There was a large dilemma of unemployment in Britain and the government wanted to get rid of poverty. Sickness and old age also contributed to this poverty. The living conditions in Britain were very low people lived in cramped houses close together, which were a large concern as this was main cause of ill health, and contributed to the unemployment, as individuals could not work when they were in sickness. The 1924 government was determined to reduce this poverty and harsh living conditions they passed the Wheatley housing act, which subsidised the building of council housing for rent. This would allow individuals suffering in poor living conditions to be able have an advanced living standard and allow the government to attain their aim.
The political aims of the government were to preserve the empire and wanted to stress on creating stability within Europe through reconciliation of Germany. This constancy would contribute to their relations with the other powers, also add to their empire, and perhaps allow Britain to make trade partners and make bigger their empire all over Europe.
Even still the labour government was proposing new aims they still had conflicts. The labour government in 1924 was debated over, as many people in the world did not recognize the slogan for the labour party and were baffled with what they were all about, this was a confusion with different people as people were interpreting the clause four differently so were making assumptions and not really knowing for sure what the labour party were offering, this caused the party to have opposition. The largest predicament for the party was there theoretical link with the communist party. This caused a downfall for the party, as there would be great opponent from the classes in society. Middle class and businessmen were opposed to communist ideas, as it would affect their investments and savings. This caused a loss of seats in parliament and the labour government was losing support due to the allegations of the party being linked to the communist party. Ramsey MacDonald toughened this allegation as he refused to carry on a prosecution against a left wing
Newspaper editor, J.R Campbell. This showed the community that MacDonald was not opposed to the thought of communism and caused anxiety with the persons with cash to loose. The Zinoviev matter was an additional reinforcement to show that the party was supporting communism, as this was a note urging the British communist party to commence a revolution. This gave the conservatives an opportunity to get power and cause a demise for the labour party. The conservatives related the letter to the labour party and saw it as chance to gain backing and more seats in parliament. In October 1924 labour lost votes allowing the conservative party to get back in authority.
In 1929 the second labour government were suffering the effects of the Wall Street crash. The percentage of unemployment was rising and caused the domain to fall; the enormous unemployment was related to the decline in trade. To resolve the problem of the economic depression MacDonald cut back on government spending in 1931 and this was going in opposition to the labour party’s policy so was not preferred by the British population as this showed the party to be deceiving as it was not satisfying its policy. An additional example of dishonesty by the labour party was when MacDonald and Snowden decided to make a 10% reduction in unemployment benefit; this was going against labours principles.
Macdonald was alleged as a devious, incompetent and manipulating leader as he betrayed his party, working class and principles and made cuts in 1931, this maybe unreasonable as MacDonald was facing severe economic problems and trying to demonstrate the labour party was able to govern.
Both governments were triumphant in achieving a number of areas of their aims. The housing legislation, which was approved by the first government, showed it was a potentially promising legislation in the shape of a social policy; this also reflected that labour was robust to govern. The failure of both governments were that they were not capable to manage with the severe economic problem in Britain after the wall street crash and trade with other countries was declining, the government were beginning to find it hard to maintain an economic equilibrium in Britain at this cruel time. This was the major reason for the split in 1931. It was also not easy for the labour party when they were branded as a communist party as they lost support, and gave way for the conservative party to take over. MacDonald was alleged as an unreliable, erratic prime minister and was a contribution to the lack of achievements, however MacDonald is not exclusively to blame as there was other state of affairs out of his control which also contributed to the downfall and discontinued MacDonald as prime minister. I consider the labour government as successful in achieving some aspects of their aims but did not accomplish the criteria of their principles, and their outlook towards governing Britain was unreliable and showed MacDonald as an unskilled prime minister.
