Politics

RAMSAY MACDONALD

The 20 Prime Ministers of the 20th Century
by Kevin Morgan

James Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) The Labour Party's first Prime Minister, in 1924 and 1929-35. In 1900 he was the first secretary of the newly formed Labour Representation Committee (the original name for the party). Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister with Liberal support in January 1924. When a letter (probably a forgery) from Grigori Zinoviev, the head of the Communist International, urging armed revolution was published in the press a few days before the general election of 1924 as an anti-leftist scare, his coalition government was defeated. In 1929 Labour was for the first time the largest party, but his new government had to grapple with the problems of the Depression. Head of a 'national' government, he alternated the premiership with Stanley Baldwin. He resigned in 1935.

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ATTLEE

The 20 Prime Ministers of the 20th Century
by David Howell

Clement Attlee (1883-1957, earl Attlee 1955) Labour politician, Prime Minister 1945-51. The first Labour Prime Minister with an absolute Common's majority. Attlee's post-war government enacted a broad programme of socialist legislation in spite of conditions of austerity in which rationing was actually extended. By the end of 1946 acts had been passed nationalising the Bank of England and creating the National Health Service. The railways, the mines and supply of gas and electricity soon followed into public ownership. Meanwhile he had been closely involved in the process of dismantling the British empire, with independence to India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma.

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CHAMBERLAIN

The 20 Prime Ministers of the 20th Century
by Graham Macklin

Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) Conservative politician, Prime Minister 1937-40. The majority in Britain hoped that a peaceful solution could be found for Germany's claim on areas of other countries with German population, and Chamberlain was a willing spokesman for this policy of appeasement. With the agreement at Munich in 1938 he effectively abandoned Czechoslovakia, but immediately accelerated Britain's rearmament programme and the following year declared that Britain would defend Poland. This commitment led, in September 1939, to the start of World War II. He brought into his War Cabinet the leading opponent of appeasement, Winston Churchill. The failure of the campaign in Norway in April 1940 led to his resignation.

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CHURCHILL

The 20 Prime Ministers of the 20th Century
by Chris Wrigley

Winston Churchill (1874-1965, KG 1953) Conservative politician, Prime Minister 1940-5 and 1951-5. Perhaps the most determined and inspirational war leader in Britain's history, it was during that darkest summer of 1940 that Churchill's astonishing oratory seemed to rally the nation, from his opening statement to the House of Commons on May 13th that he had 'nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat'. Each successive crisis produced phrases that have resounded ever since, from the danger of invasion after the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk ('their finest hour') to the Battle of Britain (his tribute to the 'Few'). However, he lost the general election in June 1945. But he returned to Downing Street in 1951, finally retiring in 1955.

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