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Post by mick745 on Jan 31, 2015 11:30:54 GMT
I have always wondered what would have happened if the Labour Cabinet had agreed to the May Report in August 1931, the Labour Government would have continued, there would have been no splits in the Labour Party or Liberal Party and there would have been no National Government formed. The landslide election of 1931 would not have happened, no wipeout of the Labour Party at that election, there may not have been an election until 1933 or 1934 which would have meant another one in 1938-39, maybe therefore there would have been no landslide labour victory in 1945?
Your thoughts?
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The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 36,540
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Post by The Bishop on Jan 31, 2015 11:34:03 GMT
Those splits didn't happen on a whim though, the report was far from universally popular.
Had the party top brass gritted their teeth and collectively endorsed it, the possibility of a serious alternative emerging to Labour's left must have been there.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jan 31, 2015 11:59:29 GMT
The Bishop is right. Remember that the Labour members of the May committee had already dissented before the report was published, and made their own minority report (you'll find it on pages 227-271 of your copy).
The Labour government of 1929-31 was not in a strong position politically to begin with - it had no majority and relied on deals with the Liberal Party, which was agitating for something more formal and for some specific policies. Meanwhile the left, specifically the ILP, were agitating for a much firmer policy and had just agreed in effect to set up a separate ILP whip to which their MPs should adhere if it disagreed with the official Labour Party one.
Some sort of crunch was inevitable. In the event both ends departed, but arguably the total loss of personnel was minimised. Had the Labour Party gone for the May report whole hog, including the benefit cuts, the ILP succession may well have taken far more.
A more interesting question is what would have happened had the Cabinet voted almost entirely against the May Report. Snowden would have resigned but he was going to leave active politics anyway. The Liberals would probably have gone over to the Conservatives and voted the government out; there would have been a 1931 landslide election but without any significant 'National Labour' element.
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Post by timrollpickering on Apr 2, 2016 17:56:43 GMT
There was also the growing split in the Liberal Party with a group around Sir John Simon becoming increasingly hostile to both Lloyd George's leadership and the Labour government. In reality this spawned the Liberal National grouping and in the what if scenario a Liberal divide combined with an ILP revolt could have killed the government in the Commons.
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