History UsefulNotes / RamsayMacdonald

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ramsay_macdonald.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A fine moustache.]]

->''"He wishes to do the right thing...Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government!"''

Over time, [=MacDonald=] regained his standing and respect, and he returned to parliament in the 1922 general election, which saw Labour replace the Liberal Party as the chief opposition to the Conservative Party. He wasted no time in deposing party leader John Clynes, a generally well-liked and respected man, but one who just about everybody could tell would be hopelessly out of his league in the event of Labour forming the next government -- which happened much sooner than anybody had expected when new Prime Minister UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin called a general election the following year, and proceeded to lose his majority, causing his government to fall after the Liberals refused to support a minority administration. As the leader of the next-largest party, it fell to [=MacDonald=] to form a government.

His first government was a minority government that lasted about 9 months. [=MacDonald=] took the post of Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister and made it clear that his main priority was to undo the damage which he believed had been caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. In order to try and get an overall majority after the Liberals pulled their support he called an election, and then one of the biggest scandals of the age hit: the Zinoviev letter. This falsified document apparently showed the leader of the Communist International in the USSR instructing British Communists to prepare for revolution, causing a backlash against the whole left and a belief that only the Conservatives could stand against Communism. Labour actually gained votes in the election, but many Liberal supporters switched to supporting the Conservatives, handing the latter victory. This had the side-effect of permanently eliminating the Liberals as an actual party of government, leaving Labour firmly established as the only viable opposition to the Conservatives.

Labour came back to power in 1929 but then got swept away by The Great Depression and [=MacDonald's=] insistence that the government did not use deficit spending to stimulate the economy. In 1931 he formed a "National Government" with the Conservatives, but only a handful of Labour politicians followed him; the Labour Party kicked him out and labelled him a traitor. In the 1931 election, the National Government won the biggest landslide in British history and [=MacDonald=] was left in the peculiar situation of being a socialist politician steering a Conservative-dominated government. This also makes [=MacDonald=] technically the last Prime Minister from a party other than the Conservatives or Labour, as he spent the remainder of his life as part of the breakaway National Labour Party who, despite having a similar name, were unaffiliated with the main Labour Party.

His health deteriorated during the rest of his premiership and most of the actual power got handed to UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin, handing the Premiership over in 1935. [=MacDonald=] stayed in government until 1937 -- outside of a hiatus of about four months in-between his losing his seat in the 1935 general election, and winning another seat in a by-election the following January -- and died later that year.

His first government was a minority government that lasted about 9 months. [=MacDonald=] took the post of Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister and made it clear that his main priority was to undo the damage which he believed had been caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. In order to try and get an overall majority he called an election, and then one of the biggest scandals of the age hit: the Zinoviev letter. This falsified document apparently showed the leader of the Communist International in the USSR instructing British Communists to prepare for revolution, causing a backlash against the whole left and a belief that only the Conservatives could stand against Communism. Labour actually gained votes in the election, but many Liberal supporters switched to supporting the Conservatives, handing the latter victory.

Labour came back to power in 1929 but then got swept away by The Great Depression and [=MacDonald's=] insistence that the government did not use deficit spending to stimulate the economy. In 1931 he formed a "National Government" with the Conservatives, but only a handful of Labour politicians followed him; the Labour Party kicked him out and labelled him a traitor. In the 1931 election, the National Government won the biggest landslide in British history and [=MacDonald=] was left in the peculiar situation of being a socialist politician steering a Conservative-dominated government.

His health deteriorated during the rest of his premiership and most of the actual power got handed to UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin, handing the Premiership over in 1935. [=MacDonald=] stayed in government until 1937 and died later that year.

* In the [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish Doctor Who]] story [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho016StormWarning Storm Warning]], set in 1931, a [[ClockRoaches Vortisaur]] is named Ramsay by Charley Pollard after the current PM, as she believes it resembles him.

* In BigFinishDoctorWho the Vortisaur Ramsay is named by Charley Pollard after him, as she believes it resembles him.

His first government was a minority government that lasted about 9 months. [=MacDonald=] took the post of Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister and made it clear that his main priority was to undo the damage which he believed had been caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. In order to try and get an overall majority he called an election, and then one of the biggest scandals of the age hit: the Zinoviev letter. This falsified document made it look like [=MacDonald=] had been trying to establish a communist government in the UK. Labour actually gained votes in the election, but many Liberal supporters switched to supporting the Conservatives, handing the latter victory.

[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-ramsay_macdonald_9588_3513.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:220:A fine moustache]]

James Ramsay [=MacDonald=] was a British politician and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924.

!Ramsay [=MacDonald=] in fiction:

->''"He wishes to do the right thing...Today 23 years ago dear [[QueenVicky Grandmama]] died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government!"''

----
!!Tropes:
* EtTuBrute: Despite the fact he led them into power for the first time, [=MacDonald=] was reviled in the Labour Party for many years for throwing them under a bus in order to form the National Government with the Tories.
* LandslideElection: The 1931 general election made a complete mockery of the adversarial system, with the parties in [=MacDonald's=] National Government taking 67% of the vote and winning 554 of the 615 seats. The Tories alone won more than half of the vote - the only time any party has done so under universal suffrage.
* TheManBehindTheMan: By the time he resigned due to ill health, UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin was effectively in charge.
* ShotgunWedding: Averted. This trope is what his parents had ''hoped'' to force by his birth. Unfortunately, mid-19th century Lossiemouth had gotten wise to this trick and his grandmother forbade them from marrying, and so [=MacDonald=] was born out of wedlock--the first and so far only PM with that "distinction".

-->'''King George V'''

->King George V

His first government was a minority government that lasted about 9 months. [=MacDonald=] took the post of Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister and made it clear that his main priority was to undo the damage which he believed had been caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. In order to try and get an overall majority he called an election, and then one of the biggest scandals of the age hit: the Zinoviev letter. This falsified document made it look like [=MacDonald=] had been trying to establish a communist government in the [=UK=]. Labour actually gained votes in the election, but many Liberal supporters switched to supporting the Conservatives, handing the latter victory.

Labour came back to power in 1929 but then got swept away by The Great Depression and [=MacDonald's=] insistence that the government did not use deficit spending to stimulate the economy. In 1931 he formed a "National Government" with the Conservatives, but only a handful of Labour politicians followed him; the Labour Party kicked him out and labelled him a traitor. In the 1931 election, the National Government won the biggest landslide in British history and [=MacDonald=] was left in the peculiar situation of being a socialist politician steering an Conservative-dominated government.

* TheManBehindTheMan: By the time he resigned due to ill health, StanleyBaldwin was effectively in charge.