Mediterranean Hegemony Road - v5 Chapter 155
On April 5, 1929, the highly anticipated British parliamentary election finally came to an end, and the Labor Party won with a slight advantage.
At the end of June, George V appointed Labour leader McDonald as the new Prime Minister and was appointed to form the new British government.
History has opened a new page again, and the Labour cabinet, which has just gained power, does not yet know what kind of trouble they are about to face.
The current British economy is still prosperous on the surface, and all contradictions are covered up by false prosperity on the surface.
Because the election failed, the financial reform policy formulated by the Conservative government was naturally taken away with the general election.
A lot of chaotic matters now need to be dealt with by the McDonald’s cabinet, such as the follow-up of the Southeast Asian colonial rebellion, the ongoing Afghanistan war, and the turbulent London haze.
In the midst of his busy schedule, MacDonald’s Cabinet naturally did not find that the British economy was already in danger, and the economic crisis was about to start.
Based on the idea of pitting political opponents, the preparatory work done by the Conservative government was just for the record, and no one reminded them to pay attention to these.
In the following days, the first trouble facing the McDonald’s government was the issue of soldiers’ pensions.
With the end of the Southeast Asian War, the number of casualties of soldiers has gradually been counted up. In the Conservative government period, in order to stimulate the soldiers’ enthusiasm for combat, the welfare benefits have been greatly improved, including pensions.
The current pension for each soldier includes: a death allowance of 3,000 pounds, a child education allowance of 0 to 1,500 pounds, and a family member’s mental loss fee of 500 to 2,000 pounds.
On average, the total pension expenditure of each soldier is 5,000 pounds +. The Southeast Asian War has now determined that as many as 53,000 soldiers have been killed, of which less than 20% have been paid.
In addition, more than 12,000 people are missing, and the current life and death are unknown. This also requires an explanation to the soldiers’ families.
The dead are easy to solve, and there are a lot of wounded people waiting for the government to resettle. The Conservative government has promised to solve the employment problem of all disabled soldiers.
Now that they have stepped down, this issue is also what McDonald needs to take over. At least 100,000 people need the government to solve their employment problems.
After the battle is over, disarmament also requires money. Winning battle bonuses are always indispensable, and meritorious people also need to appease.
Including the colonial army and several major self-governing armies, others have come to help fight the war. Now that the war is over, the casualty pension must always be paid, right?
Even if the dead Asan is worthless, how much do you always pay for severance when you are alive?
Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and North America. These London governments always have to bear part of the military expenses?
Otherwise, it is estimated that the next war will not be called!
In total, Prime Minister McDonald’s found that the war really killed people. To suppress a small Southeast Asian rebellion, the follow-up expenditure would be 300 to 400 million pounds.
Even if the British Empire is a big cause, can’t you afford it? The cost of the war has been added up, and it has reached a billion pounds.
This is much higher than the cost of war during the Boer War. Sure enough, high-tech warfare costs money. The cost of a tank can be equipped with a battalion, infantry is always the cheapest.
“Sir Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance can’t afford such a large amount of money now, which is equivalent to one third of our fiscal revenue this year!” Finance Minister Pete Zou said with a brow.
In history, the Labour Party is now in power for the second time, although the first time was only nine months, it was kicked out of office.
Under Ferdinand’s butterfly effect, now they have just stepped onto the stage in history and have no governing experience. It is naturally extremely difficult to face these problems.
“What plans did the previous Cabinet have, I don’t believe they were not ready?” McDonald asked.
“Unfortunately, Your Excellency, the plan of the previous government was only a draft and did not give a solution. This problem still needs us to solve!” Finance Minister Pete said helplessly
Even if there is a way, it will be left to his own political opponents? Moreover, it is a question whether they dare to use the plan left by the Conservative Party.
“So what does the Treasury plan to do? Is it an external loan or a bond issue?” McDonald asked with concern.
“We suggest issuing bonds, and if we loan to the consortium, we may lose our initiative in the future!” Finance Minister Pete said cautiously
The money of the consortium is not easy to borrow. Once it is related to them, it is impossible to be bitten by the meat.
Any politician knows that if they can not deal with the consortium, they should not deal with them. It is very troublesome because they owe their favor.
No one dared not owe it, and did not dare to pay the bill in the end without good results. At some point in the future, because of this relationship, they will have to make some reluctant decisions.
“Okay, let’s do this, clean up this mess first, don’t let the Conservative Party get hold of it!” McDonald thought about it and said
Compared with the Conservative Party, the Labour Party’s foundation is still too weak. If it were not for the haze problem, they would not have won so easily.
“My Excellency, another problem is the weather in London. After a maximum of four or five months, the haze will return again.
In the previous government, we were ousted from office because of no action on this issue. Now, this difficult problem has come to our hands. Secretary of State Rice said
In order to win the general election, the Labor Party clearly settled the London haze problem as a campaign platform. This was a great victory in the MPs in the London constituency and laid the foundation for their entry into Downing Street.
Now is the time to honor the promises, otherwise when the winter arrives, people will find that the weather in London has not improved, and it is estimated that they will start to protest again.
You know, the total population of the city of London now exceeds 10 million, and more than a quarter of the votes are cast here.
Whoever offends such a large group of people, it is estimated that they should never want to continue to be confused in the political arena. The votes in their hands are enough to determine the outcome of an election.
This issue cannot be confused. Once winter comes, all problems will be exposed. If there are no visible results, the protesters will soon block Downing Street.
McDonald had no way to learn from the previous administration and put in a so-called three-year plan to delay time. During the election, he exaggerated Haikou, and now it is too late to take it back!
“What’s your opinion, you can solve this problem while keeping it as stable as possible?” McDonald asked.
“Considering the actual situation, we have developed a corporate relocation plan that minimizes the impact as much as possible, mainly for some companies in and around London.
The government has given certain preferential tax policies and tried its best to persuade some major polluting enterprises to relocate. The first batch of relocated enterprises include: 12 chemical plants, 15 manufacturing plants, three steel plants, two coking plants … “Minister of State Rice hurriedly said
“What are you talking about? London actually has a chemical plant. How can this be possible?” McDonald said incredulously
“His Excellency, chemical plants in London have always existed. After the outbreak of the United States flu, everyone recognized the dangers of chemical plants, and there has been a stir in the world about moving chemical plants away from cities.
Few countries can actually do this. At present, chemical factories are really far away from cities. Bulgaria is among the big countries.
The Lloyd-George government, under the pressure of domestic capitalists, only relocated several chemical plants in downtown London and abandoned the relocation of chemical plants around the city! The Minister of State replied
“I finally understand why the smog is poisonous. With the existence of these tumor factories, it is difficult to think of poisoning!
Regardless of this time, we must let them all move away. Where is this factory? It is simply a bunch of time bombs.
In case that day explodes, the whole of London is dead! No, it should be said that the entire British Empire is finished!
Sorry, I’m so excited, you continue! McDonald said excitedly
Sure enough, the U.S. pandemic flu is not ineffective, and everyone’s awareness of safety has not only improved.
At this time, experts said that it was useless to break the sky. Anyway, everyone thinks that chemical plants around the city are a threat.
“It doesn’t matter. I can understand your mood. When I first saw the news, I felt the same way!
We can publish a list of these factories in the newspaper. If they refuse to relocate, presumably the citizens will help drive them away!
The last die-hards are our real enemies. At that time, the government can issue laws to force them to shut down! “Les said indifferently.
Sure enough, he played politics. He didn’t dare to directly confront the capitalists, so he used public opinion to achieve his purpose, and used public pressure to force the capitalists to move factories.
As for compensation? That’s all symbolic!
To relocate so many factories is not so simple, there is a lot of work in front and back, and the cost is naturally not low.
This requires relocating the factory, repairing the plant, relocating machinery and equipment, reassembling it, and finding ways to get the workers over.
It is impossible to complete these tasks without a year and a half. This means that any relocated company should not want to start construction normally in the coming year.
The enterprise cannot start normally. What should these workers do? Let the capitalists feed or the government pay for it?
Anyway, they have no savings, and they can’t afford themselves, let alone a family member.
Did McDonald’s Cabinet consider these issues?
The answer is: no!
Don’t think that they are the Labor Party, that is, the party representing the interests of the working class. In fact, there is no relationship between the two sides.
When it is nothing more than drawing votes, some high-level theories are formulated to say that they are still essentially bourgeois parties. They were pioneers in suppressing the workers’ movement.
So, the biggest problem is just ignored.
It’s just that these politicians are not stupid, knowing that they come in batches, don’t look at the dog blood they approved of the Conservative Party’s haze control plan. They just came out of power and used it.
Heavily polluting companies will be removed first. Without these dozens of large factories, how can London’s pollution be reduced?
As long as there are visible results, the later problems will be much easier to handle, and the people will still be fooled, and all responsibility will be passed on to the capitalists.
…
August in London is the best time of the year. The so-called autumn is high and it is a good time to go out.
The world’s economy is still advancing rapidly, and no one notices that behind the bustling, there is already a mountain of goods in a certain corner of the city. Because no suitable buyers can be found, they have to be discarded like garbage.
On Friday, August 18th, the Macdonald government announced the London Haze Control Plan. Seeing the government ’s actions, the citizens of London were excited. Damn ghost weather, finally they can say goodbye to them!
They don’t know the disaster is coming, but many informed people have already reacted.
The blacklisted companies must stop production within three months and move out of London within one year, which means that they will not be able to produce normally for at least one year in the future.
Obviously, this is fatal to the company’s stock price, and the company cannot produce normally, so the market share of the product will naturally decline sharply.
It’s easy to lose the market, and it’s hard to get the market again! Competitors will seize the market they have left in the shortest possible time.
This loss is not just the one year when the production was stopped, it is likely to cause an industry giant to fall because of this, and it will never recover.
This is why the Conservative Party cabinet did not shut down these companies immediately. The loss is too heavy, there is no way to explain to the gold master behind it?
It is obvious that the Labour government now supports another wave of capital consortiums, so they dare to use these companies as soon as they come to power.
Even so, they are prepared to rely on public opinion to force the capitalists to relocate without going directly into battle.
It was fine on Monday, August 21.
On this sunny day, as soon as the London stock market opened, there were a large number of sell orders. The stock price of any company that was on the government’s blacklist plummeted.
Everyone is not optimistic about these companies. Naturally, no one will take the market. Some people can’t help looking at the stock price that has plummeted.
Now that these companies are moving due to smog, what about other companies in London? Will they need to move out of London for the same problem?
The seeds of suspicion are planted in people’s hearts, and sometimes it takes only a moment to take root.
Soon the sell order appeared again, and then it was out of control. For all the companies with factories in London, one was considered one, and the stock price began to plummet!
As of the close of the afternoon on August 21, a total of 112 stocks in London have fallen by more than 50%, and the broad market in London has fallen by 8.94%!
In one day, the London stock market evaporated nearly two billion pounds, setting the highest single-day drop in history!
For many investors, this is undoubtedly a thunderstorm. The savings in one’s life are destroyed once, and huge debts will be carried in the second half of life.
In the early morning of the following day, the London stock market opened again. Imagine that a strong rebound did not occur, and a large number of stock selling orders opened.
At this time, the smart people reacted. The stock disaster is coming, and it will be finished before they run.
This time, not only the stock prices of these companies have fallen, but the stock prices of all companies are falling, and the sell orders are everywhere.
“Jump off the building!”
“Jump off the building!”
…
Eventually someone could not stand the stimulus of becoming a millionaire and becoming a millionaire and started jumping off the building. Outside the dozens of stock exchanges in London, it was raining!
On this day, the number of people who died of jumping from London exceeded the total number of people who died of jumping from London in the past year.
More unlucky eggs just cross the road, smashed into the meat pie by the stuffing cake from the sky! From this day onwards, Britons must pay attention to the overhead of their heads to avoid being caught in pond fish.
“The stock disaster is here!”
Everyone knows the news. The UK used “Black Monday” to describe this stock disaster every day, and McDonald’s Cabinet, the original creator, was under pressure.
This is nothing short of delusion, don’t they just want to control the haze in London? Who knew it would trigger a more horrific stock disaster?
If I had known that there was such a big danger, their measures would definitely not be so radical. Can they wait for the company to build a new factory and then let them relocate?
Why are you in such a hurry? Now, the government has become the culprit in the minds of the people. It is full of hatred. Everyone knows that this stock disaster was caused by them.
Don’t expect that the London citizens who suffered heavy losses in the stock market disaster will weigh their difficulties at this time and then stand up to support them!
If the problem of the stock market disaster cannot be solved, and finally the economic crisis is triggered, their good days will end, and the British government that was driven ahead of time will not be in the minority!
“Sir Prime Minister, save the world! At this time, only the government and the consortium can save the market to avoid a greater crisis!” Said Finance Minister Pete carefully
“But Mr. Peter’s consortium was not run by us. They wouldn’t have shot it if there were no conditions!” McDonald said with a frown.
“Otherwise, we first withdraw the ban on corporate relocations, stabilize the stock market first, and then slowly plan for it?” Foreign Minister Cray suggested
“No, chaotic change is even more undesirable. The crisis has detonated. Even if the removal order is withdrawn, I am afraid there is no way to restore confidence!
Instead, these people who have suffered heavy losses in the stock market will hate the government even more and cause uncontrollable contradictions! “McDonald shook his head and said
“Let’s go find the king! At this time ~ www.mtlnovel.com ~ Only the royal family can let all the consortia put down their prejudices, and everyone will work together to overcome the difficulties!” Secretary of State Rice suggested
The British royal family has mastered Britain’s largest consortium, and it has been an open secret at the high level. At this time, something went wrong. They had to ask the consortium for help, which could not avoid the king.
Whether you like it or not, the MacDonald Cabinet wants to save the city, and they must go through the level of George V. Even if it costs some, they can’t help them choose.
This is the king’s advantage. The Prime Ministers do it in turns. When there is a conflict between royal power and relative power, as long as their interests are sufficient, they are likely to compromise. This cannot be hereditary anyway!
Usually, this happens at the end of the term. It is not a big deal to give up some rights to the king for his own benefit.
“Okay, let’s go to the king together, and the situation is now very critical!” McDonald said heartily.
…