The Men of 1924

Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government of 1924 consisted, as governments had for generations, of twenty white, middle-aged men with a Christian background. But that is where the similarities with previous governments ended, for the election of Britain's first Labour administration witnesses a radical departure from government by the ruling class. A majority of the new cabinet had left full time education by the time they were fifteen. Two were illegitimate, one was a foundling, three were from Irish immigrant families, another three had worked in coal mines before they were teenagers. For the first time in Britain's political history, the government could truly be said to represent all the social classes. The Men of 1924 is a vivid portrayal of the years preceding, and the arrival of, the first Labour government and the new breed of politician it heralded - forerunners of all those who, later in the last century and in this one, overcame a system from which they had been excluded for too long.