Abstract
Outwardly, the 1920s was a decade of political progress for the Labour Party. With the enfranchisement of working-class men and (after 1928) women, its future electoral success seemed assured. It replaced the fractured Liberal Party as the official Opposition in 1922 and advanced quickly to form minority governments in 1924 and 1929. The belief in the inevitability of gradualism — the slow evolution of capitalism into socialism propagated by the Fabians and MacDonald — was being borne out.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See, for example, J. Ramsay MacDonald, Why Socialism Must Come (Independent Labour Party, 1924).
The Labour Party, Labour and the Nation (The Labour Party, 1928) p. 6.
H. N. Brailstord, The Life and Work of J. A. Hobson (Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 13.
J. A. Hobson, ‘Neo-Classical Economics in Britain’, Political Science Quarterly, vol. xi,, no. 3, September 1925, p. 352.
Ibid., p. 142.
See J. A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study (James Nisbet, 1902). Such thinking became a hallmark of the Labour Left.
See Adrian Oldfield, ‘The Independent Labour Party and Planning, 1920–6’, International Review of Social History, vol. xxi (1976), for the immediate context of this document.
See, for example, Philip Snowden, The Living Wage (Hodder & Stoughton, 1912).
H. N. Brailsford, J. A. Hobson, E. F. Wise, and A. Creech Jones, The Living Wage (Independent Labour Party, 1926) p. 2.
Ibid., p. 8.
Ibid., p. 37.
Ibid., p. 7.
Alan Bullock, The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin, vol. I: Trade Union Leader, 1881–1940 (Heinemann, 1960) p. 390.
ILP, Annual Conference Report (1926) p. 83.
Ibid., p. 78.
A. Fenner Brockway, Make the Workers Free: The Industrial Policy of the ILP (Independent Labour Party, 1925) p. 13.
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill (1925), Collected Writings, vol. ix, p. 224.
John Maynard Keynes, Essays in Persuasion (1931), Collected Writings, vol. tx, p. 258.
Ibid., p. 297.
Ibid., p. 309.
John Maynard Keynes, ‘Liberalism and Industry’, in H. L. Nathan and H. H. Williams (eds), Liberal Points of View (Ernest Benn, 1927) p. 208.
John Maynard Keynes, ‘A Drastic Remedy for Unemployment — A Reply to Critics’, The Nation, vol. xxxv, no. 10, 7 June 1924, p. 312.
Keynes, Essays in Persuasion, p. 113.
Liberal Industrial Enquiry, Britain’s Industrial Future (Ernest Benn, 1928) p. 81.
Ibid., p. 77.
Ibid., p. 222.
Keynes sat on the Liberal benches when he entered the House of Lords in 1942 and expressed great alarm at the prospect of a Labour victory in 1945 — see R. F. Harrod, The Life of John Maynard Keynes (Macmillan, 1951) p. 331.
Copyright information
© 1997 Geoffrey Foote
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Foote, G. (1997). The ILP and the Keynesian Challenge. In: The Labour Party’s Political Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377479_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230377479_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-66945-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37747-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)