Another key mishandling by the government is the fact that nothing was done to improve the mines conditions after the previous strike in 1921. The general strike occurred due to prolonged problems, which the government itself did not handle.
Similarly the handlings by the government and prime minister could be said to be deficient. Despite his agreement of a nine-month subsidy, keeping the miners wages the same for nine months, no other real negotiations occurred. He was unwilling to compromise along with the mine owners and miners themselves, therefore the general strike occurred.
However the most important governmental cause for the general strike was Britain’s return to the Gold Standard. This along wit the fact that Germanys reparation payments were being paid out of coal, meat that Britain’s export process increased by 10% which was the governments fault.
The return to the Gold Standard is what caused mine owners to insist on longer working days and pay cuts from 13-38%. This was a key reason that the strike occurred. However this cannot be solely blamed on the government as it was the mine owners themselves which were going to make these changes.
Mine owners can also be blamed for the continuously poor working conditions that miners suffered which again caused the general strike. Although again this is partly the fault of government mishandlings for not helping the miners after the 1919 Sanky commission brought the poor conditions to their attention. But it can be argued that the private ownership of the mines mean that the responsibility to modernised and improve these conditions was the mine owners.
Finally another fairly important reason that the general strike occurred was because of the miners support from the TUC. This meant that the miners had financial backing and confidence, otherwise a strike this scale may have never occurred.
To conclude, although the government mishandlings such as the gold standard, failure to help the miners after 1921’s strike and failure to nationalise, were party to blame for the general strike, they are not the only cause. Mine owner’s failure to improve the conditions within the mines and miners confidence after being supported by the TUC are also extremely important factors for the strikes occurrence. Therefore it was a combination of all of these events with cause the general strike to occur.
