Why Did the Conservatives Loose the General Election of 1945?

In dealing with the economic depression of the 1930s, it is my opinion that the recovery of Britain was mainly due to the stages of rearmament in the run-up to the Second World War. This is not to say, however, that the National Government failed to combat the rises in unemployment, reaching a peak of three million, and the ruined staple industries, they implemented several policies to reboot the economy and lessen the impact on the people.

How successful were the national governments in bringing economic recovery in Britain in the years 1931-1939?

As well as labour disunity there are other factors to consider as to why conservatives dominated. Firstly, the reorganisation of the party machine led by Lord Woolton after the dislocation caused by the war and the shock defeat for the conservatives in 1946 proved pivotal for the conservatives in improving their ideas (new conservatives with new ideas) and general organisation.

By the looks of all the bad cases that happened during this time, it probably would have been better to have gone on without the depression. If the country would have had a stronger government with better thought processes and assistance, it could have easily been prevented. The Great Depression lasted from 1929-1939 and was a hard time for many Americans. It all started on October 29th, 1929, when the stock market crashed.

The 1906 UK general election was a shock event in British politics when the Liberal party not only beat the Conservative party but gained an unprecedented amount of their seats in Parliament. The Two main reasons for the Conservative loss , the 1902 Education Act and Tariff Reform, were both acts by the Conservatives themselves. Alongside these two reasons, the Liberal party also had a very successful opposition campaign which possibly could have won them the election on its own.

The election campaign in 1964 was a close run contest even though there was a low public approval of the current Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. The labour party only won a majority of 3 seats. The reason for the decline in support for the Conservative party was because of events and scandals such as the Profumo affair

The depression years of 1929 - 1939 proved to be the worst, and some of the best years for Canada and Canadians. It was a time of extreme highs and lows socially, emotionally, and economically. It was a time that Canada came into her own being on the world wide stage.

The Labour government of 1974-1979 also won two elections, the 1974 February election and the 1974 October election, however both were won by a minority. The February election was won by 4 seats and the October election was won by 42 seats. The reason for the slim win is to do with inflation. The Labour governments of 1974-1979 were in office at a bad time because Britain had started to suffer from huge inflation because of the oil price rise in 1973, and so voters didn’t have a clear decision on which they were going to vote for. This shows that at the moment the 1964-1970 Labour Government was more successful by far because of their majority of 110 seats in the 1966 election.

There were lengthy lines for handouts of food and cloths, the goverment did little to help they did not think it was their job to help poor people. FDR won the presidential election in 1932 and started to make jobs for people, the Great Depression lingered past 1940.

This would mean that wartime coalition ministers from all major parties were far more willing to cooperate with each other. Paul Addison (1975) argued that pre-war and wartime conditions led to a unique situation in post war Britain which led to a coming together of thinking in politics and society. This was strongly influenced by the Beveridge Report’s ‘Five Giants’. As mentioned before, this cooperation was also aided by the fact that fears of an extreme Labour government in 1945 had been disproved, meaning that key policy makers in the Conservative Government could be seen to be ‘One Nation Tories’; keen to build on national cooperation to maintain and essential post war consensus. Another fundamental aspect of post war consensus was the idea of the necessity of a ‘Big Government’; many Conservatives were now convinced of the government intervention in social and economic policies, resulting in them being far more in tune with public opinion and so accepted Labour's welfare policies such as Keynesian economics. With regard to Winston Churchill, his government were seen to indeed follow Keynesian economics, but

The Great Depression was a time of tragedy and despair. There are several factors, which have contributed to the health of the nation during the Great Depression. While there were setbacks, there were also improvements during this time. Disabling diseases were more common in low-income families. However, cures for diseases were also found. Studies have found that the life expectancy increased during and after the great depression.

Whilst there is definitely evidence of economic development in the mid-1920’s it did also experience financial issues. The increase in unemployment, 15% of the workforce were unemployed by 1929, put a heavy strain on the welfare system of Weimar Germany. The institution for paying unemployment benefits had to borrow money from the Government, 342 million reichsmarks, and the parties could not agree how to find this money. The SPD would increase taxes while the DVP would cut benefits. This can be seen as a backwards move in economic development, as the system did not address the problem of unemployment, but just found more money to pay it, with the decision of how to pay for the unemployment benefits was delayed until 1930. This can be seen as the government almost

Prior to the great depression, the U.S. economy alternated between periods of prosperity and sharp economic decline. During the great depression, aggregate demand dropped sharply, causing the price level and real GOP to decline. As aggregate output declined, the unemployment rate jumped, climbing from around 3 percent in 1929 to 25 percent in1933.

Churchill was appointed a member of the War Cabinet and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1939 and by 1940 he became a chairman of the Military Coordinating Committee. On May 10th King George VI appointed Churchill as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. It wasn't long before Britain realized it stood almost entirely alone against Hitler. Churchill took action by forming a coalition cabinet of leaders from the Labor, Liberal and Conservative parties, placing intelligent and talented men in key positions. He was essential in keeping resistance to Nazi dominance alive and well flamed which helped to create an alliance with the United States and the Soviet Union.

While Churchill was the present of the Board of Trade, he heavily expanded the military. By the early 1910’s, he was expecting war from Germany. “On August 2, 1914, on his own responsibility, he ordered the naval mobilization that guaranteed complete readiness when war was declared.” (Nicholas) By 1917 in the final year of the war, he was appointed minister of munitions. He oversaw the production of tanks, airplanes and munitions. After the war, he served as minster of war from 1919 to 1922. He was also the colonial secretary under David Lloyd George. Because of fractures in the Liberal Party, Churchill was not reelected as member of parliament in 1922, so he rejoined the Conservative Party. This was short lasted however, by 1929 the British conservative government had been defeated and Churchill was cast