The Labour Leader was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed New Leader and Socialist Leader , before finally taking the name Labour Leader again.
117-503: The origins of the paper lay in The Miner , a monthly paper founded by Keir Hardie in 1887. Its main purpose was to advocate for a federation of Scottish miners . The first issue contained an influential programme for labour, co-authored by Hardie and Chisholm Robertson , marking Hardie's switch from support for the Liberal Party to advocating independent labour candidacies. The paper
234-487: A canon of Windsor . Dalton was educated at Summer Fields School and then at Eton College . He then went to King's College, Cambridge , where he was active in student politics; his socialist views, then very rare amongst undergraduates, earned him the nickname "Comrade Hugh". Whilst at Cambridge he was President of the Cambridge University Fabian Society . He did not succeed in becoming President of
351-550: A deerstalker hat. Although the deerstalker was the correct and matching apparel for his suit, he was nevertheless lambasted in the press, and was accused of wearing a flat cap , headgear associated with the common working man; a "cloth cap in Parliament". In Parliament, Hardie advocated a graduated income tax, free schooling, pensions, the abolition of the House of Lords and for women's right to vote. In 1893, Hardie and others formed
468-678: A " third force " policy, opposing both capitalism and the Soviet Union . The ILP continued to decline, but remained able to publish a weekly newspaper. A Conservative politician, Cyril Wilson Black , successfully prosecuted the paper for libel after it described him as a racist . In 1975, the ILP decided to dissolve itself into the Labour Party, renaming its paper as the Labour Leader once again and moving back to monthly publication. Relaunched with
585-517: A "typical British city", confident that class politics could surmount sectarian division over the constitutional question. In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the "Labour Party". That year, the newly established Liberal government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman called a General Election — resulting in a heavy defeat for the Conservative Party (then in opposition), and the landslide affirmation of
702-585: A National Conference of miners at Dunfermline , at which he was selected as National Secretary, a high-sounding title which preceded the establishment of a coherent national organisation by several years. Hardie was active in the strike wave which swept the region in 1880, including a generalised strike of the mines of Lanarkshire that summer which lasted six weeks. The fledgling union had no money but worked to gather foodstuffs for striking mine families, as Hardie and other union agents got local merchants to supply goods upon promise of future payment. A soup kitchen
819-587: A Spanish Republican Government. If Franco had lost the Civil War, Hitler would have occupied Spain." Aided by union votes, Dalton moved the party from semi-pacifism to a policy of armed deterrence and rejection of appeasement. He was a bitter enemy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain . Dalton in his speeches to the House of Commons charged that the government during the Sudetenland crisis was deliberately trying to exclude
936-532: A claim to be "Labour's Independent Monthly", it was published by Independent Labour Publications until 1986. Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie (15 August 1856 – 26 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party , and was its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908. Hardie was born in Newhouse , Lanarkshire . He started working at
1053-531: A closer relationship with Sylvia Pankhurst . His secretary Margaret Symons Travers was the first woman to speak in the House of Commons when she tricked her way in on 13 October 1908. He also campaigned for self-rule for India and an end to segregation in South Africa. During a visit to the United States in 1909, his criticism of sectarianism among American radicals caused intensified debate regarding
1170-568: A combined force arrayed against an aggressor, which would include the Soviet Union, we should be more much likely to avoid war?" On 15 March 1939, Germany occupied the Czech half of Czecho-Slovakia. Later that same day, Hitler during his visit to Prague proclaimed the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia . On 16 March 1939, Dalton played a leading role in the debates in the House of Commons about
1287-509: A fixture about Russia and seemed almost to prefer that this country should be defeated in war without Russian aid rather than win with it". During the Sudetenland crisis, Dalton frequently defended the Soviet stance. Dalton was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and its principles of collective security, and believed that should be the basis of an Anglo-Soviet alliance. Dalton was attached to
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#17328518979271404-508: A hospital in Glasgow of pneumonia at noon on 26 September 1915, aged 59. His friend and fellow pacifist Thomas Evan Nicholas (Niclas y Glais) delivered the sermon at Hardie's memorial service at Aberdare, in his constituency. He was cremated in Maryhill, Glasgow. A memorial stone in his honour is at Cumnock Cemetery Cumnock , Ayrshire , Scotland. On 2 December 2006, a memorial bust of Hardie
1521-468: A journalist, telling him of some of the tax changes in the budget. The news was printed in the early edition of the evening papers before he had completed his speech, and whilst the stock market was still open. This was a scandal, and led to his resignation for leaking a budget secret. He was succeeded by Stafford Cripps. Though initially implicated in the allegations that led to the Lynskey tribunal in 1948, he
1638-413: A long and dismal vista. In the same article he also opposed accusations that he was unpatriotic by claiming that his meetings encouraged young men to enlist while those of his Liberal opponents did the opposite: I have never said or written anything to dissuade our young men from enlisting; I know too well all there is at stake… If I can get the recruiting figures for Merthyr week by week, which I find
1755-534: A meeting of various trade unions and socialist groups; they agreed to form a Labour Representation Committee and so the Labour Party was born. Later that same year Hardie, representing Labour, was elected as the junior MP for the dual-member constituency of Merthyr Tydfil in the South Wales Valleys, which he would represent for the remainder of his life. Only one other Labour MP was elected that year ( Richard Bell for Derby ), but from these small beginnings
1872-531: A more compelling theoretical basis for understanding relationships between incomes (1920). Following a suggestion by Pigou (1912, p. 24), Dalton proposed the condition that a transfer of income from a richer to a poorer person, so long as that transfer does not reverse the ranking of the two, will result in greater equity (Dalton, p. 351). This principle has come to be known as the Pigou–Dalton principle (see, e.g., Amartya Sen , 1973). Dalton offered
1989-487: A pacifist general strike. Hardie is seen as a key figure in the history of the Labour Party and has been the subject of multiple biographies. Kenneth O. Morgan has called him "Labour's greatest pioneer and its greatest hero". James Keir Hardie was born on 15 August 1856 in a two-roomed cottage on the western edge of Newhouse , Lanarkshire near Holytown , a small town close to Motherwell in Scotland. His mother, Mary Keir,
2106-563: A programme for a living wage . Brailsford also managed to obtain several noted contributors to the New Leader , including H. G. Wells , George Bernard Shaw , Bertrand Russell , Hugh Dalton , Norman Angell and C. E. M. Joad . E. M. Forster and H. W. Nevinson contributed book reviews to the New Leader , while Julian Huxley wrote science articles. The magazine also added a literature section, with poems by Frances Cornford and Charlotte Mew , and stories by T. F. Powys . Illustrators for
2223-577: A sexual relationship with another man, and his private life seems to have been one of blameless monogamy." However he does refer to Dalton having "homosexual tendencies", mentioned below. Dalton stood unsuccessfully for Parliament four times: at the 1922 Cambridge by-election , in Maidstone at the 1922 general election , in Cardiff East at the 1923 general election , and the 1924 Holland with Boston by-election , before entering Parliament for Peckham at
2340-515: A speech in the House of Commons the next day. Dalton expressed his approval of the "guarantee" of Poland, but told Chamberlain that he "would never get away with it...unless he brought in the Russians". During the Danzig crisis , Dalton supported Chamberlain's policy of creating a "peace front" to deter Germany from invading Poland, but was opposed to Chamberlain's policy of making Poland the eastern pivot of
2457-425: A superior creation. [Cries of 'Oh, oh!’] A line will be drawn between him and the people whom he is to be called upon some day to reign over. In due course, following the precedent which has already been set, he will be sent on a tour round the world, and probably rumours of a morganatic alliance will follow—[Loud cries of 'Oh, oh!’ and 'Order!’]—and the end of it all will be that the country will be called upon to pay
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#17328518979272574-644: A total immigration ban. When it was pointed out to him that more people left Scotland than entered it, he replied, "It would be much better for Scotland if those 1,500 were compelled to remain there and let the foreigners be kept out... Dr Johnson said God made Scotland for Scotchmen, and I would keep it so." According to Hardie, the Lithuanian migrant workers in the mining industry had "filthy habits", they lived off "garlic and oil", and they were carriers of "the Black Death". In 1908, when visiting South Africa, he said
2691-556: A very difficult job, I hope by another week to be able to prove that whereas our Rink meeting gave a stimulus to recruiting, those meetings at the Drill Hall at which the Liberal member or the Liberal candidate spoke, had the exactly opposite effect. Judging by their speeches, they seem far more concerned about defeating me than about defeating the Kaiser. After a series of strokes , Hardie died in
2808-405: A year. In August 1881, Ayrshire miners put forward the demand for a 10 per cent increase in wages, a proposition summarily refused by the region's mine owners. Despite the lack of funds for strike pay, a stoppage was called and a 10-week shutdown of the region's mines ensued. This strike also was formally a failure, with miners returning to work before their demands had been met, but not long after
2925-569: Is necessary as a stage in the development of the ideal." Despite his early support of the Liberal Party, Hardie became disillusioned by William Ewart Gladstone 's economic policies and began to feel that the Liberals would not advocate the interests of the working class . Hardie concluded that the Liberal Party wanted the worker's votes without in return the radical reform he believed to be crucial – he stood for Parliament. In April 1888, Hardie
3042-569: The 1924 general election . At the 1929 general election , he succeeded his wife Ruth Dalton , who retired, as Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishop Auckland . Widely respected for his intellectual achievements in economics, he rose in the Labour Party's ranks, with election in 1925 to the shadow cabinet and, with strong union backing, to the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC). He gained ministerial and foreign policy experience as Under-Secretary at
3159-400: The 1951 general election . In 1914 Dalton married Ruth with whom he had a daughter who died in infancy in the early 1920s. Dalton's biographer, Ben Pimlott , suggests that Dalton had homosexual tendencies but concludes he never acted on them. Michael Bloch , on the other hand, thinks that Dalton's love for Rupert Brooke , whom he met at Cambridge University's Fabian Society, went beyond
3276-563: The American Socialist Party possibly joining with the unions in a labour party. A pacifist , Hardie was appalled by the First World War and along with socialists in other countries he tried to organise an international general strike to stop the war. His stance was not popular, even within the Labour Party, but he continued to address anti-war demonstrations across the country and to support conscientious objectors . After
3393-500: The Bank of England and the Treasury. Budgetary policy under Dalton was strongly progressive, as characterised by policies such as increased food subsidies, heavily subsidised rents to council house tenants, the lifting of restrictions on housebuilding, the financing of national assistance and family allowances , and extensive assistance to rural communities and Development Areas. Dalton
3510-930: The Cambridge Union Society , despite three attempts to be elected Secretary. He went on to study at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Middle Temple . During the First World War he was called up into the Army Service Corps , later transferring to the Royal Artillery . He served as a lieutenant on the French and Italian fronts, where he was awarded the Italian decoration, the Medaglia di Bronzo al Valor Militare , in recognition of his "contempt for danger" during
3627-516: The Conservative Party candidate, Hardie won by 5,268 votes to 4,036. He was variously described as the Labour or " Liberal and Labour " candidate. Upon taking his seat on 3 August 1892, Hardie refused to wear the "parliamentary uniform" of black frock coat , black silk top hat and starched wing collar that other working-class MPs wore. Instead, Hardie wore a plain tweed suit, a red tie and
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3744-732: The Independent Labour Party (ILP) the following year. He lost his seat in 1895, but was re-elected to Parliament in 1900 for Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. In the same year he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, which was later renamed the Labour Party. After the 1906 election , Hardie was chosen as the Labour Party's first parliamentary leader. He resigned in 1908 in favour of Arthur Henderson , and spent his remaining years campaigning for causes such as women's suffrage, self-rule for India, and opposition to World War I. He died in 1915 while attempting to organise
3861-550: The Independent Labour Party , an action that worried the Liberals, who were afraid that the ILP might, at some point in the future, win the working-class votes that they traditionally received. Hardie hit the headlines in 1894, when after an explosion at the Albion colliery in Cilfynydd near Pontypridd which killed 251 miners, he asked that a message of condolence to the relatives of the victims be added to an address of congratulations on
3978-652: The Moscow Trials . George Orwell 's essay "Why I Joined the Independent Labour Party" was published in New Leader on 28 June 1938. Facing a severe decline as many of its activists defected to Labour, the ILP relaunched the paper as the Socialist Leader in 1946, with Douglas Rogers as editor. F. A. Ridley and George Stone were appointed joint editors in 1947, Ridley standing down the following year, but continuing to write regularly for it. Stone pursued
4095-592: The National Land Fund was established. Harold Macmillan , who inherited Dalton's housing responsibilities, later acknowledged his debt to Dalton's championing of New Towns , and was grateful for the legacy of Dalton's Town Development Bill, which encouraged urban overfill schemes and the movement of industry out of cities. Food subsidies were maintained at high wartime levels in order to restrain living costs, while taxation structures were altered to benefit low-wage earners, with some 2.5 million workers taken out of
4212-508: The New Leader included Jack B. Yeats , Muirhead Bone , Käthe Kollwitz and Clare Leighton . By 1926 circulation had fallen and Brailsford had fallen out of favour with the ILP leadership. Brockway returned to the helm, supporting James Maxton 's call for the ILP to stand for "socialism in our time". In 1929 Brockway was elected as the Member of Parliament for Leyton East and stood down from
4329-647: The Ramblers Association , which promoted walking tours. As Chancellor in 1946 he had started the National Land Fund to resource national parks, and in 1951 he approved the Pennine Way , which involved the creation of 70 additional miles of rights of way. He still had the ear of the Prime Minister, and enjoyed promoting the careers of candidates with potential, but was no longer a major political player as he had been until 1947. He left government after Labour lost
4446-508: The sterling crisis of 1947 . His political position was already in jeopardy in 1947 when he, seemingly inadvertently, revealed a sentence of the budget to a reporter minutes before delivering his budget speech. Prime Minister Clement Attlee accepted his resignation; Dalton later returned to the cabinet in relatively minor positions. His biographer Ben Pimlott characterised Dalton as peevish, irascible, given to poor judgment and lacking administrative talent. Pimlott also recognised that Dalton
4563-404: The $ 1.25 billion loan from Canada) was soon exhausted. By 1947, rationing had to be tightened and the convertibility of the pound suspended. In the atmosphere of crisis, Morrison and Cripps intrigued to replace Attlee with Bevin as prime minister; Bevin refused to play along, and Attlee bought off Cripps by giving him Morrison's responsibilities for economic planning. Ironically, of the "Big Five" it
4680-715: The Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1930s, opposing pacifism; promoting rearmament against the German threat; and strongly opposed the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938. Dalton served in Winston Churchill 's wartime coalition cabinet; after the Dunkirk evacuation he was Minister of Economic Warfare, and established Special Operations Executive . As Chancellor, he pushed his policy of cheap money too hard, and mishandled
4797-651: The Foreign Office in Ramsay MacDonald 's second government, between 1929 and 1931. He lost this position when he, and most Labour leaders, rejected MacDonald's National Government . As with most other Labour MPs, he lost his seat in 1931 ; he was elected again in 1935 . Dalton published Practical Socialism for Britain , a bold and highly influential assessment of a future Labour government's policy options, in 1935. The book revived updated nuts-and-bolts Fabianism, which had been out of favour, and could be used to attack
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4914-707: The German danger. His views were different from those of Attlee, later recalling that before the Second World War he believed: as Germany and Italy were potential enemies of Britain and Franco was their ally, it was in Britain's interest that Franco should not win the Spanish Civil War. It was on this proposition rather than any extravagant eulogy of the Spanish Government that I based most of my public references to this most tragic struggle. Yet Dalton admitted he
5031-453: The League of Nations and collective security in his speeches, it was under these grounds that Dalton advocated an Anglo-Soviet alliance rather in support of communism. Despite his public support for an Anglo-Soviet alliance, in private Dalton admitted that the Soviet Union was "an enigma". Joseph Stalin was a very remote, mysterious figure who rarely spoke in public or saw foreigners, making it extremely difficult to determine how much Litvinov
5148-522: The Liberals. The 1906 general election result was one of the biggest landslide victories in British history: the Liberals swept the Conservatives (and their Liberal Unionist allies) out of what were regarded as safe seats . Conservative leader and former Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour , lost his seat, Manchester East , on a swing of over 20 per cent. What would later turn out to be even more significant
5265-527: The Overtoun Chemical Works, while in 1913 and 14, Walton Newbold worked on a lengthy article exposing the interests of the defence industry. In 1912, the editorship passed to Fenner Brockway , who imposed a policy of strident pacifism , opposing the First World War with front-page headlines such as "The War Must Be Stopped" and "Down With The War". In 1915, the paper's offices were raided by
5382-601: The Polish foreign minister, Colonel Józef Beck , into granting transit rights to the Red Army in the event of a German invasion of Poland. The issue of transit rights became of a cardinal importance during the Danzig crisis as the Soviets refused to sign an alliance with Britain and France unless Poland gave transit rights first, which Colonel Beck was utterly opposed to granting. Hugh Dalton
5499-431: The Red Army and Red Airforce on our side instead of being neutral? The Prime Minister claims for himself the title of a realist, but does not any realistic foreign policy in this country necessarily include an attempt to make sure that, if the worse should come, we should have that enormous potential on our side instead of being immobilised?...Is it not a clear calculation that if it can be shown in advance that there would be
5616-493: The Republican ("Loyalist") cause. During his time in the shadow cabinet, Dalton was one of the leaders of the anti-fascist wing of the Labour Party who clashed with the anti-war wing of Labour. The Labour Party was divided between one faction that was opposed to all war on principle vs. another that was willing to support war against fascist aggression, and as one of the leaders of the latter faction, Dalton frequently fought against
5733-496: The Socialist movement stood for equal rights for every race but that "we do not say all races are equal; no one dreams of doing that". On return to the UK he stated his belief that black people should be given the opportunity to vote and to take a full part in society. After resigning the leadership of the party in 1908, Hardie devoted himself to campaigning for votes for women and developing
5850-424: The Soviet Union from any role in the crisis despite the fact that Soviet Union had alliances with both France and Czechoslovakia. In a speech to the House of Commons, he stated: "There are some in this country who apparently think it worthwhile and a good bargain to try to push the Soviet Union out of Europe". In a letter to Robert Vansittart , Dalton wrote: "It was amazing how some people, otherwise intelligent, had
5967-529: The actions of the party's leadership. He stood down from the post in April 1909. In 1909, party members were encouraged to write for the Labour Leader rather than rival publications. For example, Frederick William Jowett 's parliamentary column was transferred from The Clarion . Throughout this period the paper was known for investigative reporting and high-quality journalism. As early as 1899 an investigation by Hardie had sensationally exposed poor conditions at
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#17328518979276084-690: The age of seven, and from the age of 10 worked in the Lanarkshire coal mines. With a background in preaching, he became known as a talented public speaker and was chosen as a spokesman for his fellow miners. In 1879, Hardie was elected leader of a miners' union in Hamilton and organised a National Conference of Miners in Dunfermline . He subsequently led miners' strikes in Lanarkshire (1880) and Ayrshire (1881). He turned to journalism to make ends meet, and from 1886
6201-456: The age of ten years old, Hardie went to work in the mines as a "trapper": opening and closing a door for a ten-hour shift to maintain the air supply for miners in a given section. Hardie also began to attend night school in Holytown at this time. Hardie's stepfather returned from sea and went to work on a railway line being constructed between Edinburgh and Glasgow. When this job was completed,
6318-401: The basis of the existing property franchise. This, he saw, as potentially delaying the extension of "citizenship" to women on which he spoke passionately: I thought the days of my pioneering were over but of late I have felt, with increasing intensity, the injustice inflicted on women by our present laws. The Party is largely my own child and I cannot part from it lightly, or without pain; but at
6435-524: The bill. [Cries of Divide!] This speech was highly controversial and contributed to the loss of his seat in 1895. Hardie spent the next five years of his life building up the Labour movement and speaking at various public meetings; he was arrested at a woman's suffrage meeting in London, but the Home Secretary , concerned about arresting the leader of the ILP, ordered his release. In 1900 Hardie organised
6552-409: The birth of a royal heir (the future Edward VIII ). The request was refused and Hardie made a speech in the House of Commons attacking the monarchy , which almost predicted the nature of the future king's marriage that led to his abdication . From his childhood onward this boy will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers by the score—[Cries of 'Oh, oh!’]—and will be taught to believe himself as of
6669-463: The boy, including work as an apprentice in a brass-fitting shop, work for a lithographer , employment in the shipyards heating rivets, and time spent as a message boy for a baker for which he earned four shillings and sixpence a week. A great lockout of the Clydeside shipworkers took place in which the unionised workers were sent home for six months. With their main source of income terminated,
6786-527: The charge that the Soviets were acting in bad faith by only promising to go to war if France did so first, Dalton charged that Moscow was acting in accord with the text of the Soviet-Czechoslovak alliance. About the lack of a Soviet-Czechoslovak border, Dalton believe it was possible for Britain to pressure Poland and Romania into granting the Red Army transit rights to aid Czechoslovakia. At a meeting with Chamberlain on 17 September 1938, Dalton criticised
6903-438: The civil service during the war, was his Principal Private Secretary . In this position he tackled the price rings. After the unexpected Labour victory in the 1945 general election Dalton wished to become Foreign Secretary, but the job was instead given to Ernest Bevin . Dalton, with his skills in economics, became Chancellor of the Exchequer . Alongside Bevin, Clement Attlee , Herbert Morrison and Stafford Cripps , Dalton
7020-467: The clear, repeated, and recent statements by the Soviet if France moved, she would move at once'". Dalton was well aware that the Yezhovschina had wrecked the Red Army at least for the moment, but still felt that the Soviet Union was the only power capable of engaging with the Germany in Eastern Europe, and was worth having as an ally against the Reich . In a speech in the House of Commons, Dalton asked Chamberlain "would it not be worth something to have
7137-510: The end of Czechoslovak independence. Under the Munich Agreement, Britain had promised a "guarantee" of Czecho-Slovakia (as Czechoslovakia had been renamed in October 1938) against aggression in exchange for the Sudetenland being allowed to "go home to the Reich ". Dalton in his speech to the House of Commons noted bitterly that Germany had just violated the Munich Agreement and that the British "guarantee" had proven worthless. Dalton stated that Chamberlain "should disappear from office", saying that
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#17328518979277254-407: The export of the Labour Leader from the UK. By 1918 Glasier had increased circulation to 62,000, but she became increasingly at odds with the prominent columnist Philip Snowden . His opposition to the October Revolution was vocally resisted by Glasier, and in the ensuing dispute sales fell away. The stress of the dispute may have contributed to her nervous breakdown . After Glasier resigned from
7371-440: The family moved to the village of Quarter, Lanarkshire , where Hardie went to work as a pony driver at the mines, later working his way into the pits as a hewer . He also worked for two years above ground in the quarries . Around this time he encountered Thomas Carlyle 's Sartor Resartus , which he read until "the spirit of it somewhat entered into me". This was an early and enduring influence on his radicalism and pacifism. By
7488-534: The family was forced to sell all their possessions to pay for food, with Hardie's meagre earnings the only remaining source of income for the household. One sibling took ill and died in the miserable conditions which followed, while the pregnancy of his mother limited her ability to work. Making matters worse, young James lost his job for turning up late on two occasions. In desperation, his stepfather returned to work at sea, while his mother moved from Glasgow to Newarthill , where his maternal grandmother still lived. At
7605-409: The idea put forward by the former Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden for a bloc of states to resist further aggression and urged a barrier to further aggression under the slogan "thus far, but no further". On the evening of 30 March 1939, Dalton along with Arthur Greenwood visited 10 Dowding Street where they were informed by Chamberlain that he planned to announce the British "guarantee" of Poland in
7722-442: The inevitability of pursuing it rather than stopping it immediately. In a full-page article in the Merthyr Pioneer on 28 November 1914, he wrote: May I once again revert for a moment to the ILP pamphlets? None of them clamour for immediately stopping the war. That would be foolish in the extreme, until, at least, the Germans have been driven back across their own frontier, a consummation which, I fear, carries us forward through
7839-455: The latter for accepting at face value the claims of the French foreign minister Georges Bonnet that the Soviet Union would do nothing if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, and therefore it was foolish to trust the promises from the Soviet foreign commissar Maxim Litvinov who claimed otherwise. Bonnet had told Chamberlain that Litvinov had told Jean Payart, the French charge d'affairs in Moscow, that his government's talk of defending Czechoslovakia
7956-402: The local mining industry. The 23-year-old Hardie moved from the coal mines to union organisation work. In May 1879, Scottish mine owners combined to force a reduction of wages, which had the effect of spurring the demand for unionisation. Huge meetings were held weekly at Hamilton as mine workers joined to vent their grievances. On 3 July 1879, Hardie was appointed Corresponding Secretary of
8073-423: The local newspaper, the Cumnock News, a paper loyal to the pro-labour Liberal Party , after which, Hardie joined the Liberal Association, in which he was active. He also continued his temperance work as an active member of the local Good Templar's Lodge . In August 1886, Hardie's ongoing efforts to build a powerful union of Scottish miners were rewarded when there was formed the Ayrshire Miners Union . Hardie
8190-526: The long run, Labour was committed to nationalization of industry and national planning of the economy, to more taxation of the rich and less of the poor, and to expanding the welfare state and creating free medical services for everyone. During the war, most overseas investments had been sold to fund the cost of its prosecution (the state thus losing the income from them), and Britain suffered severe balance of payments problems. The $ 3.75 billion 50-year American loan negotiated by John Maynard Keynes in 1946 (and
8307-427: The miners, a post which gave him opportunity to get in touch with other representatives of the mine workers throughout southern Scotland. Three weeks later, Hardie was chosen by the miners as their delegate to a National Conference of Miners to be held in Glasgow. He was appointed Miners' Agent in August 1879 and his new career as a trade union organiser and functionary was launched. On 16 October 1879, Hardie attended
8424-562: The more militant Left. His emphasis was on using the state as a national planning agency, an approach that appealed well beyond Labour. Turning his attention to the looming crisis in Europe, he became the Labour Party's spokesman on foreign policy in Parliament. Pacifism was a strong element in Labour Party, but the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939 changed that, as the Left moved to support arms for
8541-559: The new party. In 1894 he was able to increase the paper's frequency from monthly to weekly. Hardie continued to publish and edit the Labour Leader until 1904, when he sold it to the ILP, amid some controversy on the appropriate recompense due to him. The ILP appointed John Bruce Glasier to replace Hardie as editor in January 1905. Glasier was able to take sales from 13,000 at the start of his editorship to 43,000 in 1908, but attracted criticism from some ILP members for consistently endorsing all
8658-448: The only decent thing left for him to do would be to resign immediately. Dalton called the newly declared state of Slovakia a sham as he stated the Slovak declaration of independence "had been paid for by German money...and organised by German agents".. Dalton called the Slovak declaration of independence "a convenient legal let-ago of the guarantee" as Chamberlain insisted that the "guarantee"
8775-487: The outbreak of war, on 4 August 1914, Hardie's spirited anti-war speeches often received opposition in the form of loud heckling. Hardie was among many Scottish socialists, the likes of John MacLean and Willie Gallacher , who opposed the War and believed that working-class men fighting other working-class men only served the interests of capitalism. Despite this, once the war had started Hardie seems to have resigned himself to
8892-727: The outgoing Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden declaring that ‘it should be Bevin’." In 1944, Dalton, a Zionist called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. He argued for population transfer , stating, "Let the Arabs be encouraged to move out, as the Jews move in." He went even further and discussed the possibility of "extending the present Palestinian boundaries, by agreement with Egypt, Syria, or Trans-Jordan." In private, Dalton often referred to people of color as "diseased nigger communities" or "wogs." The Treasury faced urgent problems. Half of
9009-438: The pacifistic faction of Labour. However Dalton was not enthusiastic for the Labour party policy of wanting to intervene, later stating: I was far from enthusiastic for the slogan "arms for Spain" if this meant, as some of my friends eagerly did, that we were to supply arms which otherwise we should keep for ourselves, for I was much more conscious than most of my friends of the terrible insufficiency of British armaments against
9126-562: The paper Clifford Allen , then the Treasurer of the ILP, decided that a new approach was necessary. The paper was renamed the New Leader and H. N. Brailsford was appointed editor. Alarmed at Brailsford's left-wing reputation, Ramsay MacDonald ensured that Mary Hamilton was appointed as his more moderate deputy, although she soon left the post. Brailsford championed articles on cultural topics alongside an increased proportion of theoretical pieces, and contributed numerous articles proposing
9243-477: The paper. He was replaced by John Paton . Paton was also an advocate of the living wage policy, but gave only reluctant support to the idea that the ILP should split from the Labour Party . Out of Parliament again in 1931, Brockway returned to the editor's chair, remaining in the post until 1946, when he resigned from the ILP and rejoined the Labour Party. On 11 March 1938, the magazine published an editorial (titled Stalin-Stop! ) calling on Joseph Stalin to end
9360-539: The party continued to grow, forming the first-ever Labour government in 1924. Meanwhile, the Conservative and Liberal Unionist coalition government became deeply unpopular, and Liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman was worried about possible vote-splitting across the Labour and Liberal parties in the next election. A deal was struck in 1903, which became known as the Lib-Lab pact of 1903 or Gladstone-MacDonald pact . It
9477-569: The platonic, citing bike rides in the countryside and sleeping naked under the stars. In 1908, Dalton also made advances at James Strachey , "waving an immense steaming penis in his face and chuckling softly", as Brooke reported to James' brother Lytton . In later life, Dalton seems to have refrained from sexual relationships with men, though he kept a fatherly interest in the career of various young men (such as Hugh Gaitskell , Richard Crossman and Tony Crosland , who had been noted for their good looks and had had same-sex experiences at Oxford) and
9594-473: The police and Brockway was charged with publishing seditious material. Brockway won the case, but commented that "if we weren't dangerous to the government we were failing in our duty!" However, his work in the No-Conscription Fellowship led to his repeated imprisonment and by 1916 he felt unable to continue as editor. Katherine Glasier took over the editorship. In 1917 the government prohibited
9711-602: The position, Winston Churchill became prime minister. During Churchill's coalition government (1940–45) Dalton was Minister of Economic Warfare from 1940 to 1942. He established the Special Operations Executive , and was later a member of the executive committee of the Political Warfare Executive . He became President of the Board of Trade in 1942; the future Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell , drafted into
9828-515: The principle of collective security rather than alliance with the Soviet Union per se, and stated if the Soviet Union should invade Germany, Britain should come to Germany's aid, and likewise favored coming to aid of the Soviet Union should Germany invade. Dalton stated that what he really wanted was "a system of mutual guarantee against aggression in Europe". As the Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov frequently praised
9945-409: The proposed "peace front" rather than the Soviet Union. Dalton argued that Poland was too weak to play the role of the eastern pivot, and only the Soviet Union had the sufficient industrial and military capacity to engage in war with Germany. In particular, Dalton charged that Chamberlain was inept in offering the "guarantee" of Poland without any conditions as he noted that Britain had no leverage over
10062-596: The retreat from Caporetto ; he later wrote a memoir of the war called With British Guns in Italy . Following demobilisation, he returned to the LSE and the University of London as a lecturer, where he was awarded a DSc for a thesis on the principles of public finance in 1920. There have been suggestions that he was homosexual, but they are rejected by his major biographer Ben Pimlott , who states "no evidence exists that Dalton ever had
10179-626: The return wages were escalated across the board by the mine owners, fearful of future labour actions. One of the other leaders of the strike was 19-year-old miner Andrew Fisher , who decades later would become leader of the Australian Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia . He and Hardie met regularly to discuss politics when they both lived in Ayrshire and would renew their acquaintance on several occasions later in life. To make ends meet, Hardie turned to journalism, starting to write for
10296-507: The same time I cannot sever myself from the principles I hold. If it is necessary for me to separate myself from what has been my life's work, I do so in order to remove the stigma resting upon our wives, mothers and sisters of being accounted unfit for citizenship. The PLP defused the crisis by allowing Hardie to vote as he wished on the subject. The precedent became the basis of a "conscience clause" in its standing orders, and would be invoked by party leader Michael Foot in 1981 to argue that
10413-524: The shipyards rather than practising his trade at sea – never an easy proposition given the boom-and-bust cycle of the industry. Hardie's first job, when aged seven, was as a message boy for the Anchor Line Steamship Company . Formal schooling henceforth became impossible, but his parents spent evenings teaching him to read and write, skills which proved essential for future self-education . A series of low-paying entry-level jobs followed for
10530-523: The tax system altogether in Dalton's first two budgets. There were also increases in surtax and death duties , which were opposed by the Opposition. According to one historian, Dalton's policies as Chancellor reflected "an unprecedented emphasis by central government on the redistribution of income". Walking into the House of Commons to give the autumn 1947 budget speech, Dalton made an off-the-cuff remark to
10647-651: The time he was twenty, he had become a skilled practical miner. "Keir", as he was now called, longed for a life outside the mines. To that end, encouraged by his mother, he learned to read and write in shorthand . He also began to associate with the Evangelical Union becoming a member of the Evangelical Union Church, Park Street, Hamilton – now the United Reformed Church, Hamilton (which also incorporates St James' Congregational Church, attended by
10764-480: The title Keir Hardie Street for his 2010 narrative long poem in which a fictitious, turn-of-the-century, working-class poet discovers a socialist utopia off the dreamt-up Sea-Green Line of the London Underground . Hugh Dalton Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton , PC (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of
10881-467: The wartime economy had been devoted to mobilizing soldiers, warplanes, bombs and munitions; an urgent transition to a peacetime budget was necessary, while minimizing inflation. Financial aid through Lend Lease from the United States was abruptly and unexpectedly terminated in September 1945, and new loans and cash grants from the United States and Canada were essential to keep living conditions tolerable. In
10998-495: The will of the conference should not always bind the PLP. Hardie, never good at dealing with internal dissension, did resign his chairmanship of the party the following year, 1908. He was replaced by Arthur Henderson . Hardie in his evidence to the 1899 House of Commons Select Committee on emigration and immigration, argued that the Scots resented immigrants greatly and that they would want
11115-561: The young David Livingstone , the future famous missionary explorer) – and to participate in the Temperance movement . Hardie's avocation of preaching put him before crowds of his fellows, helping him to learn the art of public speaking . Before long, Hardie was looked to by other miners as a logical chairman for their meetings and spokesman for their grievances. Mine owners began to see him as an agitator and in fairly short order, he and two younger brothers were blacklisted from working in
11232-627: Was Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham , the first socialist MP, and later founder of the National Party of Scotland , forerunner to the Scottish National Party . Hardie was invited to stand in West Ham South in 1892, a working-class seat in Essex (now Greater London ). The Liberals decided not to field a candidate, but at the same time not to offer Hardie any assistance. Competing against
11349-404: Was Dalton who ultimately fell victim to the events of that year. Cheaper money—that is, low interest rates—was an important goal for Dalton during his Chancellorship. He wanted to avoid the high interest rates and unemployment experienced after the First World War, and to keep down the cost of nationalization. He gained support for this cheaper money policy from Keynes, as well as from officials of
11466-461: Was a domestic servant and his stepfather, David Hardie, was a ship's carpenter . Hardie had little or no contact with his biological father, a miner from Lanarkshire named William Aitken. The growing family soon moved to the shipbuilding burgh of Govan near Glasgow (which wasn't incorporated into the city until 1912), where they made a life in a very difficult financial situation, with his stepfather attempting to maintain continuous employment in
11583-602: Was a full-time union organiser as secretary of the Ayrshire Miners' Union . Hardie initially supported William Gladstone 's Liberal Party , but later concluded that the working class needed its own party. He first stood for parliament in 1888 as an independent, and later that year helped form the Scottish Labour Party . Hardie won the English seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, and helped to form
11700-476: Was a genuine radical and an inspired politician; a man, to quote his old friend and critic John Freeman , "of feeling, humanity, and unshakeable loyalty to people which matched his talent." Hugh Dalton was born in Neath in South Wales. His father, John Neale Dalton , was a Church of England clergyman who became chaplain to Queen Victoria , tutor to the princes George (later King George V) and Albert Victor , and
11817-460: Was also responsible for funding the introduction of Britain's universal family allowances scheme , doing so "with a song in my heart", as he later put it. In one of his budgets, Dalton significantly increased spending on education (which included £4 million for the universities and the provision of free school milk ), £38 million for the start (from August 1946) of family allowances, and an additional £10 million for Development Areas. In addition,
11934-739: Was among the 2,300 names of prominent persons listed on the Nazis ' Special Search List , of those who were to be arrested on the invasion of Great Britain and turned over to the Gestapo . When war came, Chamberlain's position became untenable after many Conservative MPs refused to support him in the Norway Debate in April 1940, and Dalton and other senior Labour leaders made clear they would join any coalition government except one headed by Chamberlain. After Chamberlain resigned early in May, and Lord Halifax had declined
12051-514: Was an Independent Labour candidate at the Mid Lanarkshire by-election . He finished last but he was not deterred by this, and believed he would enjoy more success in the future. At a public meeting in Glasgow on 25 August 1888 the Scottish Labour Party (a different party from the 1994-created Scottish Labour Party ) was founded, with Hardie becoming the party's first secretary. The party's president
12168-456: Was empty buster. Dalton recalled: "The PM said that Bonnet, in consequence of this conversation, entertained grave doubts about whether the SU meant to do anything. At that point, I said 'I must say Mr. Prime Minister that I do not believe this story. It is quite contrary to what I have heard from more than one good source on which I place reliance...This conversation, moreover, is quite inconsistent, with
12285-549: Was engineered by Ramsay MacDonald and Liberal Chief Whip Herbert Gladstone : the Liberals would not stand against Labour in thirty constituencies in the next election, in order to avoid splitting the anti- Conservative vote. In 1905 Hardie served as an LRC election agent for William Walker who came close to victory with 48.5% of the vote in Belfast North . Despite his own support for Irish home rule , Hardie, who made repeated visits, appeared determined to treat Belfast as
12402-465: Was kept running in Hardie's home during the strike, manned by his new wife, the former Lillie Wilson. While the Lanarkshire mine strike was a failure, Hardie's energy and activity shone and he accepted a call from Ayrshire to relocate there to organise the local miners. The young couple moved to the town of Cumnock , where Keir set to work organising a union of local miners, a process which occupied nearly
12519-496: Was named Organising Secretary of the new union, drawing a salary of £75 per year. In 1887, Hardie launched a new publication called The Miner . Hardie was a dedicated Georgist for a number of years and a member of the Scottish Land Restoration League . It was "through the single tax" on land monopoly that Hardie gradually became a Fabian socialist . He reasoned that "whatever the idea may be, State socialism
12636-707: Was not longer valid as Czecho-Slovakia had ceased to exist on 14 March even before the Germans marched in on 15 March. In response to several Conservative MPs who called Czechoslovakia an "artificial" state created by the Treaty of Versailles, Dalton called Czechoslovakia "a once free and happy model democracy in Central Europe" and noted pointedly that he had actually visited Czechoslovakia a number of times, unlike his critics who had never been there. Dalton ended his speech by warning of "a rapidly increasing danger to Britain", supported
12753-495: Was one of the "Big Five" of the Labour government. In his biography of Attlee and Churchill, Leo McKinstry wrote: "Attlee had initially decided that two of the other most vital jobs, the Treasury and the Foreign Office, should be filled by Bevin and Dalton respectively. But the King had baulked at the idea of Dalton as Foreign Secretary, seeing him as untrustworthy and partisan. Similarly, the Foreign Office exerted pressure against Dalton,
12870-643: Was president of the Ramblers' Association from 1948 to 1950, and Master of the Drapers' Company in 1958–59. He was created a life peer as Baron Dalton , of Forest and Frith in the County Palatine of Durham on 28 January 1960. Dalton substantially expanded Max Otto Lorenz 's work in the measurement of income inequality, offering both an expanded array of techniques but also a set of principles by which to comprehend shifts in an income distribution, thereby providing
12987-556: Was rather touchy-feely with them. In 1951, Dalton wrote to Crossman: "Thinking of Tony, with all his youth and beauty and gaiety and charm... I weep. I am more fond of that young man than I can put into words." According to Nicholas Davenport, Dalton's unrequited feelings for Crosland became an embarrassing joke within the Labour Party. Dalton's papers, including his diaries, are held at the LSE Library. His diaries have been digitised and are available on LSE's Digital Library. Dalton
13104-416: Was supported by Stalin. Dalton wrote in his diary: "This is the most difficult gap in one's knowledge to get filled in...what would they do? No one in this country seemed to know". Under the terms of the 1935 Soviet-Czechoslovak alliance, the Soviet Union was only obligated to go to war if the 1924 Franco-Czechoslovak alliance were activated first in the event of aggression against Czechoslovakia. About
13221-582: Was the election of 29 Labour MPs. In January 1907 at the Labour Party's first annual conference, held in Belfast, Hardie helped raise the issue of whether sovereignty lay with the annual conference, as in the inherited tradition of trade union democracy, or with the PLP. In the closing session he shocked the delegates by threatening to resign from the PLP over an amendment to a resolution on equal suffrage for women that would have bound him as an MP to oppose any compromise legislation that would extend votes to women on
13338-459: Was ultimately exonerated officially, but his reputation suffered another blow. Dalton returned to the cabinet in 1948, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster , making him a minister without portfolio. He became Minister of Town and Country Planning in 1950, the position being renamed as Minister of Local Government and Planning the following year. An avid outdoorsman, he served a term as president of
13455-612: Was unveiled by Cynon Valley MP Ann Clwyd outside council offices in Aberdare (in his former constituency). The ceremony marked a centenary since the party's birth. Hardie is still held in high esteem in his old home town of Holytown , where his childhood home is preserved for people to view, while the local sports centre was named in his own honour as "The Keir Hardie Sports Centre". Keir Hardie Memorial Primary School opened in 1956, named for him. There are now 40 streets throughout Britain named after Hardie. Alan Morrison has, in turn, used
13572-474: Was used as Hardie's platform in the 1888 Mid Lanarkshire by-election , following which Hardie became a founder member of the Scottish Labour Party and relaunched The Miner as the Labour Leader . In 1893, the Scottish Labour Party affiliated to the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Hardie became the party's first leader and began using the Labour Leader as a forum for the development of policy for
13689-503: Was wrong in this assessment of British interests, stating that "When the Germans overran France in 1940 and reached the Pyrenees, Franco was neutral, and with remarkable skill maintained his neutrality until the end of the war. Hitler respected this and never forced his way through Spain to attack Gibraltar or crossed the Straits into Morocco." and "Hitler would not have respected the neutrality of
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