Editing History of the United Kingdom (section)

===Great Depression===
{{Main|Great Depression in the United Kingdom}}
The [[Great Depression]] originated in the United States in late 1929 and quickly spread to the world. Britain had never experienced the boom that had characterized the US, Germany, Canada and Australia in the 1920s, so its bust appeared less severe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richardson |first=H. W. |date=1969 |title=The Economic Significance of the Depression in Britain |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=3–19 |doi=10.1177/002200946900400401 |jstor=259833 |s2cid=162292590}}</ref> Britain's world trade fell in half (1929–1933), the output of heavy industry fell by a third, employment profits plunged in nearly all sectors. At the depth in summer 1932, registered unemployed numbered 3.5 million, and many more had only part-time employment. Experts tried to remain optimistic. [[John Maynard Keynes]], who had not predicted the slump, said, "'There will be no serious direct consequences in London. We find the look ahead decidedly encouraging."<ref>{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Overy |title=The Twilight Years: The Paradox of Britain Between the Wars |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9781101498347 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=IQSfaaan1qUC&pg=PT96 96] |author-link=Richard Overy}}</ref>

On the left figures such as [[Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield|Sidney]] and [[Beatrice Webb]], [[J. A. Hobson]], and [[G. D. H. Cole]] repeated the warnings they had been making for years about the imminent death of capitalism, only now far more people paid attention.{{Sfnp|Overy|2010|loc=ch. 2}} Starting in 1935 the [[Left Book Club]] provided a new warning every month, and built up the credibility of Soviet-style socialism as an alternative.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Samuels |first=Stuart |date=1966 |title=The Left Book Club |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=65–86 |doi=10.1177/002200946600100204 |jstor=259923 |s2cid=159342335}}</ref>

Particularly hardest hit by economic problems were the north of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales; unemployment reached 70% in some areas at the start of the 1930s (with more than 3 million out of work nationally) and many families depended entirely on the dole.

In 1936, by which time unemployment was lower, 200 unemployed men made a highly publicized march from Jarrow to London in a bid to show the plight of the industrial poor. Although much romanticized by the Left, the [[Jarrow Crusade]] marked a deep split in the Labour Party and resulted in no government action.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perry |first=Matt |date=2002 |title=The Jarrow Crusade's Return: The 'New Labour Party' of Jarrow and Ellen Wilkinson, M.P. |journal=Northern History |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=265–278 |doi=10.1179/007817202790180576}}</ref> Unemployment remained high until the war absorbed all the job seekers. [[George Orwell]]'s book ''[[The Road to Wigan Pier]]'' gives a bleak overview of the hardships of the time.