1945 – Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal)

1950 – Clement Davies with 50% of the vote

1955 – Clement Davies with 58% of the vote

Last week the results were: Clement Davies (Liberal) 58%, Winston Churchill (Conservative) 27% Clement Attlee (Labour) 15%,

Putting these seats into the electoral calculus based on the 1955 boundaries we get:

Liberals 608 seats

Labour 0 seats

Conservatives 20 seats

The Actual results from 1951 were:

Labour: 295 seats, 48.8% of the vote

Conservative: 321 seats, 48.0% of the vote

Liberal: 6 seats, 2.5% of the vote

• Sir Anthony Eden is the 57 year old current Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative party, a post he has held since April 6th 1955

• Clement Attlee is the 73 year old current Leader of the Labour Party, a post he has held since October 25th 1935

This week I will not be including the Liberal party which is still led by Clement Davies – in 1951 their share of the vote collapsed to just 2.5%, and they will only stand 110 candidates in this election, far fewer than needed to form a government.

• The Conservative Clawback Part 2 – Last week represented “one last push” for Winston Churchill against the man he’d stood against for 3 general elections in a row Clement Attlee. The Conservatives did not manage to win more votes than Attlee but due to Britain’s first past the post system the Conservatives won a majority of 17 seats. That’s more than Attlee had in 1950 (5) but still relatively slim. After the election Churchill offered Liberal leader Clement Davies the position of Foreign Secretary. Davies seriously considered this and as I mentioned last week Churchill had been courting the Liberals. Davies under pressure from his party rejects the offer but this could have led to increased collaboration and perhaps even an eventual merger between the Liberal and Conservative parties.

• Conservative performance - in the words on /u/marine_le_peen on my first post “My understanding was he was a great war PM but a shit peacetime PM. Obsessed with foreign affairs and disinterested in domestic politics, right at the time Britain was withdrawing from Empire and his focus should have been on fixing the country.” This seems to be repeated across the internet that Churchill was the right man for the war but otherwise not a very good Prime Minister. So, let’s look at his performance from 1951-55 while he was a peacetime Prime Minister. One of Churchill’s most significant acts was in implementing the 1944 Education Act which had been passed into law but never properly implemented. The act separated primary and secondary schools, removed fees for secondary education, established community colleges and nurseries for the working classes, brought religious schools under state control and funding, equalised funding for all schools and made it the duty of local authorities to provide children with a meal and milk. This was seen as significant because while the Conservatives had promised to continue the welfare state many Labour voters distrusted them. This was an early signal that the Conservatives had committed to following the post-war consensus

• Churchill also denationalised iron and steel, ended food rationing, continued the welfare state, implemented new safety regulations for miners, and saw the creation of Britain’s first nuclear bomb. This also coincided with the “age of affluence” which between 1951 and 61 saw wages rise from an average £8.30 to £15.35 in todays money. Another important achievement was in housing. In 1950 a big part of the Conservative campaign was attacking Labour for its inability to provide housing. The Conservatives committed to a target of 300,000 houses a year by 1955 and achieved this 2 years early with the Minister of Housing and Local Government Harold MacMillan announcing they had built 300,000 houses that year in 1953, earning himself large amounts of credit.

• But it obviously isn’t all peaches and cream, Churchill was aggressive in containing the Kenyan Mau Mau Uprising which led to British troops committing war crimes and suspending civil liberties in Kenya. Among those affected was the grandfather of future US President Barrack Obama who was detained by British troops. Churchill also authorised more aggressive tactics in the Malaysian emergency which notably included the resettlement of around 900,000 Malaysian and Chinese into “new towns” where they’d be watched over by British troops, built to keep them away from the guerrilla infested jungles. This along with a “hearts and minds” campaign where food and health care was offered to Malaysians and indigenous tribes and more aggressive patrolling of the jungles led to about 2/3rds of the communist guerrillas being wiped out and a sharp decrease of terrorist attacks. Churchill also continued Gaitskell’s policy of fees for dentures and spectacles

• Churchill also seems to be personally unfit to rule. At 77 he was the oldest Prime Minister since Gladstone and seemed to want to be Prime Minister out of a fear of boredom more than anything else. Churchill began refusing to read any legislation put before him and after a series of massive strokes in 1953 still seemed to want to continue as leader but turned his attention more towards trying one last conference between the US, UK, and USSR after the death of Stalin to end the Cold War. Domestic policy was left to “the Triumvirate” of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, and Housing and Local Government secretary Harold MacMillan

• Eden’s ascension – Sir Anthony Eden was always seen as Churchill’s heir, and he literally married into Churchill’s family in 1952 by marrying Churchill’s niece (who is still alive today). Eden and Churchill shared many similarities – both were more liberal than the Conservative party at large, and neither really had any love for it. There’s also Eden’s slightly complex relationship with appeasement. Eden was Foreign Secretary from 1935-38 and did not necessarily oppose appeasement, and he ruled out military intervention over the reoccupation of the Rhineland. But Eden negotiated an agreement with Italy over the Italian-Ethiopian war, which included agreements about the status of the Mediterranean. Italy broke this by funnelling troops into Spain after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Eden saw this as a breach of their agreement and refused to renegotiate with Italy whilst Neville Chamberlain pushed for a friendly relationship with Italy. Eden resigned and then abstained from voting on the Munich agreement which he disagreed with. In popular culture Eden is grouped with Churchill as one of the Conservatives who opposed appeasement but that isn’t necessarily true. In any case Eden became an ally of Churchill and his Foreign Secretary during World War 2.

• Pt 2. Eden was always expected to succeed Churchill as leader of the Conservatives but was an anxious, sensitive man who was often bullied by Churchill and lacked either the confidence or the dishonour to try and force Churchill out with other Conservatives. Churchill even initially seemed to want to contest the election in 1966 at the age of 81 and after multiple strokes until he eventually realised that the party would not back him. He stepped aside in April 1955 not long before the election. But Eden has been waiting about 10 years to be leader – with Churchill seeming to be done after the Labour landslide. In that time Eden’s health has decreased as his doctor botched an operation and damaged his bile duct which led to reoccurring infections. Eden was given amphetamines to treat this but this led to mood swings, insomnia and restlessness. Eden himself will complain of not being able to sleep because he could hear motor scooters in his head. The delay in succession has also led to the rise of other young up-and-comers within the party, notably Rab Butler and Harold MacMillan who served closely with Eden in running the country after Churchill’s stroke. Neither Butler or Macmillan really take Eden seriously or believe he’s particularly smart. Eden has essentially spent his life focusing on foreign affairs and so he doesn’t really have much knowledge of domestic issues, and his distaste for the Conservative party and his unwillingness to politic against Churchill also means he has relatively few allies. But Eden is young, handsome, and well-dressed which makes him popular.

• Gaitskell and Bevan again… - My last post heavily featured the infighting between Bevan and Gaitskell so you might be pleased to know the infighting hasn’t stopped. Attlee is still clinging to power as leader of the Labour party, but he seems unable to control it. In 1952 when Gaitskell had Churchill on the ropes during a debate Bevan intervened to attack Gaitskell which drew cheers from Conservatives, in a later speech Gaitskell claimed about 1/6 of Labour’s delegates were Communist or Communist-inspired. The two clashed often in shadow cabinet meetings until Bevan resigned in 1954 over Labour’s support for SEATO – a South East Asian equivalent of NATO to stop the spread of Communism which Bevan saw as imperialistic. Gaitskell and Bevan ran against each other for the position of Labour’s treasurer with Gaitskell winning 4 million votes to 2.3 million. Bevan then sparked a rebellion against Attlee, demanding Labour come up with a series of terms before any use of the H-bomb in order for Labour to vote in favour of it. Bevan eventually abstained from the vote and had the whip withdrawn – meaning he is no longer a Labour MP. Gaitskell pushed for his expulsion and said in a party meeting “there are extraordinary parallels between Nye and Adolf Hitler. They are demagogues of exactly the same sort”

• Good feelings – There was a variety of miscellaneous events that influenced public opinion in the run up to the election. Queen Elizabeth II was coronated in 1953, this is the only British coronation to be broadcast in full. It is estimated that 277 million worldwide watched the event and an average of 17 people watched per tv in the UK, with coronation parties being very popular. This combined with Sir Edmund Hillary being one of the 2 first men alongside his Sherpa guide to climb mount Everest, Roger Bannister running the first 4 minute mile, England defeating Australia in the Ashes, the death of Stalin, and the end of the Korean War which led to an incredibly optimistic and positive feeling within the UK, which benefits the incumbent government.

• A commitment to renewed talks with the Soviet Union, with new agreements in regards to disarmament and security, support for the H-Bomb, support for the unification of Germany on the basis of free elections

• Commitment to a plan to create electricity from nuclear power

• Continuation of national service but not indefinitely

• Support for intervention abroad in Persia and Egypt, a future agreement to see the Kuomintang withdraw from Taiwan and the reconsideration of China in the UN and the status of Taiwan

• Support for the “Colombo Plan” of investing in Asian countries to raise living standards and diminish the appeal of Communism

• More cohesion within the Commonwealth, more regular meetings between countries and closer cooperation between ministers on the domestic issues of each country, commitment to raising living standards in colonies

• Commitment to racial partnership in Commonwealth countries where Europeans and natives can both have confidence in their governments

• Promotion of investment into colonies, certain colonial and Commonwealth companies to be treated as domestic companies within the UK

• Self-governance for colonies which reach political maturity, only when rights of minorities are fully protected

• Goal to double the standard of living within the UK through increased productivity, trade, and investment in domestic and Commonwealth industries

• “We live by world trade: the more world trade there is, the better we shall live” Reduction of controls and regulations, commitment to a world-wide system of free trade, system of harmonious trade rules within the Commonwealth, a long-term trading agreement with Japan and more action against unfair trading practices, but protection for British cotton textile industry and increased tariffs for horticultural products

• Commitment to full employment, better relations between employers and employees, encouragement of profit-sharing and incentives for hard work, greater safety regulations for workers

• Reduction of taxes when allowed, in particular a commitment to the reduction of the income tax

• More money for transport, creation of first motorways

• Creation of national library of science and technology open to all businesses

• Extension of legal aid, repeal of war-time laws which limited liberty

• Sale of government owned land and buildings

• Elimination of slums and renovation of older houses, commitment to green belt policies where towns and cities cannot sprawl into protected countryside and farmland

• Commitment of a million new school places, family allowances for pupils who continue onto further education, strong encouragement to teaching of Welsh language and culture

• Creation of national clean air policy

• Commitment of an all-party convention to reform the House of Lords

• Commitment to world disarmament, immediate cessation of H-Bomb tests, reunification of Germany under free elections, admittance of Communist China into UN and UN governance of Taiwan so its own citizens can decide their future, commitment to reducing the gap of wealth between developed world and Africa and Asia

• Transition of Empire to Commonwealth, freedom for colonies and encouragement of development of communities free of racial discrimination

• Commitment to “Colombo Plan”

• Inquiry over defence spending and national service

• Re-imposition of price controls, cutting out waste in food distribution, long-term agreements with Commonwealth over cost of living, firm action against monopolies

• Enforcement of quality standards and accurate labelling of products

• Powers for local governments to buy up landlord owned properties subject to fair compensation

• Abolishment of charges on dentures and glasses

• Annual review of pensions and benefits to keep them in line with inflation, transferability of pensions

• Increase of the number of teachers, ending of 11+ examination, introduction of maintenance loans for university students

• Abolishment of tax on sport and theatre, creation of second public television station free from advertisement

• Use of the budget to ensure social equality, review of tax system to make it efficient and just. Increased tax on capital gains, inheritance and firm action against tax dodgers

• Renationalisation of steel and transport, nationalisation of some sectors of machine tools and chemical industries, nationalisation of water

• Improved conditions for workers

• Return of fixed prices

Conservatives

Labour

The 1955 election was the first to be covered via television

Anthony Eden takes questions from the press

Harold MacMillan Conservative party broadcast

Sir Anthony Eden election broadcast

1955 Labour party broadcast

Attlee interview with Hugh Cudlipp

Please try to vote as if you are a British citizen in 1955 without knowledge of what will happen after the election.