Abstract

In October, 1931, the National Government went to the country, seeking, in MacDonald’s words, a “doctor’s mandate.” Rapidly changing conditions made it impossible to offer a detailed program with specific pledges, and the Government had to be free to consider any proposal likely to help, the Prime Minister explained. The election campaign, described by the Manchester Guardian as “the shortest, strangest, and most fraudulent ... of our time,” was carried on in a highly emotional atmosphere, with Labour’s former leaders joining Conservatives and Liberals in blaming the late Government for almost all the calamities of the world economic collapse. “National” spokesmen appealed to British patriotism, using “The Nation versus a Soviet” as one of their slogans; and Snowden described Labour’s program, in whose past development he had had such a great share, as “Bolshevism run mad.” Disorganized and demoralized, the Labour Party tried vainly to win support from Liberal voters by making the tariff the principal issue.1

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