"Committee to help co-ordinate responses to government action during the 1926 general strike. In Parliament, he became a front bench spokesman on trade, staunchly criticising the protectionist policies of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill. He also spoke on agriculture, local government and on social security, where he called for increased welfare, citing the suffering of his own constituents during the depression. In early 1929, Alexander applied for the position of General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, but was beaten by Robert Palmer. Within weeks, he became a member of the cabinet in the second Labour government. Although many"
"""Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat."" Churchill was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924 under Stanley Baldwin and oversaw Britain's disastrous return to the gold standard, which resulted in deflation, unemployment, and the miners' strike that led to the General Strike of 1926. His decision, announced in the 1924 budget, came after long consultation with treasury officials, various economists, and the board of the Bank of England. Churchill was sceptical about the benefits of returning to the gold standard, and widely questioned the almost unanimous advice he was receiving that it was necessary. The"
"Hugh Dalton Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1930s, opposing pacifism and promoting rearmament against the German threat, and strongly opposed the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938. Dalton served in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition cabinet; after the Dunkirk evacuation he was Minister of Economic Warfare, and established the Special Operations Executive. As Chancellor, he pushed his policy of cheap money too"
"1926 United Kingdom general strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 3 May 1926 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and heavy industry. The government was prepared and enlisted middle class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up"
"time there went up a cry, ""Hands off Russia"", I think it's time somebody said to Russia, ""Hands off England"". Baldwin's new Cabinet now included many former political associates of Lloyd George: former Coalition Conservatives: Austen Chamberlain (as Foreign Secretary), Lord Birkenhead (Secretary for India) and Arthur Balfour (Lord President after 1925), and the former Liberal Winston Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer. This period included the General Strike of 1926, a crisis that the government managed to weather, despite the havoc it caused throughout the UK. Baldwin created the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies, a volunteer body of"
"Anthony Barber Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber, TD, PC, DL (4 July 1920 – 16 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. After serving in both the Territorial Army and the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, Barber studied at Oxford and became a barrister. Elected as MP for Doncaster in 1951, Barber held various posts in government under Harold Macmillan, including Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister of Health. After losing his seat in 1964, he won the 1965 by-election in Altrincham and"
"A. J. Cook (trade unionist) Arthur James Cook (22 November 1883 – 2 November 1931), known as A. J. Cook, was a British trade union leader who was General Secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain from 1924 until 1931, a period that included the 1926 General Strike. A.J. Cook was born to Thomas and Selina Cook in Wookey, Somerset. He spent the early part of his life in the West Country. Cook later described his childhood as a troubled one, which included both a poor relationship with his family as well as a struggle in school. As a"
"Alistair Darling Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 2007-2010 and as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1987 until he stepped down in 2015, most recently for Edinburgh South West. He was one of only three people to have served in the Cabinet continuously from Labour's landslide victory at the 1997 general election until their defeat at the 2010 general election; the other two were Gordon Brown and Jack Straw. Darling was first appointed as Chief Secretary"
"more competition in export markets, the return to the pre-war exchange was estimated to add up to ten percent in costs to the industry. In July 1925, a Commission of Inquiry report generally favoured the miners' position rather than that of the mine owners. With Churchill's support Baldwin proposed a subsidy to the coal industry, while a Royal Commission under Herbert Samuel prepared a further report. The Samuel Commission solved nothing, and the miners' dispute led to the General Strike of 1926. Churchill edited the Government's newspaper, the ""British Gazette"", and was one of the more hawkish members of the"
"subsidy to maintain wages at the July 1925 level. The commission took no representations from the MFGB and the government built up coal supplies until the report was published in March 1926. The MFGB rejected the report's proposals and its general secretary A. J. Cook coined the slogan, ""Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day!"". The colliery owners locked out more than one million miners, a ""state of emergency"" was declared and the General Strike began in April 1926. The strike lasted seven months. Despite support from many organisations including local communities, the Labour Party"
"railways to form the National Union of Railwaymen (now part of the RMT). Thomas was elected NUR general secretary in 1916, a post he held until 1931. Thomas was general secretary during the successful national rail strike of 1919 that was jointly called by the NUR and ASLEF against proposed wage reductions. In 1921 Thomas played a leading role in the Black Friday crisis, in which rail and transport unions failed to come to the aid of the mineworkers, who were facing wage reductions. Before the 1926 General Strike the TUC asked Thomas to negotiate with Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Government,"
"act play “The Two Gentlemen of Soho” (1927). During the General Strike of 1926, he was a leading organizer of the systems that maintained supplies and law and order, although there is some evidence that left to himself he would have pursued a more hawkish policy – most notably, his repeated appeals for more volunteer constables and his attempt to close down the ""Daily Herald"". Having been a hardliner during the General Strike he remained a staunch anti-communist thereafter, although the left appear to have warmed a little to him over the Prayer Book controversy. Against the wishes of Foreign"
"Hugh Gaitskell Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician and Leader of the Labour Party. An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, he was elected to Parliament in 1945 and held office in Clement Attlee's governments, notably as Minister of Fuel and Power after the bitter winter of 1946–47, and eventually joining the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Facing the need to increase military spending in 1951, he imposed National Health Service charges on dentures and spectacles, prompting the leading left-winger Aneurin Bevan to resign from the Cabinet. The perceived similarity"
"Griffith-Boscawen, the Minister of Health, lost his seat in the 1922 general election and failed to win a by-election in March 1923, Bonar Law offered the position within the Cabinet to Chamberlain. Two months later, Bonar Law was diagnosed with advanced, terminal throat cancer. He immediately resigned, and was replaced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin. In August 1923, Baldwin promoted Chamberlain to the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Chamberlain served only five months in the office before the Conservatives were defeated in the 1923 general election. Ramsay MacDonald became the first Labour Prime Minister, but the Labour"
"Chancellor of the Exchequer Michael Hicks-Beach in 1895, a job he held before becoming Parliamentary Charity Commissioner in 1900, serving until 1905. Griffith-Boscawen may have been influential in helping to choose Alfred Milner as the new Governor-General for the Cape. The aged Lord Rosmead was retiring, leaving the government, and Chamberlain in particular desperate to find a replacement. The choice of Milner, a brilliant Oxford scholar, was universally acclaimed in parliament as a shrewd option; the candidate was warmly praised for his courage in coming forward during the Jameson Raid crisis. Griffith-Boscawen lost his Tunbridge seat in the 1906 general"
"power in 1924. As Attorney-General, Hogg guided the Trade Disputes Act of 1927 through the House of Commons after the general strike of 1926 which had ended with large-scale unemployment while those still employed were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages, and district wage agreements. The Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act made mass picketing and all sympathetic strikes illegal and directed that union members had to contract into any political levy. It also forbade civil service unions from affiliating with the Trades Union Congress. On 29 March 1928, Hogg became Lord Chancellor in Stanley Baldwin's government, succeeding to"
"Hugh Childers Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (25 June 1827 – 29 January 1896) was a British Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for his reform efforts at the Admiralty and the War Office. Later in his career, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his attempt to correct a budget shortfall led to the fall of the Liberal government led by William Ewart Gladstone. Childers was born in London, the son of Reverend Eardley Childers and his wife Maria Charlotte (""née"" Smith), sister of Sir Culling Eardley, 3rd Baronet and granddaughter of Sampson Eardley, 1st Baron Eardley."
"it a mistake. They decided that action by political parties was a better solution. However, the country came close to a one-day general strike on 31 July 1972. over the imprisonment of the Pentonville Five. 1926 United Kingdom general strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 3 May 1926 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal"
"the general strike of 1926, Churchill was reported to have suggested that machine guns be used on the striking miners. Churchill edited the government's newspaper, the ""British Gazette"", and, during the dispute, he argued that ""either the country will break the general strike, or the general strike will break the country."" Furthermore, he controversially claimed that the fascism of Benito Mussolini had ""rendered a service to the whole world,"" showing, as it had, ""a way to combat subversive forces""—that is, he considered Mussolini's regime to be a bulwark against the perceived threat of Communist revolution. At one point, Churchill went"
"into use in 1921 when the Triple Alliance (the predecessor of the TUC) called a strike over a wage dispute. The Lloyd George government declared a state of emergency and sent troops to the strikers' areas. Three days later on 21 April the Triple Alliance called off the strike, which became known as 'Black Friday'. The Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald was tempted to use the Act in 1924 when the dockers and tramwaymen went on strike. The Act was extensively used during the General Strike of 1926, after a state of emergency was proclaimed on 30 April 1926 on"
"James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, (; 27 March 1912 – 26 March 2005), often known as Jim Callaghan, served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is, to date, the only British politician to have served in all four of the Great Offices of State, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer (1964–1967), Home Secretary (1967–1970), and Foreign Secretary (1974–1976) prior to his appointment as Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, he had some successes, but is mainly remembered for the ""Winter of"
"of its National Executive Committee from 1919 until 1929, and served as Chair of the Labour Party in 1924/5. The following year, he was elected as President of the International Transport Workers' Federation. In 1929, he was elected to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, serving for three years, thereby swapping positions with Thomas. In 1931, Thomas was given a ministerial position, and Cramp took over as General Secretary, but he died suddenly two years later. Charlie Cramp Concemore Thomas Thwaites Cramp (19 March 1876–13 July 1933), known as Charlie Cramp, was a British trade unionist and political"
"well as imposing uniform standards for assessment. Despite policy differences Chamberlain continued to work with Churchill, who showed him the manuscript of a volume of his heavily autobiographical ""The World Crisis"". Churchill confided that he would have wished for two more years to revise the manuscript; Chamberlain wrote to his sisters that he could have done the job in two hours—with a pair of scissors. Though Chamberlain struck a conciliatory note during the 1926 General Strike, in general he had poor relations with the Labour opposition. Future Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee complained that Chamberlain ""always treated us like dirt"","
"commissioned Temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service (Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve), and specialised in airships. He was promoted Temporary Lieutenant-Commander in February 1917 and ended the First World War as Deputy Director of Aircraft Production at the Admiralty with the rank of Captain. On the formation of the Royal Air Force in 1918 he stayed in the Royal Navy instead of transferring to the RAF with most other RNAS officers. After the war he returned to Conservative Party headquarters and was appointed Honorary Principal Agent in 1920. He headed the government's ""British Gazette"" during the 1926 General Strike."
"Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was a British statesman and Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. He was the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. In 1940, Attlee took Labour into the wartime coalition government and served under Winston Churchill, becoming, in 1942, the first person to hold the office of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He went on to lead the Labour Party to an unexpected landslide victory at the 1945 general election; forming"
"stabilization of the sugar and farming industries. On the resignation of Theodore, Gillies became premier on 26 February 1925, taking the positions of chief secretary and treasurer, and vice-president of the executive council. He was premier during a period of great labour unrest with constantly occurring strikes. Gillies was a man of moderate views and he found the more extreme section of the party very active, and he was beset with anxieties. He compromised as much as possible, but on 27 October 1925 was glad to resign and become a member of the newly established board of trade and arbitration."
"human dignity and the environment, and for the major role he has played in helping to stabilise the world's financial system"". Speeches Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Blair Government from 1997 to 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his"
"agreement was reached and, when the commission reported in June 1919, it offered four separate approaches ranging from full nationalisation to untrammelled private ownership. Money unsuccessfully fought the Stockport by-election for Labour in a seven-sided contest in 1920. Money did not hold ministerial office nor sit in Parliament again after 1918. Therefore, with Lloyd George being forced out as Prime Minister in 1922, his political career was effectively over by the early 1920s. He continued to work as a financial journalist and author, and contributed views in other ways. For example, in 1926 (the year of the General Strike), he"
"in May 1936, attacked the Government of then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, for its less-than-enthusiastic attitude in aiding 'distressed areas' – those parts of the UK that were suffering from extreme economic difficulties, with unemployment rates as high as 40%. In 1936, he delivered a stinging rebuke to the Treasury for balancing the budget on the backs of Britain's poor, attacking Neville Chamberlain, then serving as Baldwin's Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite Chamberlain's role in Cartland's selection as a Conservative candidate. After Chamberlain succeeded Baldwin as Prime Minister, Cartland earned the wrath of the Conservative Party's hierarchy by taking a"
"in descending order of rank: Historically, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was also the First Lord of the Treasury, and usually by extension Prime Minister as well. However the increasing sophistication of government spending led to the development of the chancellorship into a more refined position of finance minister, and so gradually particularised the office in a way less suitable for headship of the ministry overall. The last Chancellor-Prime Minister was Stanley Baldwin in 1923, and then only very briefly - the last substantive overlap was William Gladstone in 1880-1882. A more immediately significant trend though was the rebalancing of"
"as the housing supply increased, but the restrictions remained in force until 1933, when a new scheme was enacted. In May 1923, Bonar Law was diagnosed with advanced terminal throat cancer. He immediately resigned, and King George V sent for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stanley Baldwin, to form a government. Baldwin served as his own Chancellor for three months while he sought a successor and then promoted Chamberlain to the position. Chamberlain had little time for any policy changes, as he served only five months in the office and did not present a budget. Though the Unionists had an"
"George Cave, 1st Viscount Cave George Cave, 1st Viscount Cave, (23 February 1856 – 29 March 1928) was a British lawyer and Conservative politician. He was Home Secretary under David Lloyd George from 1916 to 1919 and served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain from 1922 to 1924 and again from 1924 to 1928. Cave was born in London, the son of Thomas Cave, Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Shallcrass. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London and St John's College, Oxford. After being called to the bar in 1880, he"
"David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. He was the final Liberal to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–1915) during H. H. Asquith's tenure as Prime Minister, Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916–22), during and immediately after the First World War."