Britain Transformed

• Prime Ministers over the decades

  • 1918 - David Lloyd George (1916-1922)
  • 1922 - Andrew Bonar Law (1922-1923)
  • 1923 - Stanley Baldwin (1923-1924)
  • 1924 - Ramsay MacDonald (1924)
  • 1924 - Stanley Baldwin (1924-1929)
  • 1929 - Ramsay MacDonald (1929-1935)
  • 1935 - Stanley Baldwin (1935-1937)
  • 1937 - Neville Chamberlain (1937-1940)
  • 1940 - Winston Churchill (1940-1945)
  • 1945 - Clement Attlee (1945-1951)
  • 1951 - Winston Churchill (1951-1955)
  • 1955 - Anthony Eden (1955-1957)
  • 1957 - Harold Macmillan (1957-1963)
  • 1963 - Alec Douglas-Home (1963-1964)
  • 1964 - Harold Wilson (1964-1970)
  • 1970 - Edward Heath (1970-1974)
  • 1974 - Harold Wilson (1974-76)
  • 1976 - James Callaghan (1976-1979)
  • 1979 - Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990)
• Party colour codes


  Conservative (Tories), Labour and Liberal, National Government and wartime coalition
• Representation of the People's Act - almost all working class men and some women could now vote. Electorate tripled; Tories now have to appeal to working class, reform into a party of self-improvement via property ownership (previously associated with landed gentry)


  1918
• Pre-WW1 unrest over women's suffrage, Home Rule in Ireland and militant trade union movement; returned after WW1
• War divided the Liberal Party
• Many opposed growing power of the state, esp concerning conscription (this was considered illiberal)
• From 1915 onwards, Liberals formed wartime coalition w/ Tories, many Lib MPs believed DLG had abandoned traditional Liberal principles and become too close to Tories
• In 1918 election, DLG campaigned against Lib MPs who opposed him, splitting the party's vote
• Loss of Lib appeal to their traditional voters - artisan working class and middle classes
• Labour Party - 40 MPs after 1910 Election
• Gov allowed wages for MPs after 1911; easier for WC politicians to be represented in Parliament
• Labour voter base increased exponentially post-Representation of the People's Act due to expansion of electorate
• Tories a part of wartime coalition with Liberals from 1915-1918
• Large amounts of votes from property-owning, upper/middle class women; Tories encouraged this engagement
• 1918 Election: DLG-supporting Liberal-Tory wartime coalition vs Labour and Lib opposition
• Winner: Coalition, by a landslide, with most of the votes gained by the Tories
• Caused a collapse in Opposition Lib vote; along with the rise of Labour and Coalition Lib promise of reform
• Britain heavily damaged by war
• Did not expect war to go on for so long and demand so many resources
• Owed US huge amounts of money due to them loaning them
• Cut off from valuable export markets by German U-boats (sank 40% of Brit merchant shipping)
• In 1914, exports were ⅓ of Brit wealth, as opposed to ⅕ in 1918
• Brit industries had been forced to switch to war production instead of supplying export markets
• 750k men had died during the war - massive blow to economic output
• Total financial cost of war: £3.25 bil
• Short lived economic boom ending in a recession in 1920
• Consumers bought luxury items they had not previously enjoyed due to war rationing and restrictions
• Businesses and individuals had considerable savings in cash and bonds due to being unable to spend during WW1
• Speculative boom - businesses issued new shares for traders, investors and other businesses; more new money in London stock money than in any other time in history
• New shares issued increased from £65 mil in 1918 to £384 mil in 1920
• Investors keen to buy Brit shipyards, cotton mills and coal mines; poor investment choice b/c:
• New competition from US, Japan and South America
• Said industries had also become outdated during the war and had little investment in them during wartime; making them uncompetitive
• Investors (in the case of ships) wrongly assumed that global trade would quickly reach pre-war levels again and therefore merchant ships would soon be in high demand. They did not foresee its recovery taking a while
• Post WW1 Brit industry still mostly heavy industry; made GB wealthy in previous century, but was becoming antiquated b/c of:
• Old machinery
• Old methods of production
• Inability to compete w/ foreign competitors, ex. The US
• Therefore heavy industries suffered the most in the interwar years
• Newer industries in Midlands and southeast, notably motor vehicles, adopting the production techniques of car companies such as Ford in the USA