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There was another Arthur Henderson who was a Cabinet Minister in Attlee's government - I presume he was a son. Does anyone know for certain, and if so want to add some details as some links for them go here. Timrollpickering 16:36, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] ==

[edit] The MacDonald "betrayal"

I've made a significant edit to this paragraph. As some of the details were in contention at the time and some history books still recycle them, I'm including the original text here with an explanation of the changes.

The crisis began in 1931 when Phillip Snowden, the Chancellor of the Exechequer, proposed balancing the budget by reducing unemployment pay.

Not quite true - the crisis was triggered when the May Committee had investigated the government's finances and concluded that it was facing a severe deficit - this combined with a crisis in the continental banking system which moved to London as bankers began to lose confidence, threatening the pound on the Gold Standard. The Labour Cabinet agreed that the Budget needed to be balanced but could not agree how - introducing tariffs was blocked by a minority (although lifelong free traders like Henderson were prepared to resort to them for revenue) whilst others found the proposed unemployment cuts impossible to stomach.

As the world was in the middle of the Great Depression with poverty and unemployment figures rising every other day, Henderson and most of the rest of the cabinet were able to vote this measure down.

It was actually a minority - when MacDonald tallied opinions, 12 (including Mac himself) voted to make the cut, 9 against. However the 9 made it clear they would resign rather than aquiese and as they included a lot of heavyweight figures in the party it was clear the government as a whole could not go on.

MacDonald was furious that his cabinet had voted against him and promptly resigned, but was (allegedly) persuaded by the King to create a "National" government, in effect a Tory dominated coalition that would also include the Liberals and some Labour members.

MacDonald seems to have been more worn out than anything. There is a massive historical debate about who exactly pushed for the National Government (and one article of a decade ago that focused on the King's role provoked one of the fiercest debates ever seen in a scholarly journal). However as there as a hung Parliament and as many newspapers and commentators had been discussing the idea for months it wasn't as novel as it now seems.

Initially the National Government presented itself (and appears to have seen itself) as a "co-operation of individuals from all parties" formed for only a few weeks, rather than a coalition on a common programme. I'd also dispute the "Tory dominated" tag at this stage - most of the key positions such as Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor were held by non-Conservatives. It was only later that this changed, as the Conservatives took a stronger position and the Liberals divided, with one half withdrawing from the Government altogether.

Henderson and the vast majority of the Labour Party regarded a pact with the Tories as a betrayal of everything they stood for, and resigned along with all but three other cabinet members.

MacDonald had already tended the government's resignation and the Cabinet was expecting to be in opposition anyway. 4 members joined MacDonald (3 in the new reduced cabinet, 1 outside) and it was only in the next few weeks that the Labour Party's attitude to the Government hardened. Henderson himself was one of the most concilliatory and on the National Executive he cast the one vote against the decision to expel MacDonald and followers from the aprty.

But it was too late. MacDonald decided to call an election and unsurprisingly, the National Government won by a landslide and Labour was reduced to just 46 MPs. Yet again Henderson lost his seat.

MacDonald seems to have been pushed into the election by elements in the Conservative Party wanting a mandate to introduce tariffs. The victory itself was easy to predict (especially as in most seats the Conservative and Liberal votes were now united behind a single candidate, along with extra votes gained from MacDonald's participation) but the scale of the rout was a shock to everyone.

Hope that explains things. Timrollpickering 19:01, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] PoV Issue?

Why does this article have a PoV tag?FRS 22:50, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

"The coupon election and the 1920s" section is too pov. ex: "against punishing Germany too harshly"-the degree to which Germany could be punished is arguable, thus making this statement a bad truism. freestylefrappe 23:32, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

OK, I fixed it (I think)FRS 00:03, 30 October 2005 (UTC)