Britain

From the journal of "HI" a marvellous teleporting space wizard sent from the future. (This explains my knowledge of future events, and why I never use conventional means of transportation. This also helps explain the apparent typo in the title of the blog.)

I have recently teleported to Britain.

 

Unemployment has wreaked havoc in Britain. The number is just under Three million. The Depression has not been rampant everywhere but where it is active it is causing devastating effects; most notably in Lancashire, Cumberland, and Northern Ireland. Although times have been tough over here, there is no revolution or violent protests occurring on the streets. I have spoken to quite a few citizens and most agree that although they are in economic turmoil, British Democracy has proven very capable of ruling and expanding, and winning confrontations. It is clear that the protesters have no desire for revolution when one examine the "General Strike" of 1926. All protests were peaceful in nature. In addition it became evident to me that British democracy was not threatened when I took a closer look at the communist influence in Britain. The membership of the Communist Party never exceeded 20,000. They failed to appeal to the working class largely because Brittan's democracy worked, and it was stable. All in all though, Prime Minister MacDonald had his fair share to worry about. All this unemployment was causing government spending to go up, but unemployment continued to rise. This caused citizens' incomes to go down, which in turn, limited the governments income from taxes. MacDonald was forced to make some harsh cuts. Most of which were directed towards unemployment benefits and wages of public employees. It was because of this many ministers from the Labour Part resigned and a coalition government was formed consisting of mainly conservatives. Soon all I heard on the radio was of John Maynard Keynes who had an interesting plan for escaping the effects of the Depression. He believed the main enemy was unemployment and by spending more money, more jobs would be created. It was this that would prove essential in escaping the Depression. Keynes claimed, "Whenever you save five shillings, you put a man out of work for a day." The largely conservative government took a safer approach by merely lowering interest rates. Britain also tried to encourage local spending by putting high tariffs on imports. However, it was well established that Britain`s economy relied heavily on global trade. This plan only hindered Britain's efforts in defeating the Depression. Recently the Unemployment Assistance Board has been set up (UAB). This organization pays national rates of assistance to those in need. However, I have noticed social distress on the streets. The UAB determines who receives assistance through methods that violate one's privacy. These people on the streets believe it is their right to receive assistance from the government. The most alarming thing I`ve seen here in Britain though is a small cult following for fascism and totalitarianism; mainly towards Sir Oswald Mosley. These fascists have been parading the streets of Britain, in fact just the other day I saw various propaganda posters being displayed all over the streets. The sickening part is that the Daily Mail is endorsing these fascists and what they stand for. I have decided to leave Britain a bit early after the riot in the East End of London, October 1936. I am re-assured that a Public Order Act will be passed that heavily restricts their uniforms and marches in the streets.