Labour’s War: The Labour Party during the Second World War, by Stephen BrookeLabour’s War: The Labour Party during the Second World War, by Stephen Brooke. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992. xiii, 363 pp. $102.00.

‘Labour Comes of Age’, Kingsley Martin observed a few days after the party's electoral landslide of 1945. This might have been more precise if a chorus had added, sotto voce, ‘…And Comes Into an Inheritance’, for since the publication of Paul Addison's The road to 1945 (1975), the history of the Labour party during and after the war has been dominated by the notion of a political consensus forged during the Churchill coalition and left as a legacy to the Attlee government. According to Addison, it was the consensus of Keynes and Beveridge that shaped post-war politics rather than any distinctive contribution from Labour.

Download Full-text

‘Putting Animals into Politics’: The Labour Party and Hunting in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Rural History ◽

10.1017/s0956793306001889 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 213-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

MICHAEL TICHELAR

Keyword(s):

Rural Community ◽

Labour Party ◽

Second World War ◽

World War ◽

Labour Government ◽

Labour Movement ◽

The Government ◽

Post War ◽

Second World

This article will discuss the background to opposition to hunting within the Labour Party before the Second World War, and in particular the role of the Humanitarian League and its successor the League Against Cruel Sports. It will highlight internal tensions of class and ideology that are still current today. It will examine the fate of two private members bills introduced in 1949 designed to prohibit hunting and coursing. Both bills were heavily defeated after the intervention of the Labour Government. This article will examine the reasons the post-war Labour Government used to oppose the bills before drawing some general conclusions about the Labour movement and blood sports. It will be argued that the primary reason why the bills were defeated was the strong desire of the Government to preserve its relationship with the farmers and the wider rural community.

Download Full-text

Koncepcje federacyjne podziemnej „Unii” (1940-1945): w poszukiwaniu polskiego wzorca integracji europejskiej

Politeja ◽

10.12797/politeja.16.2019.59.17 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (2(59)) ◽

pp. 279-297

Author(s):

Przemysław Pazik

Keyword(s):

Labour Party ◽

Second World War ◽

Western Civilization ◽

World War ◽

Normative Power ◽

Common Values ◽

The Federalist ◽

The Common ◽

Second World ◽

Future Plans

The article aims at identifying and analysing the particularities of the federalist ideas of Polish clandestine catholic organisation the Union. In 1943 the group merged with the Christian-democratic Labour Party (SP) becoming its ideological centre. Throughout the Second World War the Union produced a series of programmatic documents and clandestine press where it discussed the shape of future Europe which was to become a pan-federation of regional federations cemented by the common values and principles enshrined in Christianity which were the foundations of Western civilization. In elaborating future plans for Europe, the Union drew explicitly from the memory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth setting it as an example for modern Poland and other European States. Historical Poland was perceived not just as a state but as a “normative power”, this was possible because the Union rejected the modern, ‘westphalian’ concept of state. Instead it advocated creation of a pluralistic federation of nations bound together by common values, where national egoisms were mitigated by common Christian values.

Download Full-text

British defence policy: the breakdown of inter-party consensus

Review of International Studies ◽

10.1017/s0260210500113683 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 111-131 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Peter M. Jones

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Labour Party ◽

Second World War ◽

World War ◽

Major Party ◽

Political Issue ◽

Defence Policy ◽

The One ◽

First Time ◽

Second World

In 1983, for almost the first time since the end of the Second World War, defence became a major party political issue at a general election. In that year it was one of the major campaign issues between the political parties and, according to one poll, ranked second only to unemployment as an issue influencing voter behaviour. Indeed, poll evidence indicated that the Conservatives held an unprecedented and overwhelming 54 per cent lead over Labour on the question of British retention of nuclear arms. Furthermore, of those who thought of defecting from the Labour Party, 42 per cent gave defence as the main reason. Such figures as these suggest strongly that by 1983 the inter-party consensus which had governed defence issues since 1945 had broken down, particularly in view of the fact that the question of defence had not been raised as an issue affecting voting intentions in the 1979 election. The breakdown of consensus may thus be judged by the emergence of defence as a party political issue. It might even be said that in 1983 it was an electiondeciding issue, especially when one set of policies could be represented by opponents as being contrary to the continuation of British membership of NATO, the one issue on which all parties were agreed. Defence thus moved from being a peripheral issue to one at the centre stage of the election campaign and it had a major impact on the outcome of the election. However, the.demise of inter-party consensus was not reflected in the electorate as a whole, which chose to continue to support the tried, and trusted policies of the past rather than adopt the radical alternative presented by the Labour Party, If a new consensus is to emerge—and it is beyond the limits of this particular paper to consider whether a consensus in defence policy is desirable—then all parties will have to review their present policies. However, before turning to the reasons for the breakdown, it is instructive to consider the nature of the post-1945 consensus and the origins of its apparent demise.

Download Full-text