Talk:Second MacDonald ministry

Renamed
Renamed as part of a plan of consistent usage, as set forth at Talk:List of British governments. RGloucester (talk) 03:55, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

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Prorogation
During the recent political/legal debates about prorogation, it came to light that Parliament was prorogued (suspended) for a few months in the autumn of 1930. Anybody know why?Paulturtle (talk) 01:29, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Off the top of my head, because MacDonald couldn't command the confidence of the House. Can't recall the details at the moment, he was rather lurching from crisis to crisis by then. DuncanHill (talk) 01:43, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

The figures are available on a spreadsheet downloadable from the HoC website. Up until WW1 it was not uncommon for Parliament to be prorogued for 5-6 months each year as autumn sessions were still relatively rare (Asquith held autumn sessions in 1909 and 1910 during the Budget/HoL Crisis, but not in 1913 during the Ulster Crisis - and he prorogued for 2 months (18 Sep - 11 Nov) in autumn 1914, which I think was the occasion when Bonar Law led a protest walkout from the Commons because he was rushing Home Rule onto the statute book).

In the interwar period about 2 months was perfectly common, so MacDonald wasn't doing anything particularly unusual between 1 August 1930 and 28 October 1930, even if he was glad to see the back of the HoC for a couple of months. David Marquand's long biog didn't shed any light, which perhaps suggests that nobody thought anything much of it.

From 1931 onwards prorogation became a matter of days other than in General Election years, in which 4-6 weeks is normal. Attlee held a very brief (6 weeks) autumn 1948 session, so he effectively fast-forwarded 2 years of Parliamentary time in 6 weeks of real time - that was to get the 1949 Parliament Act through, which cut the Lords' delaying power from 3 years to 1 year.Paulturtle (talk) 00:26, 30 December 2019 (UTC)##


 * Just re-reading Skidelsky "Politicians and the Slump" lately - he briefly mentions the autumn 1929 prorogation, and I don't think he mentions the 1930 at all. The suggestion is therefore that they were both entirely non-controversial.Paulturtle (talk) 07:04, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Local Government Act 1929
The Local Government Act 1929 is listed, but was passed in March 1929 under the Conservative Second Baldwin ministry. Mauls (talk) 12:04, 5 December 2023 (UTC)