ABSTRACT
The beginning of the 1930s was the start of a difficult era. A general sense of crisis permeated the atmosphere, from the Cabinet and government downwards. Economic and financial difficulties abounded that no one seemed able to solve, while the unemployment figures climbed inexorably upwards. A minority Labour government saw unemployment more than double over the two years that it was in office, with a budget deficit and consequent flight from sterling adding to the crisis. The government, forced to act against its principles and election pledges, fell in the summer of 1931 over its proposal to cut unemployment benefit. It was left to an all-party National Government to carry out the unpopular economies it decided the situation demanded. The ‘equality of sacrifice’ called for by the Prime Minister, Ramsey MacDonald, resulted in a government decision to cut unemployment benefit by ten per cent and the salaries of public servants from between ten to twenty per cent.1
