Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1756 The Old Man Goes First

When southern Africa resumed work and production, the coalition government led by Ramsay MacDonald encountered a new round of political crisis in London, England.

By the end of 1927, the number of unemployed people in Britain had reached 125 million, and the situation was unprecedentedly severe.

By the beginning of 28, in just two months, the number of unemployed people in the UK doubled to 250 million, and dissatisfaction with the coalition government in the whole society reached its peak.

At this time, the coalition government led by Ramsay MacDonald still did not win the trust of the parliament. The obstruction of the Conservative Party created great difficulties for the proposal of the coalition government. The Liberal Party led by Lloyd George also unfairly distributed the rights of the coalition government. Disgruntled and think the Liberals should be given more power.

In fact, during the period after the outbreak of the economic crisis, the coalition government did nothing. Last year, the coalition government raised unemployment benefits to give more subsidies to the unemployed; at the same time, it passed a bill to improve the salaries and benefits of mining workers. A public response to the general strike.

At the same time, the coalition government also referred to southern Africa and legislated to clear the slums. This was the beginning of the coalition government losing popular support, because the coalition government only considered the clearance of the slums and did not follow-up policies targeting the poor. As a result, a large number of poor people lost their homes and lived on the streets. , the Conservative Party took the opportunity to attack the Labor Party, saying that the Labor Party was not worthy of representing the interests of ordinary people in the UK, and described Ramsay MacDonald as an opportunist who used public opinion to seek prestige in disputes.

Under such circumstances, the coalition government has been at a loss in the face of the economic crisis and has not come up with an effective response plan. This has also become one of the evidences for the Conservative Party to attack the coalition government.

In fact, Ramsey MacDonald cannot be blamed. The coalition government is inherently deficient. The Labor Party chose to coalesce with the Liberal Party in order to gain enough support. This paved the way for the plight of today's coalition government.

In the coalition cabinet, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden is a staunch supporter of orthodox economic policies and opposes the government's use of fiscal deficits as a means of stimulating the economy.

Opposing views in this regard were Liberal Party leader Lloyd George, Ramsay Macdonald's deputy Sir Oswald Maudsley, and the famous economist Keynes.

Lloyd George and Sir Maudsley, as well as Keynes, all suggested implementing economic policies similar to those in southern Africa to stimulate the British economy to recover from the economic crisis as soon as possible.

The reason is simple. Since southern Africa has achieved good results by using fiscal deficits to stimulate the economy, what reason does the British government have to refuse?
Philip Snowden is the chancellor, and he has an unspoken reason for not allowing anyone to meddle in financial matters.

Although Ramsey MacDonald is good at elections, he is a layman in economics. Facing the completely different opinions of Snowden, Keynes and others, Macdonald is in a dilemma.

Time came to 1928, and the situation in Britain became more and more difficult. On the one hand, the coalition government needed to try to maintain a balanced budget in order to keep the pound on the gold standard.

On the other hand, the Coalition Government is under pressure to increase spending to assist the growing poor and unemployed.

At the same time, the British government's revenue has gradually declined due to tax cuts.

In early January, Stanley Baldwin urged the Coalition government to make significant cuts in public spending in order to balance the government budget.

This demand killed Ramsay McDonald, and the Labor Party is counting on spending money everywhere to gain higher approval ratings. If there is a small amount of public expenditure, then all the work done by the Labor Party in the early stage will be in vain. This is Ramsay Macdonald would not have accepted it anyway.

But Ramsay Macdonald could not ignore the pressure of the parliament.

So in mid-January, Snowden commissioned Sir George May to chair a committee to investigate the financial spending of the coalition government.

Two months later, George May submitted a report urging the government to slash government employee compensation spending as soon as possible, while cutting public spending, which mainly includes cutting unemployment benefits, to avoid a fiscal deficit.

This report is known as the May Report.

Not to mention whether the "May Report" can solve the predicament facing the United Kingdom, as mentioned in the report, if the coalition government cuts government employee salaries and reduces unemployment benefits, then the coalition government will not only lose the unemployed The support of the coalition government, while losing the support of government employees, is tantamount to a disaster for the coalition government.

At the critical moment, Sir Maudsley, deputy of Ramsay Macdonald, suggested that the coalition government should control banks and imports, and increase pensions to enhance national consumption capacity. These demands were also not adopted by Ramsay Macdonald. So Sir Maudsley resigned angrily and set up a new party, the British Legal Silk Alliance.

When the news reached Pretoria, Rock was dumbfounded.

The UK already had the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, and now even the Communist Party. Roque couldn't understand it.

"I've said long ago that Ramsay Macdonald is a fool, and that was amply proven during his last prime minister—" Winston had returned to Pretoria from London, and in London During this period, Ramsey MacDonald made it clear that he hoped that Winston could use his status as governor to give more influence to the Federal Government of Southern Africa, but Winston explicitly rejected it.

Winston has clear love and hatred in this regard. He will not give any help to the Labor Party, even though the British Labor Party only nominally represents the interests of British workers.

This is the biggest problem in British politics. The Conservative Party does not represent the aristocracy, at least not all of them. The Labor Party does not represent the working class, but the emerging aristocracy mainly composed of the petty bourgeoisie. As for the Liberal Party——

The Liberal Party has fallen, and now everyone in the UK is afraid to talk about the Liberal Party, and there are strange emotions such as sighs and sighs mixed with schadenfreude.

The decline of half of the British political arena in the past to the point where it is today is not entirely a problem of the Liberal Party, but also related to the political environment. The decline of the Liberal Party indicates that the traditional economic model centered on "free trade" has lost its value. The interests may still be advocating "free trade," but most people will vote with their feet.

"He's not stupid, but forced to help—" Adelaide's eyes were complicated. It was the United Kingdom that he had vowed to fight for all his life, but now it has been reduced to what it is today. Adelaide, as a personal experience of the United Kingdom from its heyday to its gradual decline Or, can't tell what happened.

It's easy to tell if it's Roque, prosperity must decline——

"He hasn't figured out his position—" Philip rarely spoke, and it didn't look like Philip precisely.

After all, Philip is also the prime minister, and he has rich experience working in the UK. On the contrary, Ade spent most of his time working in the colonies, so Philip has a better understanding of British politics.

As mentioned above, the Labor Party is only under the banner of the Labor Party. Most of the Labor Party’s supporters are petty bourgeois and political speculators. Ramsay MacDonald was not fully prepared for the rapid rise of the Labor Party .

"Why doesn't the coalition government introduce national debt? If the coalition government introduces national debt, it should be able to solve a large part of the problem." Roque is also really strange. In Roque's view, Snowden has reached a desperate level in order to maintain the balance of fiscal expenditures. .

Maintaining fiscal balance is indeed very important, but it also depends on the situation. Although the British government is going downhill, after all, the accumulation of hundreds of years should not be underestimated, and it still has strength.

If the UK issues national debt, there should be many people willing to pay the bill, and the British government’s reputation is indeed good. Compared with Russia, which is completely reckless, and Germany, which is capricious, the UK is simply a pure and good person.

"Oh, Your Excellency the Prime Minister would like to, but the Congress will not give the Prime Minister the opportunity to issue national bonds." Winston sneered. Dissatisfied with getting too little power, and many Labor MPs are also dissatisfied with the coalition.

In the view of some Labor MPs, the Liberal Party has no value in coalition, and even if it is coalition, it should be coalition with the Conservative Party.

Here we can see the impracticality of some British people.

Even if the Labor Party wants to unite with the Conservative Party, it needs the consent of the Conservative Party.

As a result, something unexpected happened. On March 3, the coalition government voted on the "May Report", and half of the cabinet ministers agreed to implement the recommendations of the "May Report". The unanimous opposition of the guild.

Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson was particularly vehement, claiming that Arthur Henderson would resign if the Coalition Government implemented the May Report.

In view of the huge differences caused by the May report, on March 3, Ramsay Macdonald submitted his resignation letter to King George V. Don't rush to resign, I will go first.

George V agrees to Ramsay Macdonald's resignation.

Then an embarrassing thing happened. George V counted the big names in British politics, but he couldn't find a suitable successor.

I really can’t find it. The time came to March, and the economic crisis showed no signs of easing. The British economy continued to slump, and the parliament and the cabinet were seriously divided. Because the coalition government cut public expenditures, public dissatisfaction boiled over, and government employees were also very dissatisfied with the salary cuts. At this time It became clear that whoever came to power would be the scapegoat. George V tried to ask Stanley Baldwin's opinion to see if Stanley Baldwin intended to take over as prime minister to turn the situation around. As a result, Stanley Baldwin was hospitalized due to illness.

It's time to be sick.

(End of this chapter)