Talk:National Labour Organisation

Page move
'National Labour' was never a 'Party' during its existence; the body which organised and funded the election campaigns of National Labour candidates was called the National Labour Organisation. There appear to be no contemporary sources indicating that people unofficially referred to the 'National Labour Party', because this would have caused confusion with the national offices of the Labour Party. The Times used the the term National Labour Organization when it reported on its move of offices on 19 October 1937 (p. 18) as well as on all other occasions when the subject came up. The name 'National Labour Organisation' is the one used in a standard reference work on this subject. Therefore I propose to move this page to National Labour Organisation within the next few days, with the templates and links changed at the same time. Sam Blacketer (talk) 21:50, 23 August 2009 (UTC)


 * This move appears to have been completed without any problems but I will check for any possible issues. Sam Blacketer (talk) 23:46, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Logo/posters
Are there any pics of the party's logo/posters there online? I couldn't find anything. Might be added here, once an infobox is established. --Lokalkosmopolit (talk) 10:58, 7 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I have some of the party's literature, but I'm afraid the 1930s were a time before present-day branding. There is no consistent logo; indeed MacDonald's 1935 election address does not even mention 'National Labour'. The 1931 addresses and literature simply put the party name in type, not in any consistent format. In later years the party often used Gill Sans as a display font, but that was not distinctive in the 1930s. The 'News-Letter' throughout the whole of 1937-38 has no party logo in it. Sam Blacketer (talk) 15:06, 7 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I came to the idea of asking after I had found a superb collection of similar stuff existing on Ireland: http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/. --Lokalkosmopolit (talk) 17:56, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

National Labour's political position
It is somewhat POV to pronounce a political organisation's de facto and de jure position to be different; one should have clear and unbiased sources to draw upon, and I don't see any identified. One must also be careful not to fall into the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc in arguing that its members who ended up as Conservatives are proof of what it always was.

Placing National Labour on the political spectrum is a difficult exercise because it was fundamentally linked to the National government; however there are some clear statements from National Labour in which its allegiance is demonstrated. For instance in "The News-Letter" of 3 July 1937 (vol 10, no. 20, p. 317) the National Labour area agent for the West and South Wales declares "It [ie National Labour] has now provided an organisation into which may come those who have long sought a Left-wing vehicle of expression free from the limitations of party shibboleths and slogans".

Back in March 1937 National Labour MP Robert Denman comments on the LCC election (in which the Labour Party had unexpectedly improved its majority and when National Labour had unsuccessfully run a candidate in conjunction with a Conservative) to complain that no 1931-type event had occurred in local government, so such an alliance was inappropriate: "Why on earth should any type of Labour man be expected to vote against Mr. Morrison's administration of London?". There are National Labour publications which cautiously associate the party with socialism. And in 1932 the Conservative Party Chairman Lord Stonehaven refused to persuade Wednesbury Conservative Association to support a National Labour candidate on the grounds that "it was simply hopeless to expect a Conservative organization to adopt a Socialist as their candidate" (quoted in Stannage, 'Baldwin Thwarts the Opposition', p. 36).

Fundamentally the approach of National Labour was to support the government but they were always keen to stress that the government was genuinely a 'National' one and not a Conservative government in disguise. They would point to individual government policies as examples of why it was not. There is a lot of room to dispute that but it is not for the voice of Wikipedia to pronounce these arguments unequivocally wrong. Sam Blacketer (talk) 22:15, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

Literature on National Labour
I have long been fascinated by this organisation. The last one to provide a Prime Minister that was neither Conservative or Labour. Does anyone know where to find more information? For example, the News-Letter?? --Gepid (talk) 14:46, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

National Labour Peers
One thing I'm finding tricky - where can one come across a list of peers in the House of Lords, preferably with their political affiliations - very easily done for the commons but so far I've had no luck finding lists of Peers who sat between 1931-45, and specifically a list of National Labour peers. This could be added to the page. Porphrogenita (talk) 16:50, 4 January 2020 (UTC)