Ramsay MacDonald appeals for support

In this 1931 film Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald talks of the daily fluctuations in the value of the pound and its effects on housewives; he appeals for support for the National Government which will be a union of parties and will be able to carry out the tasks needed.

Read the transcript for the film below:

Ramsay Macdonald:

My friends, we are beginning a contest which will be one of the most historical in the story of our country, and I hope most sincerely that you are all to bear a noble part in the fight. Our country, in the course of its history, has had to meet many storms and many stresses, but it has always come out successfully by the courage and the determination of our people. We are going to do that again. The question you have to settle and I have to try to settle is whether the pound sterling is going to fluctuate so much from day to day that not one of you housewives, not one of you women who are responsible for the expenditure of your household income, will know from week to week how much the pound is going to bring to you. I appeal to you to give us during this transition time a government that will be a union of all parties. And I ask you, therefore, at this election to return a body of men of all parties, united in serving the national interest, and give them power to carry out the task they have placed before them to a successful end.