Chapter 1 - McKeena
Chapter 1
While Britain had indeed come out of the Great War victorious, it was by no means an awe inspiring victory nor one that managed to make Britain stronger in the long run. Its war debt with America was extremely high which had turned Britain from a net creditor to a net debtor. Britain had also seen tremendous losses in the fields of northern France and Flanders during the war which by no means made the situation easier. One of the major factors in the current British problems in the early 1920s regarding their finances was that in the Great War they had taken loans and given the loaned money as loan to France and Imperial Russia. However France was slow to return the money and Imperial Russia had fallen and the Communists had defaulted Imperial Russia’s debts which caused a slight economic crisis.
Indeed Britain was still hurting economically at least from the Great War and Stanley Baldwin who had won the Premiership for a second time formed a second cabinet. However unlike the popular opinion of the time, Winston Churchill was not appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, no he was appointed Attorney-General of the Cabinet with the Chancellor of the Exchequer falling to Reginald McKenna whose economic capability within the British political circles were well known.
Reginald McKenna, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Winston Churchill.
(Author’s Note; AN: This is the PoD. This could have happened OTL, there was a good chance of Churchill being appointed attorney General which would left the Chancellorship open for a new candidate, who was primarily McKenna.)
Of course the cabinets first and foremost problem was regarding the economy of Britain. Despite pressure from the Tories and the Parliament being largely in favor of bringing the gold standard back to the pound, McKenna openly questioned the viability of such an undertaking and that the gold standard returning could be hazardous to the British economy.
This was frowned upon by many of the MPs, particularly the Tories however Baldwin supported McKenna, albeit reluctantly after Churchill also supported not returning to the Gold Standard. Another key economist John Maynard Keynes also supported that returning to the standard would not have a good outcome to the economy. Therefore Mckenna did not return the British Pound to the gold standard. This received much anger from much of the Tories in the Parliament and the Commons, however this wasn’t something new, and with the backing of Baldwin, and Churchill, both of whom were influential politicians, with Churchill having been a former Liberal, the opposition to this move against returning to the Gold Standard was pretty much reduced to disaffected grumbling in the background.
Mckeena was also a liberal politician in the government. His return to the government started to make the waning liberal popularity slowly return however the Liberals would remain the third party. However this didn’t mean anything else than what it did. Mckeena on the side did advocate and encourage the popularity of the Liberal Party in Great Britain, and the popularity of the Liberals was seen to be slowly returning, thought at a sedate pace. McKeena was also eager onto industrial reforms.
Liberal Party Logo.
He repeatedly disavowed the old aging machine tools of British industries and stated multiple times that for the British economy to thrive and produce more efficiently, the old aging tools must be replaced. While no return to the gold standard left the British economy in a much better position, inflationary problems still remained in Britain and increasing production could see to that these inflation problems could be solved.
As a first plan, the pound was also allowed to float freely in the international market. This greatly lightened the load of British economic shoulders as the pound began to rise in its value again. The floatation happened within the limit of in dollar value $4.40 to $5.50, and the pound settled down to $4.80 as the exchange rate.
However while this did again give breathing space to Britain it did not make everything better again. This time Churchill lobbied for an Imperial Preference system to prefer exports and imports from the Empire and its dominions rather than outside sources to increase competition between the Dominions and Non-Dominion states for trade with Britain. This was supported heavily by McKeena and Stanley Baldwin who was slated for an Imperial Conference in November 1926 agreed to speak about it in length with the dominion leaders.
The November 1926 Imperial Conference was perhaps the greatest and most important Imperial Conference that Britain and the Commonwealth participated in. The Balfour Declaration was declared in which ‘all the dominions are of equal status, autonomous communities within the British Empire” and not subordinate to Britain in manner other matters of War, in which they were obligated to join by treaty. This Imperial Conference also saw the ‘Preference Act’ adopted fully by the Dominions as an Imperial Preference system was adopted. Stanley stuck to his word and managed to convince the Dominions of Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland to assist him in convincing the Canadians and South Africans.
A moment just minutes before the declaration of Imperial Preference after the Imperial Conference.
Back in Britain this move was met with relief by McKenna and Churchill. This Imperial Preference System and Act also gave McKenna the entire casus belli to start the improvisation of machine tools and production line assemblies in Britain, which Stanley had been opposed to infact, but had no basis to stop him now. The investment into machine tools came in primarily from Canada and Australia, both Dominions who were subject to American and Japanese machine tools which were (somewhat hesitantly) acknowledged as the better machine tools available in the world economy at the moment and time.
However one problem remained in the British economy. As oil slowly started to uproot Coal as the major source of fuel in the world, the coal mines were slowly starting to become smaller and less-influential in the British economy. As such hundreds of thousands of miners became unemployed. So much so that in fact 1.3 Million Miners went to protest in Britain for 9 days in 1928. The ‘Coal Issue’ became a sticking point in the British politics at the moment.
The great coal strike of 1928.
McKenna as a Liberal gained a lot of support for Liberals in the British politicking community again. His economic achievements in Britain were at least partially attributed to the Liberal Party which according to Stanley Baldwin – “The attribution of the economic recovery and stability that Britain has enjoyed is undoubtedly a major achievement of Mr. McKeena. However to have those achievements all attributed to the Liberal Party is nothing short of idiocy and hypocrisy.”
David Lloyd George, the leader of the Liberals put forward a ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment’ Plan to overcome the British Mining Unemployment and the unemployment which has surged after the 1929 Wall Street Crash. The 1929 General Election saw the Liberal Party grow into a resurgence. It garnered around 33% of the votes with Labor gaining 32% of the votes and the vote. The remaining 35% of the vote was gathered by the Conservatives. David Lloyd George, even though reportedly he looked as if bile had erupted in his mouth reluctantly offered a coalition government with Labour.
The We Can Conquer Unemployment Plan.
Ramsay MacDonald, the leader of Labour Party also very reluctantly agreed to the coalition government and in November 26th the 1924 Baldwin Cabinet was dissolved. McKenna retained his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
David Lloyd George became Prime Minister again and formed a new cabinet.
Prime Minister – David Lloyd George
Lord Chancellor – Robert Crew-Milnes
Lord of the President of the Council – Lord Parmoor
Lord Privy Seal – Ramsay MacDonald
Chancellor of the Exchequer – Reginald McKeena
Home Secretary – James Robert Clynes
Foreign Secretary – Arthur Henderson
Secretary of State for the Colonies and Dominions – Lord Passfield
Secretary of State for War – Archibald Sinclair
Secretary of State of Air – Herbert Samuel
First Lord of the Admiralty – Rufus Isaacs
President of the Board of Trade – Percy Harris
President of the Board of Education – H. A. L. Fisher
Minister of Agriculture – Noel Buxton
Minister of Labor – Clement Davis
Minister of Health – Margaret Bondfield.
Secretary of State of India - Marquess of Lothian
Secretary of Scotland - Robert Hamilton.
The first plan of order for Lloyd George was the fact that he wanted to implement his ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment’ Plan. However the Parliament thought that his proposals were a little too radical to their tastes. Of course Lloyd-George’s proposals weren’t as radical as one Mosely’s plan which was flatly refused which made him walk out Labor in disgust and form the British Union of Fascists.
Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists.
Therefore a new modified plan of the original plan was put forward which was accepted by the Parliament. The new plan was basically:-
This plan was implemented from January 12th 1930 as the parliament finally ratified it.
While Britain had indeed come out of the Great War victorious, it was by no means an awe inspiring victory nor one that managed to make Britain stronger in the long run. Its war debt with America was extremely high which had turned Britain from a net creditor to a net debtor. Britain had also seen tremendous losses in the fields of northern France and Flanders during the war which by no means made the situation easier. One of the major factors in the current British problems in the early 1920s regarding their finances was that in the Great War they had taken loans and given the loaned money as loan to France and Imperial Russia. However France was slow to return the money and Imperial Russia had fallen and the Communists had defaulted Imperial Russia’s debts which caused a slight economic crisis.
Indeed Britain was still hurting economically at least from the Great War and Stanley Baldwin who had won the Premiership for a second time formed a second cabinet. However unlike the popular opinion of the time, Winston Churchill was not appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, no he was appointed Attorney-General of the Cabinet with the Chancellor of the Exchequer falling to Reginald McKenna whose economic capability within the British political circles were well known.
Reginald McKenna, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Winston Churchill.
(Author’s Note; AN: This is the PoD. This could have happened OTL, there was a good chance of Churchill being appointed attorney General which would left the Chancellorship open for a new candidate, who was primarily McKenna.)
Of course the cabinets first and foremost problem was regarding the economy of Britain. Despite pressure from the Tories and the Parliament being largely in favor of bringing the gold standard back to the pound, McKenna openly questioned the viability of such an undertaking and that the gold standard returning could be hazardous to the British economy.
This was frowned upon by many of the MPs, particularly the Tories however Baldwin supported McKenna, albeit reluctantly after Churchill also supported not returning to the Gold Standard. Another key economist John Maynard Keynes also supported that returning to the standard would not have a good outcome to the economy. Therefore Mckenna did not return the British Pound to the gold standard. This received much anger from much of the Tories in the Parliament and the Commons, however this wasn’t something new, and with the backing of Baldwin, and Churchill, both of whom were influential politicians, with Churchill having been a former Liberal, the opposition to this move against returning to the Gold Standard was pretty much reduced to disaffected grumbling in the background.
Mckeena was also a liberal politician in the government. His return to the government started to make the waning liberal popularity slowly return however the Liberals would remain the third party. However this didn’t mean anything else than what it did. Mckeena on the side did advocate and encourage the popularity of the Liberal Party in Great Britain, and the popularity of the Liberals was seen to be slowly returning, thought at a sedate pace. McKeena was also eager onto industrial reforms.
Liberal Party Logo.
He repeatedly disavowed the old aging machine tools of British industries and stated multiple times that for the British economy to thrive and produce more efficiently, the old aging tools must be replaced. While no return to the gold standard left the British economy in a much better position, inflationary problems still remained in Britain and increasing production could see to that these inflation problems could be solved.
As a first plan, the pound was also allowed to float freely in the international market. This greatly lightened the load of British economic shoulders as the pound began to rise in its value again. The floatation happened within the limit of in dollar value $4.40 to $5.50, and the pound settled down to $4.80 as the exchange rate.
However while this did again give breathing space to Britain it did not make everything better again. This time Churchill lobbied for an Imperial Preference system to prefer exports and imports from the Empire and its dominions rather than outside sources to increase competition between the Dominions and Non-Dominion states for trade with Britain. This was supported heavily by McKeena and Stanley Baldwin who was slated for an Imperial Conference in November 1926 agreed to speak about it in length with the dominion leaders.
The November 1926 Imperial Conference was perhaps the greatest and most important Imperial Conference that Britain and the Commonwealth participated in. The Balfour Declaration was declared in which ‘all the dominions are of equal status, autonomous communities within the British Empire” and not subordinate to Britain in manner other matters of War, in which they were obligated to join by treaty. This Imperial Conference also saw the ‘Preference Act’ adopted fully by the Dominions as an Imperial Preference system was adopted. Stanley stuck to his word and managed to convince the Dominions of Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland to assist him in convincing the Canadians and South Africans.
A moment just minutes before the declaration of Imperial Preference after the Imperial Conference.
Back in Britain this move was met with relief by McKenna and Churchill. This Imperial Preference System and Act also gave McKenna the entire casus belli to start the improvisation of machine tools and production line assemblies in Britain, which Stanley had been opposed to infact, but had no basis to stop him now. The investment into machine tools came in primarily from Canada and Australia, both Dominions who were subject to American and Japanese machine tools which were (somewhat hesitantly) acknowledged as the better machine tools available in the world economy at the moment and time.
However one problem remained in the British economy. As oil slowly started to uproot Coal as the major source of fuel in the world, the coal mines were slowly starting to become smaller and less-influential in the British economy. As such hundreds of thousands of miners became unemployed. So much so that in fact 1.3 Million Miners went to protest in Britain for 9 days in 1928. The ‘Coal Issue’ became a sticking point in the British politics at the moment.
The great coal strike of 1928.
McKenna as a Liberal gained a lot of support for Liberals in the British politicking community again. His economic achievements in Britain were at least partially attributed to the Liberal Party which according to Stanley Baldwin – “The attribution of the economic recovery and stability that Britain has enjoyed is undoubtedly a major achievement of Mr. McKeena. However to have those achievements all attributed to the Liberal Party is nothing short of idiocy and hypocrisy.”
David Lloyd George, the leader of the Liberals put forward a ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment’ Plan to overcome the British Mining Unemployment and the unemployment which has surged after the 1929 Wall Street Crash. The 1929 General Election saw the Liberal Party grow into a resurgence. It garnered around 33% of the votes with Labor gaining 32% of the votes and the vote. The remaining 35% of the vote was gathered by the Conservatives. David Lloyd George, even though reportedly he looked as if bile had erupted in his mouth reluctantly offered a coalition government with Labour.
The We Can Conquer Unemployment Plan.
Ramsay MacDonald, the leader of Labour Party also very reluctantly agreed to the coalition government and in November 26th the 1924 Baldwin Cabinet was dissolved. McKenna retained his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
David Lloyd George became Prime Minister again and formed a new cabinet.
Prime Minister – David Lloyd George
Lord Chancellor – Robert Crew-Milnes
Lord of the President of the Council – Lord Parmoor
Lord Privy Seal – Ramsay MacDonald
Chancellor of the Exchequer – Reginald McKeena
Home Secretary – James Robert Clynes
Foreign Secretary – Arthur Henderson
Secretary of State for the Colonies and Dominions – Lord Passfield
Secretary of State for War – Archibald Sinclair
Secretary of State of Air – Herbert Samuel
First Lord of the Admiralty – Rufus Isaacs
President of the Board of Trade – Percy Harris
President of the Board of Education – H. A. L. Fisher
Minister of Agriculture – Noel Buxton
Minister of Labor – Clement Davis
Minister of Health – Margaret Bondfield.
Secretary of State of India - Marquess of Lothian
Secretary of Scotland - Robert Hamilton.
The first plan of order for Lloyd George was the fact that he wanted to implement his ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment’ Plan. However the Parliament thought that his proposals were a little too radical to their tastes. Of course Lloyd-George’s proposals weren’t as radical as one Mosely’s plan which was flatly refused which made him walk out Labor in disgust and form the British Union of Fascists.
Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists.
Therefore a new modified plan of the original plan was put forward which was accepted by the Parliament. The new plan was basically:-
- Road and Bridges: This part of the plan basically outlined the construction of a large national system of Trunk Roads all across Britain. Another plan was also to create a ring-road around cities and towns. The plans for District and Classified roads were scrapped in this new version of the plan. In Lloyd’s own words – Time Lost is Money Lost For the Nation. However rural roadways were to be developed as well.
- Level Crossings: This part of the plan wished to improve the crossings in Britain. This plan also encouraged the scrapping of unprofitable railway lines and canals. However it also stressed the need for new profitable railway lines and canals for more economic cohesion.
- Telephone and Electronic Development: In Lloyd’s own words – “The Electronic Development of this Country is backwards.” This part of the plan gave focus to telephones and electronics. In particular he encouraged the use of telephone as a tool of business to make business more effective across the nation. He also laid out that investment into the electrical industry would be able to give benefits further down the road not available at the current period of time.
- With due estimation from the Ministry of Finance, it was estimated that this plan would see receipts from existing taxations increase from 10,000,000 Pounds to 12,000,000 Pounds per annum and also reduce the unemployment level of the nation by employing at least 750,000 unemployed people which would be a huge breather.
This plan was implemented from January 12th 1930 as the parliament finally ratified it.
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