ABSTRACT
This election was a challenge not to the Government of the last five years, nor even to its predecessors that had governed the country since the last election: it was the total record of all the governments of the twenty years between the wars that was at stake. The Conservative party had been effectively in power throughout the whole period except during the two brief intervals in 1924 and 1929–31 in which the Labour party held office, but not power. Thus all the evils of this unhappy period were laid at the door of the Conservative party. Their rule was popularly identified with that sense of insecurity, due mainly to fear of war and unemployment, which had dogged so many during these years. There was thus a tremendous presumption in favour of change. On the other hand, a change of government would deprive the nation of the leadership of Mr. Churchill. His conduct of the affairs of the nation through all the vicissitudes of the last five terrible years had shown him to be among the greatest statesmen in British history, the peer of Chatham and of Pitt. It was clear to all men, whatsoever their party, that Mr. Churchill’s statesmanship could ill be spared.
