The ''British Gazette'' was a short-lived

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

state newspaper published by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

during the General Strike of 1926. One of the first groups of workers called out by the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...

when the general strike began on 3 May were the printers, and consequently most newspapers appeared only in truncated form. In order to

propagate Propagation can refer to: *Chain propagation in a chemical reaction mechanism * Crack propagation, the growth of a crack during the fracture of materials *Propaganda, non-objective information used to further an agenda *Reproduction, and other form ...

the government's point of view His Majesty's Stationery Office decided to produce an official publication printed on the presses of the

Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies The Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies was a British right-wing movement, established in 1925 to provide volunteers in the event of a general strike. During the General Strike of 1926, it was taken over by the government to provide vital ...

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Ch ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

, a former journalist, was appointed the paper's editor and wrote much of its material. The ''Gazette'' first appeared on the morning of 5 May. It was highly condemnatory of the strike and was open that it had no editorial independence. The TUC produced its own newspaper, the '' British Worker'' (subtitled ''Official Strike News Edition''), however they were unable to match the government's ability to produce and distribute the ''Gazette'', with the ''Gazettes circulation rising as high as 2,000,000. From issue 4, the masthead contained the invitation "Please pass on this copy or display it". The ''Gazette'' ran to only eight editions before the strike collapsed; the last edition, on 13 May 1926, had the headline "General Strike Off". On 7 July 1926, at the end of a debate in Parliament on whether to grant the money to pay for the ''British Gazette'', Churchill responded to Labour MP A. A. Purcell's speculation about what would happen in future general strikes with the words "Make your minds perfectly clear that if ever you let loose upon us again a general strike, we will loose upon you (pause) another ''British Gazette''!"
Hansard
' HC user vol 197 col 2218. The statement drew laughter and applause from both sides and defused some of the lingering political tension in the debate.Roy Jenkins, "Churchill", Pan Macmillan, 2002, p 409.

References

External links

Almost complete (lacking no.8) digitised copies of the ''British Gazette''
from the collection of the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

{{Authority control Political newspapers published in the United Kingdom Works by Winston Churchill Publications established in 1926 Publications disestablished in 1926 1926 establishments in the United Kingdom Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom 1926 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 1926 in politics Strike paper