James Ramsay MacDonald (1866 - 1937) had an astonishing and
meteoric career in British politics, in turn revered and execrated by the
Labour Party he did so much to nourish; he ended his days in alliance with the
Tories, for long his deadliest enemies. Apart from his many merits, MacDonald’s
story is a powerful illustration of the social mobility possible in supposedly
class-ridden Britain in the early 20th century. The illegitimate son
of a Scots housemaid and a poor farm labourer became three times Prime Minister
of Britain and, rather damagingly, the pampered toast of London duchesses.
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| Young Ramsay MacDonald |
Born in the humblest of circumstances in the socially
tolerant Moray fishing village of Lossiemouth bordering the Scottish Highlands,
Ramsay was a bright pupil and self-improver. He threw himself into Socialist
and trade union politics at a time when working class voters were hardly
represented in Parliament. I will not chronicle the wearisome manoeuvres within
the tiny sects which eventually emerged as the ILP, Labour Representation
Council and then The Labour Party. The founders were all Scots, Keir Hardie,
Arthur Henderson and Ramsay MacDonald. Astutely, in 1903, MacDonald negotiated
a secret Lib-Lab pact with W.E.’s son Herbert Gladstone whereby the friendly
Liberals agreed not to field a candidate against Labour in certain otherwise
unwinnable seats in the event of an election. In the Liberal landslide of 1906,
Labour acquired a useful 29 seats with MacDonald himself elected as Member for Leicester. In 1911, MacDonald became Leader of the Labour
Party.
MacDonald was an untiring pamphleteer, propagandist and
theoretician for early Labour. In time his Socialism moderated as he realised
Labour had to acquire gravitas and be
recognised as a responsible potential party of government. He had married the
relatively well-off Margaret Gladstone (no relation to W.E.) in 1896: he could
afford to travel and he visited the US, South Africa and India, widening his
horizons. He had studied as an adult student at Birkbeck College, London University.
A fine figure of a man, MacDonald became an excellent public
speaker at a time when platform oratory swayed electors. He spoke with an
attractive lilting Highland accent. His much-loved wife died of blood-poisoning
in 1911 and he soon entered into a long-term liaison lasting until 1929 with
the aristocratic author and poet Lady Margaret Sackville, who lived near
Edinburgh.
When war came in 1914, MacDonald was appalled and declined
to support Britain’s entry. He adopted a pacifist stance and was roundly
condemned by a wildly patriotic public. He resigned as Leader, to be succeeded
by Henderson, though he remained as Party Treasurer. Although he lost his seat
in the immediate post-war “Coupon” Election, he returned to Parliament and his
pacifism became more admired as the blunders, futility and hideous blood-letting
of the War entered public consciousness. His treatment was notably more
generous than that meted out to American left-wing pacifist leader Eugene Debs
in 1919 (10 years in jail).
The Liberals were split and were losing votes to Labour. In
1922 Lloyd George’s coalition government fell and the Conservatives held sway
under Bonar Law and then Baldwin. In 1924 Baldwin unadvisedly called an
election; the Conservatives polled weakly and, with Liberal support, MacDonald
was able to form a minority government, the first Labour one. It lasted 9
months.
MacDonald himself became both Foreign Secretary and Prime
Minister, making useful progress on ameliorating German reparations, supporting
the League of Nations and moving to recognise the Soviet Union. His “Red
Clydeside” health minister John Wheatley, passed a landmark Act greatly
increasing the supply of council housing. Fear of Bolshevism gripped the
Western world and MacDonald’s government fell to a “Red Scare”, losing a vote
of confidence after he failed to prosecute an incendiary Socialist editor
called Campbell and later being derailed by a forged letter supposedly sent by
President Zinoviev inciting British trades unionists. Baldwin comfortably won
the election but Labour was established as the second largest party.
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| MacDonald in 1929 |
MacDonald deplored communist influence on his party and
urged restraint to the TUC in the run-up to the failed 1926 General Strike. The
Crash and the Depression loomed and to some degree MacDonald was handed a
poisoned chalice when Labour formed another minority government with Liberal
support after the 1929 election.
MacDonald retained orthodox Snowden at the Treasury and
Henderson at the Foreign Office. A conciliatory approach was made to Gandhi
regarding responsible government in India, short of independence, and a naval
treaty was signed limiting the fleets of Britain, the USA and Japan. Home
affairs were the priority as unemployment rose steadily and traditional
industries like mining, shipbuilding, textiles and steel-making lost ground.
Defending sterling’s adherence to the Gold Standard was a (probably mistaken)
policy aim and as the economic situation deteriorated Snowden asked Sir John
May to produce a report on the way forward. The 1931 May Report supported the
orthodox line of drastic cuts in public spending, including welfare benefits,
to achieve a balanced budget. The government was split over acceptance of these
measures and to resolve the crisis MacDonald proposed and formed a National
Government including the Tories.
The great bulk of the Labour Party declined to join,
expelling MacDonald, decried as a “traitor,” along with his cabinet supporters
Snowden and Thomas. A small National Labour group formed around him. The Tories
pushed for an election and MacDonald’s National Government won a huge majority
– “a doctor’s mandate” to deal with the crisis – with the Labour members
reduced to 52, even fewer than the fading Liberals, a crushing set-back.
MacDonald was thereafter demonised by Labour for the “great
betrayal” of 1931 attributed to MacDonald’s personal ambition. Recent historians, like David Marquand and
Robert Skidelsky, have been more measured. Schumpeter earlier had highly
praised MacDonald’s courage in acting in the public interest. In hindsight,
maybe the May Report had been right, even though Lloyd George and Oswald Mosley
had supported the deficit financing proposals of J M Keynes, whose views
notoriously fluctuated.
After much suffering and poverty the British economy
recovered in the 1930s, prudently managed by Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain;
its centre of gravity moved from Scotland and the North to the Midlands and the
South as the motor-car and consumer durable industries expanded. The US and
German economies fared much worse, only stimulated later by the rush to re-arm.
MacDonald’s final years were sad. He was taken up by the
fashionable salon of Lady
Londonderry, but his political friends deserted him. Snowden, a free-trader,
objected to the 1932 Ottowa Agreements granting imperial preference and
resigned. Garrulous Jimmy Thomas babbled budget secrets and lost his position.
Ramsay’s talented son Malcolm, later to be a distinguished politician and diplomat,
remained loyal.
MacDonald’s powers were failing. Nominally Prime Minister,
MacDonald’s performances in the Commons became embarrassing; he waffled and
havered. His weakness internationally was brilliantly but cruelly mocked by
Winston Churchill.
I
remember when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's Circus,
which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit on
the program which I most desired to see was the one described as "The
Boneless Wonder". My parents judged that the spectacle would be too demoralizing
and revolting for my youthful eye and I have waited fifty years, to see The
Boneless Wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.
MacDonald resigned finally as Prime Minister in 1935 and
lost his Seaham seat in the election that year to Clydesider Mannie Shinwell. His physical
and mental health collapsed and he went on a recuperative Atlantic sea-cruise.
He died on board in 1937 and was buried at sea.
His reputation should be re-appraised and his major
contribution to British public life honoured.
SMD
3.06.13
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013
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