Editing Stanley Baldwin (section)

==Prime Minister (1924–1929)<span class="anchor" id="Second premiership"></span><!-- linked from redirects [[Second premiership of Stanley Baldwin]], [[Second prime ministership of Stanley Baldwin]] -->==
===Cabinet===
{{Expand section|date=March 2022}}
{{Further|Second Baldwin ministry}}
[[File:KingBaldwin1926.jpg|thumb|right|[[William Lyon Mackenzie King|W. L. Mackenzie King]], Prime Minister of Canada (left) and Baldwin at the [[Imperial Conference]], October 1926]]
[[File:Edward, Prince of Wales and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin talk after the unveiling of a tablet honoring the dead at Westminster Abbey (October 1926).jpg|thumb|Baldwin (right) talks with [[Edward VIII|Edward, Prince of Wales]] (the future King Edward VIII) in October 1926]]
Baldwin's new Cabinet now included many former political associates of Lloyd George: former Coalition Conservatives: [[Austen Chamberlain]] (as foreign secretary), [[F E Smith|Lord Birkenhead]] (secretary for India) and Arthur Balfour (lord president after 1925), and the former Liberal [[Winston Churchill]] as chancellor of the exchequer. Baldwin created the [[Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies]], a volunteer body of those opposed to the strike which was intended to complete essential work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bookwatch: The General Strike |url=http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj70/bookwatc.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212051956/http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj70/bookwatc.htm |archive-date=12 December 2008 |access-date=2 May 2010 |publisher=Pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk}}</ref>

===Domestic affairs===
====Trade unions strike====
A defining feature of Baldwin's Second term was the [[1926 General Strike]], Baldwin handled the strike by using powers awarded to him in the [[Emergency Powers Act 1920]]. He deployed the military and volunteers to keep essential services running. The strike ended when it was found to not be protected by the [[Trade Disputes Act 1906]], leading to the strike being called off on 12 May lasting just 9 days. Baldwin's government was widely credited for such an effective response to the strike.<ref>[https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A924DA8E7E6BBDCEF26976C74B5C7199/S0020859000003497a.pdf/the-government-and-the-general-strike-1926.pdf]</ref>

At Baldwin's instigation [[William Weir, 1st Viscount Weir|Lord Weir]] headed a [[committee]] to "review the national problem of electrical energy". It published its report on 14 May 1925 and in it Weir recommended the setting up of a [[Central Electricity Board]], a state monopoly half-financed by the [[British Government|Government]] and half by local undertakings. Baldwin accepted Weir's recommendations and they became law by the end of 1926.<ref name="Middlemas and Barnes, pp. 393–4">Middlemas and Barnes, pp. 393–4.</ref>

The Board was a success. By 1939 electrical output was up fourfold and generating costs had fallen. Consumers of electricity rose from three-quarters of a million in 1920 to nine million in 1938, with annual growth of 700,000 to 800,000 a year (the fastest rate of growth in the world).<ref name="Middlemas and Barnes, pp. 393–4"/>

====Social reforms====
One of his legislative reforms was a paradigm shift in his party. This was the Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act 1925 ([[15 & 16 Geo. 5]]. c. 70), which provided a pension of 10 shillings a week for widows with extra for children, and 10 shillings a week for insured workers and their wives at 65. This transformed [[Toryism]], away from its historic reliance on community (particularly religious) charities, and towards acceptance of a humanitarian [[welfare state]] which would guarantee a minimum living standard for those unable to work or who took out [[national insurance]].<ref>''Mastering Modern World History'' Norman Lowe, 2nd edition (and later eds.), 1966, Macmillan {{ISBN|978-0-3334-6576-9}}</ref> In 1927, he was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 November 2020 |title=Search past Fellows |url=https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=NA8113&pos=1 |access-date=12 November 2020 |website=The Royal Society}}</ref>

=====Leader of the Opposition (1929–1931)=====
In [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]] Labour returned to office as the largest party in the House of Commons (although without an overall majority) despite obtaining fewer votes than the Conservatives.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Williamson |first=Philip |date=1982 |title='Safety First': Baldwin, the Conservative Party and the 1929 General Election |url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/10557/1/10557.pdf |journal=Historical Journal |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=385–409 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00011614 |s2cid=159673425}}</ref> In opposition, Baldwin was almost ousted as party leader by the [[press baron]]s Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook, whom he accused of enjoying "power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages".<ref>{{Cite book |first=William D. |last=Rubinstein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdRixcpqvDwC&pg=PA176 |title=Twentieth-Century Britain: A Political History |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-3337-7224-9 |page=176}}</ref>

Ramsden argues that Baldwin made dramatic permanent improvements to the organisation and effectiveness of the Conservative Party. He enlarged the headquarters with professionals, professionalised the party agents, raised ample funds, and was an innovative user of the new mass media of radio and film.<ref>John Ramsden, ''The Age of Balfour and Baldwin, 1902–1940'' (1978)</ref>