ABSTRACT
during the general election campaign in 1945, Labour candidates often warned that Conservative victory would lead to repetition of the economic ills that plagued Britain during the interwar era. According to George Wigg, Labour candidate for Dudley, Tories had promised, after 1918, “ ‘homes for heroes’ that never got built . . . ‘trade revivals’ which produced the biggest mass unemployment we have ever known.” These failings, Labourites claimed, were inevitable under capitalism. That Tories now were promising to lift wartime economic controls in the name of freedom meant that they had not learned this elementary lesson. “If uncontrolled capitalism comes back to Tyneside,” Zilliacus warned, “unemployment will come back to Gateshead.” On the other hand, Labour victory “would mean full employment and security” for all Britons, as Richard Crossman promised in his election address. “What is there . . . in the policy of the Labour Party that is absolute proof against . . . the brutal injustices and sordid poverty” of the interwar years? Fred Lee inquired rhetorically of the voters of Hulme. “There is, to start with, the fundamental faith that the wealth and resources of the country must be owned by the people of the country, and must be developed to meet their common needs.” 1
