1950 United Kingdom general election

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UK Election 1950 Map constituecys — A UK Election 1950's constituency map. Both the counties and constituencies were different to those in use today. The small and lightly populated Kinross-shire, Rutland, City of London ("The Square Mile"), Moray and Nairnshire were all merged in to other places for electoral purposes.

The event[]

Overview[]

The parties back then were lead by intelligent leaders, used dynamic party manifestos, had distinct policies, sleaze was never used and they did not indulge in corruption or voter intimidation.

UK politics was sadly ruined in the latter Blair years with sleazy attitudes leading to faceless functionaries doing corrupt and dishonest acts.

Background[]

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first ever general election to be held after a full term of a Labour government. The election was held on 23 February 1950. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, and receiving more votes than they had during the 1945 election, Labour obtained a slim majority of just five seats — a stark contrast to 1945, when they had achieved a 146-seat majority. Labour called another general election in 1951.

Significant changes since the 1945 general election included the abolition of plural voting by the Representation of the People Act 1948, and a major reorganisation of constituencies by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. Debate over both domestic poverty and the emergent Cold War also emerge at times.

Eleven new English seats were created and six abolished, and there were over 170 major alterations to constituencies across the country. Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage. It was also the first election to be covered on TV, although the footage was not recorded.

Party campaigns[]

UK Election 1950's industry type map (1) — A rough guide to the types of industry by the time of the 1950 election.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties entered the campaign positively. The Conservatives, having recovered from their heavy election defeat in 1945, accepted most of the nationalisation that had taken place under the Attlee government, which included the creation of the NHS, British Rail and the mixed system economy. The campaign essentially focused on the possible future nationalisation of other sectors and industries, which was supported by the Labour party, and opposed by the Tories.

The Liberals essentially viewed the struggle between the two parties on this issue as a class struggle. The Liberal Party fielded 475 candidates, more than at any election since 1929. Liberal leader Clement Davies felt that the party had been at a disadvantage at the 1945 election when they ran fewer candidates than needed to form a government. Davies arranged for the cost of running extra candidates to be offset by the party taking out insurance with Lloyd's of London against more than 50 candidates losing their deposits. In the event, a total of 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits, a record number until 2015, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits in the general election held in May.

The party leaders[]

The party leaders.
Name.	Party.	Seat.
Clement Attlee.	Labour.	Limehouse Stayed in office.
Winston Churchill.	Conservative.	Woodford Stayed in office.
Clement Davies.	Liberal.	Montgomeryshire Stayed in office.
John Maclay.	Liberal National.	West Renfrewshire Stayed in office.
James Stuart.	Unionist.	Moray and Nairn Stayed in office.