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May Report
The May Report, within the economic history of the United Kingdom, was a publication on 31 July 1931 by the Committee on National Expenditure ("May Committee"). The May Committee was set up to suggest ways for the government to curb expenditure after a proposal by a Liberal MP. The committee was chaired by Sir George May, 1st Baron May, George May. Its main conclusions were extensive public sector spending cuts, including a cut to the unemployment benefit, and increased taxation. Background The Depression had hit the UK in 1931, and had led to a run on the Bank of England in which foreign investors were withdrawing £2.5 million a day in gold. As most of the Labour party was opposed to the Keynesian ideas proposed by Oswald Mosley, the government was looking for some way to cut public sector spending. The Liberal MP Sir Donald Maclean (British politician), Donald Maclean proposed a House of Commons resolution under which the committee would be appointed. This was accepted by the Labo ...
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Economic History Of The United Kingdom
The economic history of the United Kingdom relates the economic development in the British state from the absorption of Wales into the Kingdom of England after Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, 1535 to the modern United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the early 21st century. Scotland and England (including Wales, which had been treated as part of England since 1536) shared a monarch from 1603 but their economies were run separately until they were unified in the Act of Union 1707. Ireland was incorporated in the United Kingdom economy between 1800 and 1922; from 1922 the Irish Free State (the modern Republic of Ireland) became independent and set its own economic policy. Great Britain, and England in particular, became one of the most prosperous economic regions in the world between the late 1600s and early 1800s as a result of being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution that began in the mid-eighteenth century. The developments brought by industrialisati ...
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Secretary Of State For Foreign And Commonwealth Affairs
The secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs, also known as the foreign secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The role is seen as one of the most senior ministers in the UK Government and is a Great Office of State. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and National Security Council, and reports directly to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister. The officeholder works alongside the other Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office#Ministers, Foreign Office ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Foreign Secretary. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee also evaluates the secretary of state's performance. The current foreign secretary is David Lammy. He was appointed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on 5 July 20 ...
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1931 In The United Kingdom
Events from the year 1931 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents * Monarch – George V * Prime Minister – Ramsay MacDonald ( Labour until 24 August, Coalition starting 24 August) Events * 6 January – Sadler's Wells Theatre opens in London. * 9 January – Ulster Canal abandoned. * 26 January – Winston Churchill resigns from Stanley Baldwin's shadow cabinet after disagreeing with the policy of conciliation with Indian nationalism. * 29 January – for the fourth time in nine years, there is a fatal underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, killing 27 people. * 4 February – RAF Blackburn Iris III seaplane S 238 crashes in Plymouth Sound after a senior officer takes control from the pilot and fails to make a safe landing, resulting in multiple fatalities. One of the first to the rescue is T. E. Lawrence, stationed locally at this time. * 1 March – Oswald Mosley forms the New Party, having resigned from the Labour Party a day earlier. ...
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Economic History Of The United Kingdom
The economic history of the United Kingdom relates the economic development in the British state from the absorption of Wales into the Kingdom of England after Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, 1535 to the modern United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the early 21st century. Scotland and England (including Wales, which had been treated as part of England since 1536) shared a monarch from 1603 but their economies were run separately until they were unified in the Act of Union 1707. Ireland was incorporated in the United Kingdom economy between 1800 and 1922; from 1922 the Irish Free State (the modern Republic of Ireland) became independent and set its own economic policy. Great Britain, and England in particular, became one of the most prosperous economic regions in the world between the late 1600s and early 1800s as a result of being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution that began in the mid-eighteenth century. The developments brought by industrialisati ...
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Great Depression In The United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression. It was Britain's largest and most profound economic depression of the 20th century. The Great Depression originated in the United States in late 1929 and quickly spread to the world. Britain did not experience the boom that had characterized the U.S., Germany, parts of the British Empire with Canada and Australia in the 1920s, so its effect appeared less severe.H. W. Richardson, "The Economic Significance of the Depression in Britain," ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (1970) 4#4 pp. 3–1in JSTOR/ref> Britain's world trade fell by half (1929–33), the output of heavy industry fell by a third, employment profits plunged in nearly all sectors. At the depth in summer 1932, registered unemployed numbered 3.5 million, and many more had only part-time employment. However at the same time, from 1929 ...
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National Government (United Kingdom)
In the politics of the United Kingdom, a National Government is a coalition of some or all of the major political parties. In a historical sense, it refers primarily to the governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain which held office from 1931 until 1940. The all-party coalitions of H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George in the First World War were sometimes referred to as National Governments at the time, but are now more commonly called Coalition Governments. The term "National Government" was chosen to dissociate itself from negative connotations of the earlier coalitions. Similarly the all-party government of Winston Churchill in the Second World War was generally referred to as the National Government at the time. Crisis of 1931 The Wall Street crash of 1929 heralded the global Great Depression and Britain was hit, although not as badly as most countries. The government was trying to achieve several different, contradictory objective ...
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Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (3 August 186714 December 1947), was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was prominent in the political leadership of the United Kingdom between the world wars. He was prime minister on three occasions, from May 1923 to January 1924, from November 1924 to June 1929 and from June 1935 to May 1937. Born to a prosperous family in Bewdley, Worcestershire, Baldwin was educated at Hawtreys, Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the family iron- and steel-making business and entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the member for Bewdley, succeeding his father Alfred. He was Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1917–1921) and President of the Board of Trade (1921–1922) in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George and then rose rapidly. In 1922, Baldwin was one of the prime movers in the withdrawal of Conservative support from Lloyd George; he subsequently became Chancellor of the Exchequer in ...
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Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to become the leader of a major British political party. Samuel had promoted Zionism within the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet, beginning with his 1915 memorandum entitled ''The Future of Palestine''. In 1920 he was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine, in charge of the administration of the territory. Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party proper to hold one of the four Great Offices of State (as Home Secretary from 1931 to 1932 in the National Government (1931–1935), National Government of Ramsay MacDonald). One of the adherents of "New Liberalism", Samuel helped to draft and present social reform legislation while he was serving as a Liberal cabinet member. Samuel led the party in ...
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William Graham (Edinburgh MP)
William Graham PC (29 July 1887 – 8 January 1932) was a Scottish Labour politician. Born in Peebles, he was educated at Peebles Public School and George Heriot's School, Edinburgh. After a time as a junior clerk in the War Office, he became a journalist. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1906, and was elected to Edinburgh Town Council in 1913. He gained an MA from University of Edinburgh in 1915, and was later awarded an honorary LLD by the university in 1927. He served as Labour MP for Edinburgh Central from 1918 until 1931. Early in his parliamentary career he found himself at odds with many Labour MPs and contemplated joining the Liberals. He held office as Financial Secretary to the Treasury in 1924 (when he was sworn as a Privy Councillor) and as President of the Board of Trade from 1929 to 1931. He was responsible for the Coal-Mines Bill, several overseas missions, and industrial inquiries. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1924. He also served on the R ...
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President Of The Board Of Trade
The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. A committee of the His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, it was first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th century that evolved gradually into a government department with diverse functions. The current holder of the post is Jonathan Reynolds, who is concurrently the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, secretary of state for business and trade. History The idea of a Board of Trade was first translated into action by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 when he appointed his son Richard Cromwell to head a body of Lords of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Privy Council, judges and merchants to consider measures to promote trade. Charles II of England, Charles II established a Council of Trade on 7 November 1660, followed by a Council of Foreign Plantations on 1 December that year. The two were united on 16 September 1672 as the Board of Trade and ...
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James Henry Thomas
James Henry Thomas (3 October 1874 – 21 January 1949) was a Welsh trade unionist and politician. He was involved in a political scandal involving budget leaks. Early career and trade union activities Thomas was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, the son of a young unmarried mother. He was raised by his grandmother and began work at twelve years of age, soon starting a career as a railway worker. He became an official of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and in 1913 helped to organise its merger with two smaller trade unions on the railways to form the National Union of Railwaymen (now part of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers). 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 Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen against proposed wage reductions. In 1921 Thomas played a lea ...
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Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. Originally, its holder was responsible for the monarch's Privy Seal of England, personal (privy) seal (as opposed to the Great Seal of the Realm, which is in the care of the lord chancellor) until the use of such a seal became obsolete. Though one of the oldest offices in European governments, it has no particular function today because the use of a privy seal has been obsolete for centuries; it may be regarded as a traditional sinecure, but today, the holder of the office is invariably given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, and is sometimes referred to as a Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom), minister without portfolio. Since the premiership of Clement Attlee, the position of Lord Privy S ...
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