View source for Directory:Article Purgatory/British working class

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{{ntnes}}
[[World War I|The Great War]] cost '''Britain''' 750 000 thousand lives and injured 1.6 million<ref> Eric Hopkins, A [[Social history|social History]] of the English [[working class]] 1815-1945, [[Hodder & Stoughton|Hodder and Stoughton]] 1979, p211.</ref>, of these casualties the majority were of '''working class''' origin, the war demanded manpower both at home in the industries and on the front line, this demand was met for the most part by the working class. The demands of war were such that [[unemployment]] throughout remained low, in June 1914 the number of unemployed was 2.4%, by August 1918 it had shrank to 0.5%<ref> Eric Hopkins p211</ref> . Due to almost [[full employment]] throughout the war and the complexities that it caused, the [[trade union]] movement gained in strength and numbers, whilst the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] experienced growth that it would have unlikely been able to achieve otherwise. The working classes despite suffering enormous losses during the war emerged from it in a far better position than they had entered. They had a stronger representation in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] through the Labour party; they gained the vote in 1919 and Trade Union membership was soaring having doubled in size between 1914 and 1920 (4.145 million and 8.347 million respectively). Those who worked in the [[Interwar period|interwar years]] gained a higher ‘real’ wage and a generally higher [[quality of life]] than in pre-war years, especially those involved in the new industries. However, increased efficiency in output and loss of markets for the old staples resulted in over one million lost jobs and massive suffering for those left without employment. This serves to show that the result of the Great War was not felt equally amongst workers and that massive disparities existed across Britain, however as the following text will show, as whole and in the long run the Great War served to unite and strengthen the British working class.
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