Was the Chamberlain Government economically left-wing?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Good God no. And that paragraph must have been written by an admirer as it implies a general picture that is really not true at all...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'Slum clearance' being written there is the biggest joke of all, of course. None of that on a meaningful scale until the Blitz the Post War period.

Good God no. And that paragraph must have been written by an admirer as it implies a general picture that is really not true at all...

The point, of course, is that his domestic record was virtually nonexistent, especially when you consider the context of the time. His defenders (isn't this sort of historical hipsterism the worst thing ever?) often point to housing, which is hilarious. The interwar estates were a result of acts passed by the 1924 and 1929-1931 Labour governments (which provided the money) and local government action. Of course most governments before 1945 had fyck all in the way of domestic achievement, but that's really no excuse.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Joseph Chamberlain supported 'tariff reform' because it would have helped out his mates; the economy of Birmingham was then driven largely by small scale manufacturing aimed directly at consumers and shutting off commercial rivals from both domestic and imperial markets (the latter part was the main thing, really) had a certain obvious appeal. He dressed it up in the language of jingoism and social reform because he was a cynical old bastard.