The Success of the First Two Labour Governments was Outweighed by the
Failures in Britain
The success of Labour's governments during its two terms in power, in
the 1920's easily outweighed its failures and shortcomings, in
Britain. This was a Labour government that introduced the idea of free
mass secondary education, built over half a million houses, and
through Labour established Britain as a major player in European and
World politics. The Labour government were in power at the time of the
Great Depression, and their failure to address the serious economic
crisis bought about as a result of an economic downturn, following the
short boom after the war, may be seen as a severe weakness in the
second government. However, these flaws may be seen as a small aspect
of the overall policy of the Labour government, and cannot out-way the
long-term success of their social and political policy plans.
When Labour first came in to power in 1924 they introduced many new
policies, which were definite achievements, one such example, would be
'John Wheatley's Housing Act', which provided £9 million p.a. for
local councils to build new homes. By 1933 well over 500,000 houses
had been built, providing much needed shelter and accommodation for
the poor and homeless. Some other imported achievement by the Labour
government, were the rising of pensions and unemployment benefit. In
addition the gap between the 2, 16-week periods of unemployment
benefit was abolished. This meant that the unemployed could stay of
work for up to 32 weeks consecutively in a single year, giving them a
much needed income. However, many still felt that the number of 32
we...
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... the disagreement of the Liberals and the Tory party. The second term
in power, was unduly hard due to the Wall Street Crash, happening in
an already crumbling economy. It is therefore necessary to look at the
achievements introduced by the Labour government, the way in which
they affected Britain. The government improved working conditions, and
education for the poorer people of Britain, and it implemented many
housing laws, which housed near to a million families, therefore I
believe that for the era, with an unchanging Conservative party who
were happy with things being left as it was, and a disputing Liberal
Party, Labour were as good a choice as any other party, and probably
did more for the poorer echelons of British society than the other
parties would have, at a time when the poor were particularly
vulnerable.
Do you agree that the failure of the 1886 Home Rule Bill was due to ‘tactical mistakes’ made by Gladstone?
who had been seen by many Tories as a future leader of the party lost
In recent times the in the UK we have seen the more frequent use of
In the 1906 election, the number of seats won by Liberals increased from 184 to 377, in contrast the numbers of seats lost by the Conservatives went from 402 seats won in 1900 to 157 seats lost in the 1906 election, this represented the lowest number of seats held by a Conservative government since 1832. This dramatic reversal of constituencies held, is due to a number of reasons. An argument is that, due to some poor decisions made by the Conservative governments, they in fact contributed largely to the landslide result in the 1906 election. ‘They were in effect the architects to the own downfall.’
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the start of the great depression which hit America and much of the industrialised world during the 1930’s. The cycle of prosperity turned into a spiral of depression as consumer spending fell by almost half, unemployment rose to over 12 million and there was widespread poverty and homelessness. The Hoover government’s ‘rugged individualism’ meant that people did not receive any relief from the federal government and led to a loss in support for Hoover as people blamed him for their problems. After his landslide victory in 1932, President Roosevelt vowed that through his reforms and economic policies, America would return to the road of prosperity. In 1933 he set out the ‘New Deal’ which sought to deliver relief, recovery, and reform. It could be argued that although the New Deal was effective in certain aspects such as short term relief, it did not end the depression; rather the war was the decisive factor.
roots and is by no means as socialist as it was. But is it still
middle of paper ... ... d therefore the smaller parties can be considered to have very little effect on the overall political situation. In conclusion, the UK can still best be described as a two party system, provided two considerations are taken into account. The first is that Conservative dominance victories between 1979-97 was not a suggestion of party dominance and that eventually, the swing of the political pendulum will be even for both sides. This can perhaps be seen today with Labour's two landslide victories in 1997 and 2001.
With Herbert Hoover in office at the time of the crash of 1929, he believed it was not the government’s responsibility to get involved in helping the millions of Americans affected by this national crisis. However with elections coming up, Americans believed in a time for change. Franklin D. Roosevelt saw a chance to help save the American people and bring this nation of suffering back to a once thriving, prospering nation. With his election in 1932, he brought with him his plan, and this plan was the New Deal. He implemented twenty-five programs to aid Americans get back on their feet. Banks were closing, millions were out of jobs, and housing markets were closing. I saw three programs he developed helping millions of Americans with jobs. Through the lack of jobs created the lack of revenue which in turn was needed for the banks to survive to furnish loans for houses. The people needed a fresh start, and FDR, along with his cabinet members, facilitated a new beginning.
FDR began to pass new laws and acts to improve the everyday life of an American, which was destroyed because of the depression. Americans began to descend into poverty, during economic decline, many lost their jobs and homes. In April 1935, “FDR signs legislation creating the Works Progress Administration. The program employs more than 8.5 million individuals in 3,000 counties across the nation”(http://www.pbs.org). This was the start of FDR’s progress in improving everyday life. The WPA created jobs for individuals who were unemployed. This began to promote general welfare because more people began having jobs to support the economy. One of the biggest acts passed during the Depression, which still impacts us today is the Social Security Act. Kenneth S. Davis, historian, calls the Social Security act "one of the major turning points of American history”(http://www.pbs.org). Social Securit...
...l deficit and Bennett cut back on government spending. A great burden on the country was Canadian National Railway, the government had to take over many railways and from that took in a debt of over two billion dollars. After seeing president Roosevelt's New Deal policy having good results in the U.S. Bennett introduced policies based on the New Deal. Bennett started up minimum wage and unemployment insurance. However Bennetts attempts to revive the economy were not nearly as successful as Roosevelt's. as a result the depression was worse in Canada than in the U.S., and this led to the defeat of Bennett in the 1935 election to liberal Mackenzie King. Like in the U.S. the Great Depression did not end until the outbreak of the second world war. A boost in the economy was created by a strong demand of Canadian goods in Europe and an increase of government spending.(ibid)
The stock market crash of October 1929 brought the economic prosperity of the 1920s to an abrupt halt. For the next ten years, the United States was thrown into a deep economic depression. By 1933, the unemployment rate had soared to 25%, up from 3% in 1929. Industrial production declined by approximately 50%, and international trade plunged 30%. This period in history is known as The Great Depression. The Great Depression plunged the American people into an economic crisis unlike anyone had ever experienced in history. Millions of hardworking individuals fell into poverty. Many lost their homes and lived on the street. Many more suffered from mass starvation. Overall, people lost their sense of pride and national spirit for America. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, when the economy was in a time of complete failure. Right away, Roosevelt took to not only helping the economy but also reviving the American morale after this tough era. Roosevelt implemented a series of executive actions, creating programs and new Federal agencies to help revive the economy. Together this was called The New Deal. One of the agencies that was created was called The Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was created in order to put millions of unemployed Americans to work through governmental projects. Over a period of 8 years, the WPA spent over 3.3 billion dollars on public projects, some of which are still used today. Simultaneously as the United States struggled valiantly to climb out of the Great Depression, the threat of another crisis, a World War, loomed over the US. In June of 1939, the United States army only had 185,000 men enlisted. The need for a stronger, m...
The New Deal, established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, was a series of programs put into affect to fix the Great Depression that the United States was currently in. Beginning with the crash of the stock market on October 29, 1929, America was plunged into its most severe economic downturn yet. Roosevelt developed this plan to save the country. At this time the people of America were in a huge economic unrest. Most in America were homeless or unemployed. Roosevelt created his programs to help these exact people from poverty. He assured the people of America that his programs would help the crumbling economy, mass unemployment, and low wages. This chain of programs raised both nationalism and national character throughout America for a few years. The author of this excerpt had a very negative view of FDR’s work and critiqued every program within the New Deal. Roosevelt’s programs have many long-term consequences, some of which are still in effect today. Most of the programs still in action were modified in the 1960’s, these are the present day welfare programs that most people are accustomed to. While the New Deal was not entirely successful, Franklin D. Roosevelt did the best he could with the time and circumstances given.
The era of the Great Depression was by far the worst shape the United States had ever been in, both economically and physically. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and began to bring relief with his New Deal. In his first 100 days as President, sixteen pieces of legislation were passed by Congress, the most to be passed in a short amount of time. Roosevelt was re-elected twice, and quickly gained the trust of the American people. Many of the New Deal policies helped the United States economy greatly, but some did not. One particularly contradictory act was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was later declared unconstitutional by Congress. Many things also stayed very consistent in the New Deal. For example, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security, since Americans were looking for any help they could get, these acts weren't seen as a detrimental at first. Overall, Roosevelt's New Deal was a success, but it also hit its stumbling points.
In short, despite other uncontrollable factors, US government could have done a better job of preventing the Great Depression from happening. The depression was not inevitable in some sense. And the effects of the New Deal is questionable. The purpose of studying the past is to learn from the mistakes and move on. Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. -----George Bernard Shaw h
of the affairs in the way that he did - for example Ireland - as some