Mediterranean Hegemony Road

? On April 5, 1929, the much-anticipated British parliamentary election finally came to an end, and the Labor Party won by a narrow margin.

At the end of June, George V appointed the leader of the Labor Party, Macdonald, as the new Prime Minister of the Cabinet and was ordered to form a new British government.

History has once again turned a new page, and the Labor Party cabinet that has just won power still does not know what kind of difficulties they are about to face.

The current British economy is still prosperous on the surface, and all contradictions are covered up by the false prosperity on the surface.

Because of the defeat in the general election, the financial reform policy formulated by the Conservative Party government was naturally taken away with the general election.

A lot of messy affairs now need to be dealt with by the Macdonald cabinet, such as: the follow-up of the colonial rebellion in Southeast Asia, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the smog problem in London.

In their busy schedule, Macdonald's cabinet naturally did not realize that the British economy was already in danger, and an economic crisis was imminent.

Based on the idea of ​​defrauding political opponents, the preparatory work done by the Conservative Party government was only filed and archived, and no one reminded them to pay attention to these.

In the days that followed, the first problem facing the MacDonald 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. During the Conservative Party government, in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of soldiers to fight, the welfare benefits, including pensions, have been greatly increased.

Now the pension for each soldier who died in battle includes: a death allowance of 3,000 pounds, a child education subsidy of 0 to 1,500 pounds, and a family member's mental damage fee of 500 to 2,000 pounds.

On average, the total expenditure of pensions for each soldier is 5,000 pounds +. The number of soldiers killed in the Southeast Asian War has been determined to be as high as 53,000, and less than 20% of them have paid pensions.

In addition, more than 12,000 people are missing, and their lives and deaths are currently unknown. This also needs to be explained to the soldiers' families.

The dead are easy to deal with, and there are still a lot of wounded waiting for the government to resettle them. The Conservative Party government has promised to solve the employment problem of all disabled soldiers.

Now that they have stepped down, this issue needs to be taken over by Macdonald. At least 100,000 people need the government to solve their employment problems.

The battle is over,

Disarmament also requires money, and bonuses for victories are always indispensable, and meritorious ministers also need appeasement.

Including the colonial army and the armies of several major dominions, they came to help fight the war. Now that the war is over, the casualty pension must always be paid, right?

Even if the dead Ah San is worthless, you still have to pay some severance pay if you are alive, you can't let people go for nothing, right?

Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and North America, the London government always bears part of the military expenses of these three countries, right?

Otherwise, in the next war, it is estimated that there will be no one to call!

Calculated in total, Prime Minister Macdonald was surprised to find that wars really cost lives, and to suppress a small Southeast Asian rebellion, the follow-up expenditure alone would cost three to four billion pounds.

Even if the British Empire has a great career, it can't afford it? The war expenses before and after have been added together, reaching more than one billion pounds.

This is much higher than the cost of war during the Boer War. Sure enough, high-tech wars cost money. The cost of a tank can equip a battalion, and infantry is always the cheapest.

"Your Excellency, the Ministry of Finance can't come up with such a large amount of money now, which is equivalent to one-third of our fiscal revenue this year!" said Minister of Finance Pete Zou, frowning.

It is now the second time in history that the Labor Party has been in power, although the first time it was driven out of office in just nine months.

Under the butterfly effect of Ferdinand, they have just stepped onto the stage of history now, without any experience in governing, so it is naturally extremely difficult to face these problems.

"What plans did the previous cabinet have, I don't believe they are not prepared?" Macdonald asked

"Unfortunately, Your Excellency, the previous government's plan was only a draft and did not provide a solution. We still need to solve this problem!" Chancellor of the Exchequer Pete said helplessly

Even if there is a way, he will leave it to his political enemies? Moreover, whether they dare to use the plan left by the Conservative Party is a question.

"Then what does the Ministry of Finance plan to do? Is it a foreign loan or a bond issue?" MacDonald asked with concern

"We suggest issuing bonds. If we borrow money from a consortium, we may lose the initiative in the future!" Minister of the Exchequer Peter said cautiously

It is not easy to borrow money from the consortium. Once you get involved with them, it is impossible to be bitten.

Any politician knows that if you can avoid dealing with consortiums, don't deal with them. It is very troublesome to owe them favors.

No one dares not to repay their debts, and those who dare to renege on their debts will end up with no good results. Sometime in the future, because of this favor, they will have to make some reluctant decisions.

"Okay, let's do this, clean up this mess first, and don't let the Conservative Party get caught!" McDonald thought for a while and said

Compared with the Conservative Party, the foundation of the Labor Party is still too weak. If it were not for the outbreak of the smog problem, they would not have won so easily.

"Your Excellency, there is another problem, which is the problem of the weather in London. In four or five months at most, the smog will return again.

The previous government was kicked out of office because of its inaction on this issue. Now this thorny issue is in our hands. "Secretary of State Rice said

In order to win the general election, the Labor Party made it clear that solving the smog problem in London was their campaign platform. This was the reason why they won a big victory in the election of MPs in the London constituency, laying the foundation for them to enter Downing Street.

Now is the time to fulfill the promise, otherwise when winter comes and the people find that the weather in London has not improved, they will probably start protesting again.

You know, the total population of London has exceeded 10 million, and more than a quarter of the votes were cast here.

If anyone offends such a large group of people to death, they probably will never want to continue to mix in the political arena. The votes in their hands are enough to determine the outcome of an election.

This issue should not be fooled. Once winter comes, all problems will be exposed. If there are no visible results, protesting crowds will soon block Downing Street.

There is no way for MacDonald to learn from the previous government and formulate a so-called three-year plan to delay time. During the general election, he boasted about Haikou, and now it's too late to take it back!

"Do you have any opinions on how to solve this problem while maintaining stability as much as possible?" McDonald asked

"Considering the actual situation, we have formulated a business relocation plan that minimizes the impact as much as possible, mainly for some businesses in and around London.

The government has given certain preferential tax policies and tried its best to persuade some big polluting enterprises to relocate. The first batch of relocated enterprises included: 12 chemical plants, 15 manufacturing plants, 3 steel plants, and 2 coking plants..." Minister of State Les said eloquently

"What are you talking about? There is still a chemical plant in London, how is this possible?" Macdonald said in disbelief

"Your Excellency, chemical plants have always existed in London. After the outbreak of the flu in the United States, everyone realized the dangers of chemical plants, and there was a wave of talk all over the world about moving chemical plants out of the city.

But there are very few countries that can actually do it. At present, Bulgaria is probably the only big country that has really kept chemical factories away from cities.

The Lloyd-George government, under the pressure of domestic capitalists, finally only relocated a few chemical plants in downtown London, and gave up relocating chemical plants around the city! ’ replied the Secretary of State

"I finally understand why smog poisons people. With these cancerous factories, it's hard not to be poisoned!

No matter what happens this time, we have to let them all move away. This is not a factory, it is simply a bunch of ticking time bombs.

If it explodes that day, the whole of London is finished! No, it should be said that the entire British Empire is finished!

Sorry, I'm too excited, you go on! "McDonald said excitedly.

Sure enough, the American flu is not useless, and everyone's safety awareness has not only improved.

At this time, experts said that it was useless to break the sky. Anyway, everyone believed that the chemical plant was located around the city, and that was a threat.

"It doesn't matter, I can understand your feelings, I also felt the same when I first saw these news!

We can publish the list of these factories in the newspaper. If they refuse to move, the citizens will help drive them away!

The last remaining diehards are our real enemies. At that time, the government can issue a decree to force them to shut down! "Les said indifferently.

Sure enough, he was playing politics, and he didn't dare to confront the capitalists directly, so he relied on public opinion to achieve his goal, and used public pressure to force the capitalists to relocate their factories.

As for compensation? That's all symbolic!

It is not so simple to relocate so many factories, there are a lot of work in front and back, and the cost is naturally not low.

This requires relocating the factory, refining the factory building, moving the machinery and equipment, reassembling it, and finding a way to get the workers there.

It is simply impossible to complete these tasks without a year or a half. This means that any relocated company should not start working normally in the next year.

What should these workers do if the enterprise cannot operate normally? Let the capitalists keep them alive, or should the government pay for them to keep them alive?

Anyway, they have no savings, and they can't afford to support themselves, let alone a family?

Has the Macdonald cabinet considered these issues?

The answer is: no!

Don't think that they are the Labor Party, a political party that represents the interests of the working class. In fact, the two parties have nothing to do with each other.

It's nothing more than talking about some high-level theories when they are pulling votes. Essentially, they are still bourgeois parties. When suppressing the labor movement, they were still in the vanguard.

So, the biggest problem is just ignored.

It's just that these politicians are not stupid, and they know how to do it in batches. Don't look at their bloody approval of the Conservative Party's smog control plan, and use it as soon as they came to power.

First remove the heavily polluting enterprises. Without these dozens of large factories, how can the pollution in London also be reduced?

As long as there are visible results, the subsequent problems will be much easier to deal with. The public is still easy to fool, and it is enough to push all the responsibilities to the capitalists.

...

London in August is the best time of the year for the weather. As the so-called crisp autumn is, it is a good time to go out for an outing.

The world's economy is still advancing at a high speed, and no one notices that behind the prosperity, in a certain corner of the city, there are already mountains of commodities, because they cannot find a suitable buyer, they have to be discarded like garbage.

On Friday, August 18th, the McDonnell government announced the London smog control plan. Seeing the government's actions, the citizens of London were excited. Damn the weather, we can finally say goodbye to them!

They don't know that the disaster is coming, but many well-informed people have already reacted.

Companies on the blacklist must stop production within three months and move out of London within a year, which means that they will not be able to produce normally for at least a year in the future.

Obviously, this is fatal to the stock price of the company. If the company cannot produce normally, the market share of the product will naturally decline significantly.

It is easy to lose the market, but it is difficult to regain the market! Competitors will seize the market left by them in the shortest possible time.

This loss is not just the one year of suspension of production, it is likely to cause an industry giant to decline because of this, and never recover from it.

This is the reason why the Conservative Party cabinet did not shut down these businesses immediately. The loss is too heavy, there is no way to explain to the benefactor behind it?

It is obviously another wave of capital consortiums that support the Labor Party government now, which is why they dare to attack these companies as soon as they come to power.

Even so, they are prepared to rely on public opinion and force the capitalists to relocate on their own initiative, instead of directly going into battle shirtless.

On Monday, August 21, the weather was fine.

On this sunny day, as soon as the London stock market opened, there were a lot of selling orders. The stock prices of all companies that were on the government's blacklist plummeted.

Everyone is not optimistic about these companies, so naturally no one will take over the orders. Seeing the stock prices plummeting, some people can't help it.

Now that these businesses are relocating because of the smog, what about other businesses in London? Will they need to move out of London because of the same problem?

The seeds of doubt are planted in people's hearts, and sometimes it only takes a moment to take root and germinate.

Soon the selling order appeared again, and then it got out of control. All the companies with factories in London, counted as one, and their stock prices began to plummet!

As of the close on the afternoon of August 21, a total of 112 stocks in London had fallen by more than 50%, and the London stock market fell by 8.94%!

In one day, the London stock market lost nearly two billion pounds, the highest single-day drop in history!

For many stockholders, this is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue. Their life savings will be destroyed once, and they will have to bear huge debts for the rest of their lives.

In the early morning of the next day, the London stock market opened again. The expected strong rebound did not appear, and a large number of stocks were sold at the opening.

At this time, the smart people realized that the stock market crash is coming, and if they don't run away, they will be finished.

This time, not only the stock prices of these companies are falling, but also the stock prices of all companies are falling, and there are still selling orders everywhere, but there are very few takers.

"Jump off the building!"

"Jump off the building!"

...

Finally someone couldn't stand the excitement of turning from a millionaire to a millionaire, and started to jump off the building. Outside dozens of stock exchanges in London, it was raining rice dumplings!

The number of people who jumped to death in London on this day exceeded the sum of the number of deaths in London in the past year.

What's more, the unlucky guy just crossed the road and was smashed into a meat pie by the stuffed pie that fell from the sky! From this day on, British people must pay attention to the top of their heads when they go to the street, so as not to be caught in the pond.

"The stock market crash is coming!"

Everyone knows the news, the UK uses "Black Monday" every day to describe this stock market crash, and the McDonnell cabinet, which was the instigator, felt under pressure.

This is simply an innocent disaster. Don't they just want to control the smog in London? Who knew it would trigger a more terrifying stock market crash?

If they had known that there was such a big hidden danger, their measures would definitely not be so radical. They could have waited for the company to build a new factory before letting them relocate?

Why, in such a hurry? Well now, the government has become the culprit in the minds of the people, filling up the hatred value, and everyone knows that they caused the stock market crash.

Don't expect that the citizens of London, who suffered heavy losses in the stock market crash, will consider their difficulties at this time, and then stand up to support them!

If the stock market crash cannot be solved and an economic crisis is triggered, their good days will be over, and there are not a few governments in the UK that have been kicked out in advance!

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, save the world! At this time, only the government and the consortium will rescue the market together to avoid a greater crisis!" said Minister of the Exchequer Pete solemnly.

"However, we did not start the Mr. Pete consortium. If there are no conditions, they will not make a move!" MacDonald said with a frown

"Why don't we first withdraw the ban on corporate relocation, first stabilize the stock market, and then take it easy?" Foreign Secretary Clay suggested.

"No, it is even more inadvisable to change the decree overnight, the crisis has already detonated, even if the relocation order is withdrawn, I am afraid there is no way to restore confidence!

On the contrary, it will make these people who have suffered heavy losses in the stock market hate the government even more, causing unmanageable conflicts! "McDonald shook his head and said.

"Let's go to the king! At this time, only the royal family can let all the consortia put aside their prejudices, and we can work together to tide over the difficulties!" Secretary of State Rice suggested

The British royal family has the largest consortium in the UK, and it is already an open secret at the top. At this time, something went wrong, and they had to ask the consortium for help, so they couldn't avoid the king.

Whether they like it or not, if the Macdonald cabinet wants to save the market, they have to go through the test of George V. Even if they have to pay some price, it is not up to them to choose.

This is the king's advantage. The prime ministers take turns. When there is a conflict between royal power and prime ministership, as long as the interests are sufficient, they are likely to compromise. Anyway, this cannot be hereditary!

Usually, this kind of situation happens at the end of the term of office. It is no big deal to give up some rights to the king for his own benefit.

"Okay, let's go find the king together, the situation is already very critical!" Macdonald said cruelly

...