ABSTRACT
The economic and financial position seemed to require that governments should possess the widest possible support. It was, perhaps, no accident that other countries in Europe seemed on the verge of creating single-party states. National governments in the United Kingdom would not destroy political parties but, by ensuring that the Cabinet included members of different parties in proportion to their elected strength, would make governments more representative. The Conservative party was in an awkward mood. Baldwin's problem was that he had to control a huge parliamentary party without direct control over appointments and patronage. Nationalization had appeared in Labour policy statements for years as the panacea for all ills, to be justified on grounds both of morality and efficiency. Nationalization did precede broadly on this basis the Bank of England and Civil Aviation, the National Coal Board (NCB), the British Transport Commission, the British Electricity Authority and the Gas Council.
