GREAT BRITAIN: Parliament's Week: Oct. 31, 1932

The Lords & Commons—

¶ Met after summer recess with only the River Thames and several hundred London bobbies between themselves and a savage mob of 10,000 unemployed (see above).

The Commons—

¶ Tried to ignore the clamoring, rioting unemployed but had to listen to their parliamentary champion, "Grandpa" George Lansbury, Leader of the Labor Party, who shouted, "I demand that the damnable 'means test'* be abolished and every man given a chance of decent existence!"

Knowing that the "means test" is the chief grievance of Britain's unemployed, Scot MacDonald summoned his Cabinet in hasty session....

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