GE.
reasons for Con.-dom.
effective leadership & image
Con. portray. DLG as dictator over them ∴ they could absolve themselves <- coalition's mistakes.
Baldwin
Key speaker against DLG @ Oct. 1922 Carlton Club meet → key figure in destroying Lib.-Con. coalition
Con. leader & PM <- 1923 (Bonar Law retired ∵ illness)
👓n as moderate who could appeal to all soc. classes + attracted social worker - no elitism.
Baldwin built upon Disraeli's rebrand. of Con. away <- wealth & privilege → 'one-nation' party of empire, nat. def. & patriotism.
Presented himself as straight-talking man of the 🧍w/rep. for calling a space & spade.
Although owned fortune steel industry, known to run his 🏭s fairly + promote good working rels bet. employers & employees.
∴ gained rep for economic competence, stealing wealthy Lib. voters in defence against Lab. socialism.
1923 GE
Faced w/econ. slump, Baldwin believ. protectionist tariffs on imports would revive industry & employm.
But hav. pledged (1922) would be no change in tariffs in pres. parliament, concluded need. GE to unite party behind new policy.
Party divided ∴ lost majority + B resigned after vote no confid. → Lab. minority govt w/Lib. supp.
evidence Lab. weak political force + why did they collapse
Coalition w/Lib. - dependent on Lib. supp.
Govt. Collapse
(1924) John Campbell publ. article -> socialist 📰 The Workers Weekly, incit. mutiny in armed forces.
(6 Aug.) follow. press. <- backbench Lab. MPs, prosec. against Campbell withdrawn.
Lib., Con. & media had 🔗Lab. to USSR regime & sugg. may be Soviet sympathisers -> cabinet ∴ confirm. 'secret commun. sympathies'.
Coincid. w. Lab. attempt. normal. rel. bet. GB & USSR.
Motion of no confidence passed against gov., call. for offic. inquiry into withdraw. charges against Campbell (<- MacD's strange vote over need for inquiry)
MacD force. resign & call GE.
9-month long govt - too short pass m. legislation.
1924 GE
Con. win w/large majority after Lab. election campaign marred by accusations Soviet sympathies
Con.-supp. Daily Mail publ. forged letter <- Russian communist revolutionary to Brit. Commun. Party, incit. revol.
Some still feared Lab.
1929 ‘Flapper GE’
Lab. return w/minority govt supp. 59 Lib. MPs
Meant Lab. not strong enough weather 'econ. blizzard' (MacD)
What did the 1929-31 Lab. govt try to do w/economy?
Had campaigned on issue of enemploym., critic. Baldwin's failed attempts to resolve it.
BUT unable carry out major econ.📏s (↑ spending & taxation) to deal w/unemploym. ∵ …
Lacked parliamentary majority (Lib. would withdraw support & govt would collapse)
MacD used fact minority gov. to control left-wing elements of party to convince moderate & ‘fit to govern’
∴ forced make harsh econ. dec.s affect. poorest voters + manage threat industr. action.
Industr. unrest continued, showing MacD not in pocket of TUs
(Dockers' strike) ready to use troops to unload🚢s should strike have cont.
MacDonald & American banks
His govt. struggled to finance its spending commitments.
(by 1931) came under intense pressure <- internat. banks.
🦬banks not want govt. spend large sums on welfare
Not want value £ ↓ (∵ would lose 💰)
Had signific. power ∵ held large currency reserves of £ ∵ GB debt accrued to finance war.
Crisis Year 1931 formation of NG
Theme 1: Change & Challenge in the Workplace Changing IR 1918-39
What was the pattern of change within interwar relations?
-Brief post-war boom → 🡱 disputes bet. TUs & govt
Legacy long-term industrial neglect + boom workers joining TUs
1920s econ. slump weakened TU position ∵ many workers left TUs
1921 Black Friday Strike
1926 GS challenged govt policy but failed
Overall 1921-39 marked by comparatively low incidents industrial action despite 1930s being period hardship & unemployment for many in trad. industrial 🫀lands.
Strikers' grievances: repress. wages, 🡱 prices & 🍔 shortages.
Minority: 🡱 polit. & ideolog. grievances.
Govt able contain strikes by offer. concessions (Red Friday) - percept. nation close to revol. not ground. in reality.
What were the key changes in industry in interwar period?
Staple industries rooted in Victorian 🫖
Key heavy industries = iron ore, coal & 🚢-building industries → Scotland, S Wales & N England
By interwar period, outdated, suffered <- underinvestment & <del>could compete w/foreign competitors</del>
Compounded by 🫖 los. their global industrial position ∵ WW1 as rivals stepped in to fill gap
🚢building: (1920s) 1 mil. tonnes new 🚢ing yearly (1933) 133,000 tonnes
But 👓 rise… → Midlands & SE - used modern manuf. techniques
new industries (motor & chemical industries)
Light engineering 🏭s prod. consumer goods & 🏠hold appliances for domestic market (e.g. washing machines & vacuum cleaners).
Red Clydeside
(31st Jan. 1919) Glasgow; George Square
Clyde workers wanted hrs 54 → 40 per week: 🡱 job opportunities for unemploy. 👨 (many ex-service👨).
90,000 - socialist red flag raised - incendiary act (gov. nervous about poss. revol. break. out (Western interventi. in Russian Civil War to 'strangle Bolshevism in its cradle'
Tanks & soldiers attempt. put down organ. revolut. viol. & diffuse fights bet. protesters & police
Scale viol. & potent. shed <- Army shocked TU leaders. Called protester halt rioting.
Never achiev. 40 hr work-week.
(1921) Miners Strike
Miners Federation of GB (MFGB): largest TU, ↑ 900,000 members. Dur. WW1, mines under state control. ⤋ (March 1921) Mines returned priv. ownership ∴ hours ↑, wages ↓ to compete w. foreign coal imports. ⤋ (triple alliance) MFGB joined w. NTWF & NUR to ensure strike action be ↑ powerful & effective (gov. have foreign coal imports but not be unloaded & transport. ↺ country). ⤋ (1st April 1921) MFGB refused accept pay cuts --> mine owners locked our their workers. ⤋ (15th April 1921) Black Friday: NUR & NTWF abandoned dec. strike in solidarity w. miners (∵ not include. in negotiations ∴ members reluctant strike & TU leaders wary about consequences for their members). ݀ ⤋ (15th April-28th June) Miners' strike but forced end walkout ∵ could not beat mine owners alone.
Miners forced accept pay cuts 20%. ⤋
Why was there a GS?
(1925) Baldwin gov. dec. return to 🜚 Standard left mine owners' profits depleted ∴ cut miners' pay.
(July) Red Friday: govt. agreed to MFGB's demands to subsidise mining industry to maintain miners' wages (until 1st May 1926: 9 months), to put off GS.
⤋
(March 1926) Samuel Commission reccom. 13.5% pay
✂ for miners
⤋
Miners reject proposals - ‘Not a minute off the day, not a penny off the pay’
⤋
(1st May 1926) 1 mil. miners locked out of workplaces
(3rd May 1926) TUC announced GS: 3 mil. on strike
What was the government response to the GS?
<del>All workers ready</del> for a strike & <del>coordinate their efforts</del>
Govt had been prep. for strike since 1925 → in advance, had…
Created Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies (anti-TU group volunteers stepped in to do essential jobs <del>done by striking workers</del>)
Publ. propaganda paper (the British Gazette) & used BBC to broadcast radio messages in supp. govt, turning public opinion against
📰 Times called strikers <del>patriotic</del> class warriors
TUC limited viol. dur. GS - made it easier for govt to handle
Expensive for TUC - cost £4 mil./12.5 mil. strike fund
Govt spent £433 mil.
After 9 days, strike collapsed ∵ transpired 1906 Trades Disputes Act did not apply (gave TUs legal immun. <- damage claims for loss of business profits).
TUC met w/govt & ended strike whilst miners contain. strike.
What was the impact of the GS?
Failure GS → 1927 Trade Disputes Act aimed make anoth. GS impossible.
Outlawed sympathetic strikes, mass picketing & use TU funds for political purposes unless indiv. member 'contracted in'.
Hit hard @ Lab. funds - 1/3 chose opt out ∴ Lab.'s finances 🡳 35%.
🡳 TU power compounded by mass unemployment - never 🡳 below 1 mil. → interwar period (1932: ↑ to 3 mil.)
Much = long-term unemploym.
(1929) 5% unemployed jobless ↑ yr
(1932) 16.4%
→ TU membership 🡳500%: (1922) 8 mil. (1932) 4.5 mil.
Against this backdrop…
Fighting against employers wanting make ✂s & improve productivity, workers → staple industries → ↑ militaristic for for their jobs & pay
Government tried supply support for unemployed but <del>have resources to do this</del>.
(by 1939) Staple industries in terminal decline + working conditions remained poverty-stricken.
Bitterness & distrust bet. employer & employee, TU & member + TUC & workers & govt.
🎭 WC solidarity & class divisions.
Theme 1: Responding to Economic Challenges Post-war boom, crisis & recovery, 1918-39
What was the economic legacy of WW1?
loss of trade
Had been 🌍's lead. trad. nation → unable recover prev. dom. market.
🫖🚢 occupied 🚢ping essential war supplies → 20% sunk in proc.
Econ. rivals (🦬& Japan) filled gap left by decline in 🫖 exports, tak. over 🫖 markets.
🫖 unable trade with countries she was at war w/ - many these countries → 🡡 self-sufficient, prod. goods within country that they had prev. imported <- 🫖+ contin. this practice once war had ended.
impact → volume 🫖 exports (mid-1920s) only 75% its 1913 level
debt
(by 1920) debts £8 bil.
(by 1924) 160% income
value £ 🡣
(1914) 🫖forced to abandon 🜚 Standard → able to print en.💰to cover costs war.
→ ↑ inflation (1918 - 25%)
→ 🡣 value (1919 - £1 valued @ $3.19)
Technological developm.
Accelerated by war –partic. medicine, tranport, radio.
Wider use machine tools & assembly-line techniques encourag. employm. semi-skilled lab., tak. jobs away <- skilled workers.
Yet tech. developm. staple industries fell behind
Destruction many France & Germany🏭s forced purchase new, modern machinery, giv. them edge over 🫖 counterparts
Foreign industries overtook 🫖 ones after WW1
(by 1918) Germany prod. 2x as much steel as 🫖
What was the economic impact of the GD?
(Oct. 1929) WSC → collapse 🌍 trade.
Many countries unable to repay war debts to GB.
Value GB exports 1/2 → collapse staple industries.
unemployment (1929) 1 mil.
(1933) peaked '@ 3 mil.
ineffective solutions to econ. problems
interest rates + value £
Govt set high interest rates to curb inflation & ↑ value £ against other currencies
Curbed econ. growth ∵ ↑ expensive for businesses to borrow & invest +🧍↑ likely to save than spend
(1925) 🫖 returned to 🜚 Standard - restored £ pound to pre-war value $4.86
Decision proved to be disastrous for staple industries ∵ high exchange rates made 🫖 exports ↑ expensive & even 🡣 competitive.
In contrast, 🦬 set 10% 🡣 + low interest rates → 🦬 exports ↑ attractive than 🫖 ones, further damaging 🫖’s export market.
ineffective solutions to econ. problems
tax, spending & balancing budget
To ↓ inflation & repay war debts ASAP, taxes (1919) £18 per capita → (1922) £24
Geddes Axe contrib. to unemploym. - never ↓ below £1 mil. dur. interwar yrs
ineffective solutions to econ. problems
govt policies protectionism
(1921, 25, 32) Intro duties & limited tariffs on foreign goods to protect staple industries (struggled after WW1
Helped short-term but in long-term, created lack incentive to for industries to modernise to → ↑ competitive w/new foreign traders
Incited other countries to elect own ‘tariff walls’ which further limited internat. trade
Impact
Volume 🫖 exports (mid-1920s) only 75% its 1913 level
(1932) 60% 🚢builders unemploy.
Failure to modernise → decline staple industries
Newer industries (chemicals,🚗) neglected, <del>invested in</del>
How did TUs impact econ.?
War → TU membership doubled to reach 🡱 8 mil. by 1919 - ↑ power & influence
(1920s) ↑ TU militarism compounded by Lab. defeats
(1926) 323 strikes → 162.23 mil. working days lost
TUs → lack wage flexibility → employers firing workers in bid to keep costs ↓
∴ unemploym. never ↓ below 1 mil. (interwar yrs)
TUs halted prog. certain industries, partic. ∵ their foreign competitors had ↑ access to cheap manual lab
Why did the staple industries suffer so much in interwar period?
heavily reliant on exports
Suffered ∵…
loss trade post-WW1
return to 🜚 Standard
competition <- Germany &🦬
GD
Hungry 30s → regional varieties in unemployment
Emergence ‘two Englands’ differentiated by older & newer industries → impact slump <del>even</del>
Slump hit hardest areas centred on staple industries (coal → N & S Wales; textiles → Yorkshire; 🚢building → Scotland & the Tyne → ↑ unemploym. than nat. average (25% workforce - 2.5 mil.) & ↓ productivity
🚢building: (1920s) 1 mil. tonnes new 🚢ing yearly (1933) 133,000 tonnes
Older industries lost 1/3 workforce
(1932) 60% 🚢builders unemploy.
In contrast, London, SE & Midlands remained prosperous as light, consumer & service industries boomed
New methods production (e.g. assembly line & use electrical power) → goods creat. ↑ cheaply.
(1939) motor industry employ. 1.4 mil but 🏭→ Midlands & SE (motor. revol.)
Trafford Park, near Manchester = 1st planned industrial estate, attracting a diverse range of light industries & employing nearly 50,000 by 1939.
(1934) GB: 10% insured pop. unemploy.
Jarrow (NE) 70% after coal mine, steel works & Palmer’s 🚢yard closed
St. Albans 3.9%
Electrical industry ↑ workforce 250%
Service + building industries ↑ workforce 40%
(1944) Beveridge calculated 85% all long-term unemploym. → S Wales, Scotland & N England
Migration of workers to ↑ prosperous districts Midlands & SE (1931 census - movem. to London - pop. ↑ to 8 mil.)
1936 Jarrow March
Response to severe unemploym. <- GD.
200 unemploy. 👨 marched → London to petition Parliament to re-establish industry & bring work back to town.
Led by MP Ellen Wilkinson.
Baldwin refused meet marchers - only able address large group MPs.
Some had unemploym. benefits stopped ∵ not avail. for work.
Press coverage raised awareness. of scale of deprivation & poverty → N England & changed attitudes towards improving worker conditions post WW1.
Why was the £ devalued in 1931?
.GD → (by 1933) ↓ exports by 50% + unemploym. ↑ to 2.5 mil
Govt ✂️spending by £56 mil. + maintained high interest rates to maintain value £ (still attached to 🜚 Standard)
(1931, Invergordon, Scotland) 12,000 soldiers mutiny in opposition to pay cuts → change govt policy
(5 days later) Lab. removed £ <- 🜚 Standard + devalue £; £ depreciated <- $4.80 → $3.40
What was the impact of the pound being removed from the Gold Standard in 1931?
Enabled quicker recovery <- GD than other countries ∵ made 🫖 exports 25% cheaper & ↑ competitive
(1932-7)
unemploym. 17% → 8.5% (1/2)
real incomes ↑ 19%
industrial prod. ↑ 46%
sale exports ↑ 28%
unemploym. 17% → 8.5% (1/2)
(1938) coal alm. back 1927 levels + ↑ steel than 1928. (remarmament)
Restructured war debts: cost GB 25% tax revenue, not 40%.
What economic measures did the NG take & what impact did they have?
1934 Special Areas Act
Implemented public spending ✂️s.
10% ✂️ employ. benefits & public sector worker's pay.
Means test for unemploym. assistance.
1934 Special Areas Act = 📏 to attract industry to relocate to most depressed areas & ∴ ↓ unemployment.
Gave grants to local authorities most deprived areas (Tyneside, SW, W Cumberland & S Scotland)
(1937-40) est. 10 trading estates & ↑ 300 factories in SAs.
<del>adequate</del>
Level investment (capped @2 mil per SA). <del>high enough</del> ∴ ↓ 50,000 new jobs created
Many old industrial areas w/high unemploym. (Lancashire) <del>qualify</del> & left outside scope legislation.
Token gesture, <del>well-considered</del> & half-🫀ed attempt to solve problems depressed areas.
Too little & too late to have any appreciable impact upon regional unemploym. problem.
What economic measures did the NG take & what impact did they have?
✂️ interest rates 6-2%: 'Cheap 💰' policy
Cheaper & ∴ ↑ borrowing…
Facilitated business expansion & ↑ job creation
Triggered morgage & 🏠ing boom
(1918) 610,000 ↓ 🏠s than families → (1938) theoretical surplus ↑ 500,000 🏠s
(1930) Total value mortgages: £316 mil. (1937) £636 mil.
Govt <del>have worry about inflation</del> ∴ invested new industries
Invested road build., stim. 🚗 industry.
(1929-39) Output motor 🚗s doubled → 🫖 2nd largest 🚗 maker globally.
(1939) Employed 1.4 mil. - <del>expanding fast en.</del> to absorb all workers <- old industry
Theme 2: Provision of Social Welfare Social welfare provision 1918-39
unemploym. + health
1911 NI Act
Employm. = most pressing issue for interwar govt
Never ↓ 1 mil. interwar yrs (10% workforce)
(1933) peaked @ 3 mil.
Prov. <del>employm</del>. insurance + compulsory system health insurance (free medic. treatm. & sick pay) for low-paid workers earning ↓ than £160 PA in 6 designated staple industries <- self-financing fund generated by lab. exchanges (employer & employee contributions).
WW1 undermined effectiveness
Many 3.5 mil. returning troops not eligible ∵ <del>made suffic. contributions</del>/ worked in wrong industry.
∴ had to reply on dole paym. paid out of general tax/ borrow
Upset budget, divert. funds <- ↑ productive use & encour. econ. reliance on <del>earnt</del> income.
Only applied to wage earners → left alm. 1/2 pop. <del>covered</del>: 👩 & children excluded (most vuln. & had least access to healthcare .
unemploym.
1920 Unemploym. Insurance Act
Developed to offer longer-term sol. + cover those <del>covered</del> by 1911 NI Act.
2/3 workers eligible to claim insurance + <del>have to contrib.</del> to receive.
Act passed beg. post-war slump.
Rather than creating self-funding system, ↑ no. eligible claimants quickly drained accumulated funds.
(March 1921) Govt forced give out dole 💰 & intro seeking-work test.
(by March 1930) 3 mil. claimants rejected
unemploym.
1931 Nat. Econ. Act
Intro means test for unemploym. benefits to limit overall benefits bill in response to GD.
To qualify, local PAC (Public Assistance Committee) req. recipients of relief to have exhausted all savings (combined 🏠hold income into account) & to have sold all valuables.
Hated ∵👓n as invasion privacy + <del>fair</del> (some PACs ↑ stringent than others) + forced working 🧒to leave 🏠 so family could qualify.
Disqualified 'short-🕑 workers'.
Dramatically affected 👨who worked occasional days in collieries/ 🚢yards but dependent on welfare payments rest of 🕑.
Created poverty trap: better off if nemployed.
(by end 1931) 400,000 rejected/ reduc. claim
Why was long-term unemployment not solved until after 1936?
Prevailing wisdom retrenchment (spending ✂️s + tax ↑s) <del>could stimulate econ. growth</del>.
Only when huge👾spending poured into rearmament after 1936 that long-term unemploym. finally tackled.
(1939) 9%
pensions
1908 Pensions Act
Introd. 👾 pensions
Hugely pop. w/eligible ↑ 70s lived UK over 20 yrs.
Means tested + <del>support</del> for widows & kids of deceased
pensions
1925 Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act
Addressed criticisms 1908 Pensions Act
Prov. pension 10 shillings week for 65-70 yr-olds + prov. for widows, their🧒& orphans.
Funded by compulsory contributions, <del>taxation</del> ∴ ↑ efficient.
Initially <del>pop.</del> w/Lab. ∵ felt <del>fairly</del> penalised poor
Tough econ. conditions + ageing pop. → gen. acceptance
(1937) Self-employed workers both sexes allowed to join scheme.
🏠ing
1919 🏠ing & Town Planning Act
To alleviate 🏠 ing shortage, gave local authorities subsidies to build low-cost rental accom. for WC.
Only 213,000/600,000 🏠s needed built before recession & Geddes Axe → worsening 🏠 ing shortage
(1923) Estim shortfall 🏠s: 822,000.
🏠ing Acts 1923, '24, '30
Used subsidies to incentivise construction of private & state-owned 🏠ing → 🡱 🏠building.
(1919-40) 4 mil 🏠s built, 1 mil. in 👾 sector
(1930 Act) Used 👾 funds to clear slums + re🏠 🧍liv. in overcrowded cities
(by 1939) 3/4 mil. slums replaced w/modern 🏠s (1932-9) 4/5 slum dwellers re🏠ed
Started precedent for 👾-funded 🏠ing.
Generous 👾 subsidies for each 🏠 improv. qual. 🏠ing.
2/3 electrified ↑ demand for domestic goods (e.g. hoovers), further stim. econ & help. ↑ liv. standards
Theme 2: Public Health
health provision 1918-39
healthcare in 1918
Access to healthcare depended on wealth - <del>like</del> wealthy, poor <del>could afford healthcare</del> & often → ill after using <del>effective</del> self-medication
Priv. & philanthropic groups funded healthcare for poor.
Work🏠 infirmaries could treat poor but if <del>exist</del>, poor had to rely on friendly soc./
Offered some affordable HI schemes.
Collected subscriptions to pay for medical costs.
But some were so _ they <del>could afford their members’ medical treatm.</del> → bankrupt.
If friendly soc. collapsed, poor would be left w/o any access to healthcare.
Voluntary 🏥s
Charitable organisations that treated immed./life-threaten. conditions.
Uni/medical 🏫 hospitals, specialist hospitals for partic. illnesses & cottage hospital serv. small rural communities.
Many of doctors & surgeons worked voluntarily.
As secure as the donations they received.
1911 NHI system
changing ideas over government's role in healthcare
Consensus in favour of govt planning & co-ordin. of regional health services BUT <del>agreem</del>. over how nationalised health system should be.
(before 1918) Fabian Soc.
advocated centralised, state-planned healthcare was only way to signific. improve healthcare.
1926 Royal Commission on NHI
Suggested separating the medical service from the insurance system & setting up instead, a service, which encompassed all public health activities paid for by public fund.
But recomm. regional, rather than nat. structure, for healthcare.
Gov. Reforms 1919-29 Ministry of Health + TB
War recruitment uncovered poor standard health - 2/3%👨declared <del>fit</del> for combat → 1919 MOH Act
Responsible for co-ordin. health @ regional level & administ. funds raised by NHI scheme.
Lacked auth. & political will to drastically reform healthcare system
Medical services like 🏫Medical Service + 🏭Health Inspectorate still controlled by other authorities
+ creat. MRC to research causes TB.
Major problem ∵ poor 🏠ing conditions - alleviat. by slum clearing.
(Tuberculosis Act 1921) provision of TB sanitoria by local authorities compulsory.
∴ (1928-38) no. cases TB ↓ .
state investment in TB sanitoria
What did 1929 Local Govt Act do to supp. healthcare?
Poor Law 🏥s now in ✋ local govt, who convert them into local 🏥s (still have stigma)
Local govt now responsible for running key healthcare services, (dentistry, venereal disease clinics, 🏫 medical services).
Made local govt responsible for co-ordinating healthcare provision
Led to reorganisat. healthcare on regional basis.
Created single health authority that co-ordin. healthcare in each county/ borough.
Enabled local authorities to prov. medic. services to entire popul. of the area.
How did healthcare provision expand after the Local Government Act?
Various forms 🏥 care developed (specialist teaching 🏥s).
👾 → ↑ involved in healthcare
(by 1938) England & Wales prov. 75,000 gen.🏥🛏s.
GPs treated ↑🧍via NIS - (by 1938) 43% popul. insured
↓ than 1/2 popul. insured against illness
Many relied upon trad. remedies & over the counter medicines.
Healthcare improved but large regional variations
(1900-22) IMR 1/2
(Wales) 5.17/1000
(Kensington) 0.86/1000
life expectancy: (1910) 55 → (1938) 66 (consid. ↑ than US & Australia)
MC 👨 lived 12 yrs longer than WC 👨 👩 19
(by 1939) ↑ groups (writers for The Lancet) advocating NHS
Healthcare in GD & attitudes to it
GD → ↑ importance affordable healthcare services.
Uninsured forced rely on priv. HI - often not pay out en. to cover medical costs.
Extreme poverty → ↑ no. illnesses & premature death.
poverty🔗poor health.
⤋
Debate on best way to prov. healthcare.
New consensus existing provision <del>efficient</del>, varied widely in terms of quality & failed to meet medical needs of all patients.
Peckham Health Centre
(1935-50)
Local residents paid subscription (1s) a week to join clinic & rec. annual health check-up & access to leisure facilities.
950 residents signed up to scheme.
93% had 'abnormality' - anaemia & rickets prevalent in🧒.
Guided patients to treatm., prov. no treatment itself.
Wide range facilities (e.g., solarium & lecture theatre).
Inspired wartime planners & architects of NHS.
Tredegar Medical Aid Soc.
Lack universal coverage - many dependent on Friendly societies for health coverage.
Supplied medic. needs 95% local pop.
In return for contributions <- its members, provided healthcare free @ point of use for all its members.
Allowed 👨⚕️s some private work.
Contributed the model which est. NHS: inspir. Bevan.
Doctors in interwar period
<del>Evenly</del> distributed - priv. 👨⚕️s had ↑ surgeries → wealthier areas
6x ↑👨⚕️s in 🏠Counties than NE & rural areas
Costs put treatm. beyond reach of many.
Kudos relat. to having 👨⚕️ deliver 👶- used by MC & UC.
Rushed ∴ passed on illnesses & tried deliver 👶before lab. complete.
👩 health
(1918 Maternity & Child Welfare Act) req. all local authorities appoint welfare committees & run clinics for 🤱s.
(by 1938, England & Wales) 3580 infant welfare clinics & 1795 natal clinics
Many local authorities prov. cod liver oil, iron & vitamin 🛍s for mothers & infants.
(1936 Midwives Act) impos. obligation on local authorities to train & employ midwives.
Few 👩 insured & no access to husband's panel doctor (1911 NI Act).
Put rest fam. before own health.
🏫 Medical Inspection Service
(est. 1907) Free, compulsory medical checks for 🏫children & recommended any treatment.
Free rickets treatm, 🌅light tream. & cod liver oil.
Focus on nutrition.
What can we conclude about healthcare provision in the interwar period?
Treatment depended on location, class & nature of illness.
Theme 2: Education & Widening Opportunities Education policy 1918-43
Education before 1918
Prov. by LEAs.
Paid 🏫s' wages, prov. free 🏫 meals to child. <- poor families, ensured upkeep 🏫 buildings & monitored 🏫ing standards & qualifications.
Basic educ. system but many not advance beyond elementary age limit 12 yrs.
Gender divide; domestic skills for 👧s, manual labour for👦s.
Despite creation 6 new '🟥🧱' unis (late Victorian & Edwardian period) → industrial cities (e.g., Birmingham & Manchester), uni predominately domain of those <- privileged backgrounds.
Govt funding low & widen. participation not priority.
1918 Education Act
Based on WW1's Lewis Report (educ. underfunded).
Aimed to widen access to education by:
↑ 🏫 leaving age <-- 12 to 14.
creating grant-funded grammars
Prov. nursery 🏫 to toddlers + new tier of country colleges to prov. vocational train. (14-18).
Employers obliged to let employees spend 1 day a week studying.
Scrapped fees for elementary educ.
Most educ. costs transferred <-- LEAs → central govt.
Centralised 🏫 financing.
Hoped improv. 🏫s' salaries & pensions would ↑ professionalism ∴ 🏫ing standards.
(1920s) Econ. circumstances deteriorated during 1920 and depression & Geddes Axe ✂️ educat. budget 1/3 → act's provisions on nurseries & county colleges <del>implemented</del>.
1926 Hadlow Report
Wide diversity quality educ. prov.
Recommended…
Elementary 🏫s be replaced w/primary 🏫s for ages 5-11 (∴ would have to be new 🏫 for those who had previously only stayed on till 14)
🏫leaving age be ↑ to 15
divided secondary 🏫s → grammar & modern
✅
Great achievement in principle
Recogn. entire pop. (not just 🧒privileged) entitled to some free educ. beyond elementary level
Influenced Butler
1944 ideas not original but inherited <- post-WW1 reform movem.
❌
Too costly ∴ nothing done to act on report until 1944 (economy & frugality the priority, not education).
Class sizes reached 50-60 🧒→ learning by rote.
Educ. system reflected class system.
(1938) 45% secondary 🏫 places free
(1939) 13% WC 🧒 aged 13 & above still in 🏫.
What were the advantages and disadvantages of grammar schools?
Charged fees but could get a scholarship.
Offered academic curriculum based on that of fee-paying 🏫s & prov. excellent educ.
But poor 👪s not afford to keep bright 🧒 out of workplace beyond age 14. Even if they rec. scholarship; family needed their wage ↑.
Transport & uniform costs - no maintenance grant for educat.
How far did the war highlight the need for educational reform?
1942 Beveridge Report: ignorance highlighted as evil plaguing GB.
Armed forces had to 🏫 basic literacy & numeracy to recruits so not be complacent against Nazis. Technological War needed an educated workforce.
Uni still only for MC.
Theme 3: Class and Social Values Class, social change & impact of WW1 1918-51
What was the impact of WW1 on social class?
Decline in UC
UC 😵 toll <del>proportionately</del> high.
Whilst 12.9 % all 👨 → army 😵, 20.7% Old Etonians 😵∵ served as officers w/↑😵 rate ∵ led <- front.
Cost war → huge ↑ income tax & 😵 duties (+ lack heir).
Estates worth ↑ 2 mil. subject to 40% ↑ duty.
Tax on incomes ↑ £2500: (1914) 2% (1925) 57%
Put financial pressure on UC & made it harder for them to maintain their country estates - sold them to pay.
(by end 1919) ↑ mil. acres England & Wales been sold
(before 1914) ↓ than 10% those working the land owned it (1930) 33%
Brought end to alm. feudal power of landed gentry.
BUT (1914) Duke Portland owned 8 stately 🏠s (1939) maintained 4
MC
Growth white collar jobs drove MC expansion
clerking jobs for 👩 (1931) 170,000 (1951) 1.4 mil.
service industry
👓themselves as cleaner & ↑ respectable
🏠ownership → defining feature MC status
(by 1939) 60% MC owned 🏠, compared to 20% WC
WC
↑ democratic soc. - 1918 ROPA
Even in GD, prices ↓ faster than wages ∴ ↑ disposable income - could aspire to ↑ affluent lifestyles than parents.🏠
Class-consciousness: Red Clydeside + TU militancy protec. WC wages & rights.
Decline in deference: questioned perceived deference of working tow. 'their betters'.
Class division:
(1930s) WC poverty → N vs MC prosperity
1926 GS: WC vs MC
Former certainties about position of in soc. challenged.
MC volunteers organised to break the GS, identifying w. what they believed was the national interest
(mid 1920s) strikes decline
Con. enjoyed widespread WC & MC support in GEs.
Suggests _class conflict.
Experience of Great Depression served to undermine WC solidarity
TU membership ⬇️∵ unemploym.
S. Wales & NE badly affected whilst growth of new jobs & affluence in Midland & SE (TUs there unlikely sympathetic strike).
WW2 impact
Mass Observation reported WC expressed desire for ⬆️equal soc. after WW2.
Class barriers diminished.
Exper. --> homeless via bombing + hardships rationing causedof all social classes to co-operate & interact in new ways.
WW2 restored trad. WC industries to full employment + maintained w/post-war nationalisation
Or reinforced war wartime experience?
Wartime evac. WC inner-city children to ⬆️ affluent rural 🏠s →…
↑ sympathy for poverty endured by WC
reinforced class prejudices.
Host families blamed widespread phenomenon bed wetting on poor standards of inner-city WC fams.
Post-War Attitudes Class system, privilege & deference rem. largely intact.
Attlee govt. did not abolish public 🏫s/ House of Lords.
Their election not revolt against class system but recognition that 1930s' hardships not to be repeated.
Theme 3: The Changing Role and Status of 👩 The right to vote, political advancement, changes in family life & quest for personal freedoms, 1918-39
Economic personal freedoms
How many more women worked in WW1 & in what industries?
What was the catch & what was the result of this after the war?
what jobs did women take after WW1?
any important laws?
WW1 Exployed extra 1.5 mil. 👩.
Jobs in trad. 👨 work
(1914) 200,000 👩 engineers in metal & chemical industries
(1918) ↑ 1 mil.
TUs’ ‘dilution’ agreement w/govt: 👩 employed if…
Employm. lasted as long as war did.
No ↑ wages than 👨.
(1919 Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act) gave returning soldiers their jobs back --> 👩 workers sent 🏠 w. paid 🚂🎫.
∴ 👩 employm. alm. returned to pre-war levels when WW1 ended (by 1920) 1 mil ⬇️👩 in employm.
Jobs (1920s) Clerical work: biggest growth 👩 employm.
(1921) 1 mil. employed as typists/ clerks
(1931) + 300,000 (artisan WC/ lower MC)
Only for educ.: still clear class & gender roles in employm.
Only other opportunities for WC 👩 =
3/4 WC 👩 work done <-- 🏠 (e.g. sewing 'piece work' w. 🏠hold tasks & caring for children.
(1919 Sex Disqualification Act) Prev. barring of 👩 <-- career law/ civil service on basis of sex.
↑ employm. opportunities in these fields
Ivy Williams - 1st 👩 to be called to the English bar.
(20 yrs prior) Law Journal descr. her ambitions as 'futile'
(1922) Changed editorial opinion & called her appointment as barrister 'one of the most memorable days in the long annals of the legal profession.'
👨 attitudes to 👩 employm. starting to change.
(1931) 21 👩architects/ total 6000
2 structural & 2 civil engineers
180,000 nurses
⚭ bar in teaching until 1944 but Foreign Service until 1973; not illegal until 1975 Sex Discrim. Act
Married 👩 expect. in domestic sphere.
(1931) 90% married 👩 unemployed, alm. same 1911.
Social personal freedoms
birth control
motherhood/woman’s place
divorce laws
self-expression
(1918) Dr Marie Stopes publ. 📚 Married Love: advoc. use BC & ↑ understand. 👩 sexual needs.
Printers BC lit. liable prosec. for obscenity.
(1921 London) Opened 1st BC clinic → (late 1920s) 20 voluntary clinics operating.
👨⚕️s who directed 👩 tow. clinic sacked
(1930) GMC allowed 👨⚕️s to advise ⚭ 🤱s w/🧒already, for whom another🤰would serious damage their health.
WC 👩 not covered by NHI schemes not benefit = relied on help <-- local BC clinics & advice <-- friends & neighbours.
(1937) 95/423 local authorities prov. BC advice.
(1930s) 100-150,000 👩 died PA ∵ abortions.
Trend for smaller families nationwide.
2.2 live births
Victorian England: 5/6
Cambridge) 👩 could not take degree until 1947.
Given ↓ HW ∵ expect. to do 🏠work.
Only 0.5% 👧s had educ. post 18yrs.
(1934) Satirical novel 'Holy Deadlock' by lawyer A.P. Herbert pointed out absurdities in 1857 Matrimonial Clauses Act.
Req. evid. adultery/ viol. --> perjure in court/ priv. detectives/ paying 👩 to meet errant husbands. Farcial.
(1937 Matrimonial Clauses Act) div. if either partner unfaithful/ dessertion 3 yrs/ insane.
(early 1930s) aver. 4000 div. PA
(1938) 6250
(1951) 38,000
Rem. uncommon en. to be scandalous & source shame.
(1936) Wallis Simpson
(1955) Peter Townshend - Con. cabinet minister Lord Salisbury threatened resign.
Aver. cost £40.
1.9 mil. ↑ 👩 than 👨--> lived single lives & ∴ 🔎 new freedoms + ↑ clerical jobs --> ↑ disposable income --> enabled enjoy consumerism.
Trend f|apper look: short skirts & hair, exotic fashions, dancing, smoking, drinking (consid. unladylike).
Liv. independent lives & not dictated to by 👨.
Tobacco companies assoc. idea 'freedom' w/👩smoking.
Relied good, steady income & ↑ leisure 🕑. • WC 👩 health suff. dur. GD. • WC families often large no. children. • (1930s) Parts East End common families 9 children. • WC families depended on unemploym. relief (means tested after 1934). • Condemned --> live below poverty line & unable prov. min. amount 🍔 for fam.
Political personal freedoms
Franchise Reform Allowing women to stand for Parliament did not swiftly result in large numbers of 👩 being elected. ↑ slowly.
(1931) 👩MPs peaked @ 15
(1945) 24 & it fluctuated ↺ this level for next 4 decades ∵…
no. 👩 candidates for major party ↑ only slowly
(GEs 1918-1983) ⬇️than 5% Con. & ⬇️ 8% of Lab. candidates 👩.
in ⬇️ winnable seats than 👨. ∴ proportion 👩 MPs for each party even ⬇️ than their proportion candidates.
Petty restrictions - not allowed use Commons' dining room.
MP Edith Summerskill: HOC 'like a 👦's school which had decided to take a few 👧s'
Nancy Astor (1919)
Won husband's former seat of Plymouth Sutton.
1st 👩 to sit as MP in House of Commons. Single mother & divorcee pre-marrying Waldorf Astor.
Served in Parliament until 1945.
Campaigned for 👩 issues (provision of nursery 🏫s, widows' pensions, 👮♀️& 📏s to ⬇️maternal mortality rates.
👩↑ influential @ local level (health & educ.).
👓 as extens. domestic sphere
Diffic. balance family life w. press. politics. → (1918-1939) 👩 made up only 5-6% of local councillors.
Grounding for nat. office.
Eleanor Rathbone
(1909) 1st 👩 elected to Liverpool City Council
(1929) Entered parliament as independent MP for Combined English Universities constituency.
Contrib. passing 1945 Family Allowances Act
Theme 3: Race & immigration Immigration & attitudes towards ethnic minorities 1918-39
Working rights: 'alien workers'
WW1 → influx 'coloured' seamen & workers port cities.
(1919) Race riots port cities fuelled by resentful, <del>employ.</del> demobilised 👨
74,000 blacks & Asians attacked by white mobs +🏠s & businesses set ablaze - black seaman Charles Wotten lynched
Despite several👮being 🎁, <del>arrests made</del>.
(1919) Aftermath riots, <del>govt compensation</del> - intensified colonial repatriation scheme; fear 'black backlash'.
Govt offered resettlement allowance £2-5 + extra £5 disembarkment allowance.
(1920-1) 3000 black & Arab seamen + their families remov. <-🫖 under scheme.
(1920 Alien Orders Act) Migrant workers had to register w/👮 for work permit. Otherwise deported.
In reality, only applied to blacks & Asians -> placed all blacks & Asians under suspicion & under threat deportation.
(until 1971) Renewed annually until replaced by Immigration Act.
TU support: (e.g. Nat. Union Seamen (NUS) demanded jobs 'non-white' sailor be given to white seamen).
(1926) Indian Seaman's Union est. fight prejudice.
(Liverpool) Public rally held to support them.
∴ Indian residents allowed apply to Home Office to revoke Alien Status.
(1929 Special Restrictions Act) Forced 'coloured' seamen to prove their British citizenship to immig. authorities or face deportation.
Assumed 'coloured' seamen non-British unless could prove status as citizens.
Race riots continued.
(1935 Cardiff race riot) Local 👮 collab. w/ white workers to prev. black sailors <- working on 🚢s, declar. them non-British under 1920 Act.
Working rights: discrimination
Wage rates weighted in favour white workers.
Asian chefs paid £5 month, white chefs £20.
Blacks ↑ likely be unemployed than whites.
(1934-5) 80% black & Asian 👨 been unemployed for prolonged period, compared 30% white 👨.
People/ groups dedicated to fighting anti-imperialism & antiracism
CPGB
(1920s) CPGB
High proportion members <- minority ethnic groups.
Repres. many radical immigrants
(1924-9) Indian MP for North Battersea Shapuri Saklatvala raised Indian issues in Parl
Major campaigns defend. rights Arab seamen.
(1930, South Shields) NUS tried force Arab & Somali seamen out of their jobs
CPGB organ. regional strikes against policy: white workers South Shields, Liverpool & Stepney.
<del>Successful</del> but 🎭s white workers prep. supp. antiracist campaigns + extent immigrants prep. fight for their rights.
(1930s) Organised campaigns against BUF.
BUF attempt. incite anti-semitism → East End, → 🔥bombings & 'Jew-bashing'
(4 Oct 1936) Jewish People's Council & CPGB organ. demonstration ↑ 10,000 stop BUF march (Blackshirts) through Jewish area.
2 marches met → Battle of Cable Street, forc. BUF abandon march.
Viol. demonstr. anti-semetism.
People/ groups dedicated to fighting anti-imperialism & antiracism + educ. & health
League of Coloured People
50 <- W. Africa, 150 <- Caribbean & sim. number <- India educ. → 🫖top unis BUT <del>expected stay GB & work in elite govt positions</del>.
(1904) Jamaican-born Harold Moody chose to stay in 🫖 after read. medicine.
Repeatedly refused employm. 🫖🏥s ∴ est. own medical practice London.
Routinely exper. racial discrimination dur. studies ∴ est. groups to campaign for equal rights.
(1931) Moody est. League of Coloured🧍to…
Supp. immig. students to gain equal rights. MC
Expose colour bar & ∴ end white ignorance of extent discrim
Campaign for equal access to healthcare facilities for blacks & Asians → 🫖
Theme 4: Changing living standards Impact of boom, crisis & recovery 1918-39
Why did living standards improve despite recession? stats
(1921) Severe recession → wages for poorest ↓ until 1934
But liv. standards still improved ∵…
Prices 🡣 faster than wages
↑ use contraception 🡣 fam. size (1880: 4.6 → 1920: 2.2) ∴ wages shared bet. 🡣🧍∴ went further
(1920-38) real cost liv. 🡣 by 1/3
(1932-9) real incomes ↑ 19%
(WW2) aver. wages doubled
🏠ing - good
Lots
(interwar period) 4 mil. 🏠s built
So many suburbs being built → theoretical surplus almost 500,000 🏠s (1938), compared to shortfall 610,000 (1918)
(1932-9) 4/5 slum-dwellers re-🏠ed
(1939) 1/3 families liv. modern post-war 🏠ing
↑ Quality
2/3 wired for elec.
2x floor space as 19th C
80% WC happy in councils 🏠s
Affordable
(1936) council rents = 11 shillings per week.
Typical 'semi' = £450, only 2x annual salary average professional
high-standard, spacious, desirable, advanced
🏠ing - bad
(1935) still ↺ 300,000 slums ripe for demolition.
Council rents still prohibitively expensive for poorest + cost tranport (out city centres) → remained in slums
1924-39) 20 'cottage estates' created on outskirts London. (new suburbs connected to centre by rail).
(early 1930s) Glasgow & Birmingham, respectively, 200,000 & 68,000 lived more ↑ 3 to a room.
(1943) 90% Stepney 🏠s no baths
(1946) 12% Birmingham no lavatory
health & diet
(WW1) 2/3 👨 fit for combat → (WW2) 1/3
improved diet for all, even poor, <-
↑ disposable income
1914 Educ. Act
Wider range cheaper & imported🍔 avail. in new chain stores than had previously been available @ trad. corner shop
(1909-13 & 1934) Average annual consumption per head ↑ 88% for fruit + 64% for veggies.
Healthcare & diet improved but large regional variations.
(1900-22) IMR 1/2
(Wales) 5.17/1000
(Kensington) 0.86/1000
life expectancy: (1910) 55 → (1938) 66 (consid. ↑ than US & Australia)
MC 👨 lived 12 yrs longer than WC 👨 👩 19
Malnutrition
Persistent factor in lives of unemploy. → depressed areas.
(1933 nation survey) George McGonigle (Medical Officer for Middlesborough & Stockton-on-Tees): <del>sufficiency</del> unemployment benefits + high rent council 🏠ing estates → <del>poss.</del> to have minimum diet recom. by Ministry of Health.
(1936) 4.5 mil on <del>adequate</del> diets - only 1/3 healthy diets
Public 🏫 👦s: better diet - on aver. 4 inches taller than state 🏫 👦s.
1933 Hungry England Enquiry: ↑ WC 👩 than 👨 themselves to feed families ∴ 👩 health suffered disproportionately.
(1920s-30s) Maternal mortality rates: 50% ↑ for WC than MC.
(1938) Malnutrition killed 3200 ⬆️👩→ childbirth.
motor revol. (see prev. FC)
regional varieties reflected consumption - consumer revol.
(1925-39) Consumption electricity ↑ 4fold (1926 Nat. Grid)
(1938)🧍→ N used 386 Kilowatts per hour; → SE: 861
(N) mainly used for lighting
(S) also used for labour-saving devices
(1930) 200,000 hoover sales (1938) 400,000 - preserve MC
Before 1950s' consumer boom, growing demand for consumer goods.
New chains (e.g. M&S & Sainsbury's) helped to create growing consumer demand for new 🛍s.
Construction nearly 1000 chain stores ↑ service industries workforce by 40%.
↓ fam. sizes
WW2 austerity
Clothing rationing levelled fashion across classes
Life → ↑ drab
(1946) 25% consumer expenditure controlled by rationing → (1948) 30%
unemployment + poverty
How many WC in poverty in York in 1936?
Unemployment (throughout 1930s) Long-term structural unemployment. • 10% insured popul. unemploy. • Jarrow: ↑ 70% St Albans: 3.9%
(1931) Cutting dole by 10% --> deteriorat. health standards of poorest communities - ↑ rickets.
1/3 WC poverty.
Theme 4: Popular culture & entertainment Cinema 1918-45
how pop were they + why?
Most pop. medium entertainment
1/2 population → cinema @ least once a week
(1914) 3000 cinemas (1930) 5000
Why?
Seedy → respectable ∵ 100s luxurious 'picture palaces' built & attracted affluence MC audiences (1928 London: The Majestic)
Cheap - Special Saturday matinees offered to children for a penny entry
Offered unemployed escapism <- mundane/ harsh realities of unemployed/ WC life.
(London 1931) unemployed - cinema 2.6 x week,
🎭s cinema → important part life for those caught in long-term unemploym. & deprivation.
GB film industry
WW1 → collapse GB 🎥 cinema ∵ funding problems, disruption production & use of studios for propaganda.
British 🎥 industry came under pressure <-- American industry based in Hollywood.
(1914) 1/5 🎥s 🎭n in GB made by British 🎥 companies (1925) 5%
∴ 1927 Cinematograph 🎥s Act ensured 7.5% 🎥s 🎭 had to be British
(1935) 20% when 'talkies' 1st prod.
Cinema 1918-45 What was cinema like in the 1930s?
Remained most pop. form entertainment.
(1937-9) Cinema provided ⬆️50% all tax revenues of entertainm.
Offered unemployed escapism <-- mundane/ harsh realities of unemployed/ WC life.
(London 1931) unemployed --> cinema 2.6 x week, normally daytime 🎭ings ∵ cheaper tickets
(Glasgow during Depression) 80% unemployed -- cinema once a week ݀ ⤷🎭s cinema --> important part of life for those caught in long-term unemploym. & deprivation.
escapism, affordable, childcare
Gracie Fields (1930s) Highest paid actress in GB.
Northern, working-class girl character was a favourite during the inter-war years.
Kept her Northern accent.
Cinema 1918-45
content: 🎥s reflecting social issues
Main 🎥 types: westerns, gangsters, musicals, cartoons, romances.
But some had social commentary refl. experiences of everyday GB + divorce & ❤️less ⚭s.
London❤️ (1926)
Empowered 👩→ 🎥 star to raise en. 💰 to pay for her boyfriend's legal defence in a murder trial.
The Firstborn (1928)
<del>Happy</del> 👰w/<del>faithful</del> 🤵 adopts <del>⚭</del> hairdresser 💇's 👶, sav.💇<- shame & stigma + placating her🤵 by giving him heir he desires.
The Great Game (1930)
Reflected centrality ⚽ to WC life.
Features conflict in ⚽ club about whether to bring in professional players or stick w. local amateur team.
Working life, ambition & day-to-day experiences of modern urban.
Cinema 1918-45 cinema during WW2
Pop. demand kept cinemas open (escapism).
British 🎥 industry prod. ⬆️500 🎥s.
Patriotic war 🎥 In Which We Serve (1942)
approved by Ministry of Information
Let George Do It (1940)
Moment comic actor George Formby smacked Hitler alleged by Mass Observation to be 1 of highest morale-raising boosts of WW2.
Ministry of Information 🔎 cinemas useful to promote ideas (how not to waste 🍔) in short 🎥s.
🎵 1918-45
Ivor Novello - slow sentimental 🎵
(1914) Song Keep the Home 🔥s Burning appealed to families who had ❤️ed one stationed overseas.
So pop., paid £15,000 by record company
(1930s) jazz & swing
(1930) 20,000 dance bands in GB
🎭s immense pop. of dance hall
Influenced by US jazz bands (Duke Ellington).
(WW2) American musicians --> GB + AFN broadcast jazz & swing 🎵 across UK.
(1945) BBC (prev. broadcast _ 🎵) created Light Programme to broadcast light entertainment. & 🎵.
Ran as station until 1967 (replac. by Radio 2).
📻 1918-45 + how did BBC impact enertainment?
(1922-39) 🏠holds w/ receiver: 1% - 71% ∵ ⬆️ quality 📻receivers
BBC founded in 1927 as a ‘quango’
2 radio services - Nat. programme & Regional Programme - aimed @ gen. aud.
BBC established itself as a ‘public service broadcaster’ aimed to educ. & enrich listeners, <del>reflect their interests</del>.
Most staff <- 🏫 & Oxbridge backgrounds + heightened RP accents.
(1930s) BBC broadcast lectures, concerts & programmes thought beneficial to ordinary & to make them ⬆️cultured.
(John Reith - Managing Director) BBC should 'give the public slightly better than it thinks it likes.'
Monopoly on 📻 until 1973 ∴ programmes (monarch’s Christmas message & anniversary programme) acted as social cement.
📻→ focus for family entertainm. in 🏠; ⬆️ domestication of leisure.
Theme 4: Leisure & travel spectator sports, 1918-45
growth of spectator sports (1920s-30s)
Accessible
Availability cheap transport & ⬆️leisure 🕑 → ⬆️no. spectators.
(1920s-30s) Possible to 👓 major events (🏇) for free.
(Epsom, Aintree & Derby race courses) large free areas attracted crowds 200,000-500,000
22 mil. attended professional ⚽ PA.
Greyhound racing
(1933) Walthamstow Stadium built (greyhound racing track).
⬆️to 100,000 would attend to bet on their fav. 🐶s.
(1933) 6 mil. visited greyhound racing tracks
Developm. major areas for sporting events 🎭s spectator sports as means leisure had → central to WC way of life.
<del>Accessible</del>
(GD) ⚽, 🏉 & clubs in most deprived parts country had ⬇️🎟️ sales → diffic. survive financially
Alm. all 🏉 league clubs outside Yorkshire & Lancashire closed ∵ low attendance.
Only matches that had ⬆️500,000 spectators were held after worst of econ. crisis passed.
In contrast, MC audiences' sports thrived.
🏌️attracted large audiences: (1933) 50,000 paid to attend Ryder Cup.
👩 domestic responsibilities → had ⬇️ 🕑 for leisure than husbands ∴ audiences alm. exclusively 👨.
Preston North End FC had withdraw offer free 👩 tickets after 2000 👩 turned up.
Nevertheless, reflects culturally 👓n as 👨 realm.
sport & broadcasting
(1936) BBC began to broadcast live <- ⚽matches.
FA worried🧍would listen <- 🏠 & <del>attend matches</del>.
But 📻 broadcasts
💪ened & ⬆️mass participation in ⚽ & ⬆️ its audience → nat. sport
example of sport as morale boost during WW2
international
(Sept. 1944, shortly after liberation) FA Services ⚽ team played France & Belgium in their capital cities.
tourism 1930s
Many went to seaside for good of their health.
class divisions
WC → Margate, UC → Bournemouth
Acessible
⬆️affordability 🚗s → developm. tourism not reliant on🚂 travel to seaside resorts.
72,000 visited Lake District PA
Growth of cheap hiking holidays.
(1927) Youth Hostel Assoc. offered dormitory rooms & breakfast.
Butlins
(1936 Skegness) 1st holiday camp built
(1939) 200 holiday camps (6 ⬆️ by 1960s) providing holidays for 30,000 a week
Poor families could go away for 1st 🕑: ⬇️£4 per week ('week's holiday for a week's wages')
Few went abroad. Those who did went to exclusive locations (French Riviera)/ for tours of art galleries/museums in Italy/ Greece.
Despite growth leisure industries & ⬆️accessibility, leisure remained a sphere in which social <del>equalities</del> were dramatically highlighted.
1938 Holidays w/Pay Act
💪ly suggest employers pay for 3 consecutive days holiday.
⬆️ no. entitled to paid holidays <- 1.5 → 7.75 mil
Too short time substantially affect holidaymaking - most still weekends away @ seaside resorts.
Only 1/3 GB pop. --> holiday for week/⬆️.
🚗 1918-45
Accessible
Growth 🚗 ownership.
cheaper & smaller → motoring affordable for MC
(1922) small family 🚗 = £220
(1932) £120 - cheaper & smaller
(1939) 2 mil. private 🚗s on the road compared to 200,000 @ beg. decade
Still too expensive; mainly the domain of the MC.
WC may buy 2nd 🚗 (£40-£70)/ form syndicates to share cost & usage of 🚗.
⬆️🛣️ built
Mersey Tunnel (1934)
Great North 🛣️ (1939)
Few restrictions (driving tests only introd. 1934 🛣️ Traffic Act, anyone physically fit could drive) → popularised cars.
Still overwhelmingly 👨.
(1933) 👩 held 12% all priv. driving licenses
(1975) 29% compared to 61% 👨.
✈️ 1918-39 internat. travel
WW1 - rapid improvement in design ✈️.
1919 - flight a commercially viable option for travel
(Aug. 1919) 1st internat. air service
Air Transport & Travel flew 1 passenger <- Hounslow → Le Bouget for fare £21.
Flight expensive in interwar years - only rich could afford - ✈️ companies had to be propped up by the state:
1924 Imperial Airways subsidised by the government to promote image of British power
1935 British airways starts as a private company, had to be rescued by state
But demand low ∴ most air companies short-lived.
(1937) ⬇️250,000 passengers.
too expensive
Note 
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