National Government
The term National Government [ ˈnæʃnəl ˈgʌvənmənt ] describes a period in British political history with multi-party governments - in contrast to the one-party governments, which are the rule there. The general meaning of national government is “national government”, the government at the nation-state level.
The UK political system , following the general election, assigns the largest party to the ruling party with the Prime Minister and his cabinet; the second largest party - the "election losers" - remains the role of the opposition. Due to the majority voting right, other parties often only have a few MPs, today for example regional parties in Scotland or earlier on the (entire) island of Ireland.
After the British general election of 1929, the two major parties had 547 of the 615 seats in the lower house, the Conservatives 260 and the Labor Party 287, the latter taking over government. The formerly strong Liberal Party had won 23.6 percent of the vote, but it only had 59 members. In the summer of 1931 (a high phase of the Great Depression ), Ramsay MacDonald formed the first government made up of politicians from the three major parties. This officiated for 2193 days; After the 1935 elections, there was a National Government from June 7, 1935 to May 28, 1937 under Stanley Baldwin and from May 28, 1937 to September 3, 1939, under Neville Chamberlain . With the entry of Great Britain into the Second World War, the reorganization to the war government Chamberlain followed .
The coalition governments from 1931 until the start of the war
A fall in prices on Wall Street ( Black Friday , in the USA: Black Thursday ) heralded an economic crisis (" Great Depression "), from which Great Britain was particularly hard hit. The Labor -Regierung of Ramsay MacDonald had to weigh between competing economic objectives, as magic square be called: balance the state budget, to counter unemployment, promote economic growth (or fight recession) and the external value of the pound sterling secure (GBP) (see also Magic square). The latter was particularly difficult because the GBP had been overvalued in previous years (more in the article gold convertibility ).
There was a run on the banks and political and economic unrest; the GBP fell. On August 24, 1931, the government had to resign because an important cabinet vote had brought the disagreement to light. During the political crisis, talks between the conservative and liberal party leaders with King George V and MacDonald ultimately led to the next government being made up of “men from all parties” with the particular aim of balancing the budget, but only as a transitional government up to one election of the lower house to October 27, 1931 . A cabinet of only ten ministers ( First National ministry ) was appointed on August 25, in which the ministerial posts were divided 4: 3: 3 between the three parties. There were strong reservations in the Labor Party against this cabinet. On September 19, 1931 the gold convertibility of the GBP was suspended. This resulted in a deliberate devaluation of the GBP by 25% ( competitive devaluation ), which significantly improved the competitive position of Great Britain at the expense of the gold standard countries ( Beggar-thy-Neighbor policy ).
The Labor Party was so opposed to the First National ministry that it expelled all four cabinet members (Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden , Lord Sankey and James Henry Thomas) from the party.
The early general election brought the Conservative Party 387 of the 615 seats, an absolute majority. Labor received 38% of the vote but only 25% of the seats (a consequence of the majority voting system ). MacDonald remained Prime Minister and formed the Second National ministry . In addition to the problems mentioned, the government also had to deal with questions relating to the world empire (“British Empire”). The colony of British India demanded more independence (details here ).
On June 7, 1935, MacDonald, who had suffered severe health problems, resigned. Stanley Baldwin of the Conservatives assumed the office of Prime Minister (now for the third time in his career) and formed the Third National ministry . Baldwin had already been seen as the gray eminence of the previous government, whose policy he (as the “secret prime minister”) had a major say. The events surrounding the new King Edward VIII also occurred during his term of office . Baldwin strongly advocated Edward's abdication in December 1936. Baldwin resigned on May 27, 1937, two weeks after the coronation of the new King George VI. and just before his 70th birthday, returned and retired.
His successor as Prime Minister was the previous Chancellor Arthur Neville Chamberlain , also from the Conservative Party. It went down in history mainly with its controversial appeasement policy. With Chamberlain's Fourth National Ministry the period of the 'National Governments' came to an end; the aforementioned war cabinets followed.
The party system during this period
The political (and economic, societal) crisis of the 1930s and the national government led to splits and party formation, which was documented in the general election of 1935 , the last before the war, as in the previous ones in 1931. New parties of this time are:
- The National Labor Organization , co-founded by Ramsay MacDonald in 1931 after he was expelled from the party.
- The National Liberal Party (Nationalliberalen), a split from the Liberal Party , also supports the National Government .
- The Independent Labor Party , like the Labor Party in opposition.