Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6.1
Areas of high unemployment in Britain in 1931-8, corresponding well with
the regions of nineteenth century industrialization of the first two Kondratiev waves.
This is a policy that may be characterized loosely as coming from the
orthodox, right-wing stable, for it indicates simply the need to help overcome the
rigidities in the labour market by moving people to the jobs. This policy was
probably effective, but not popular because of the social disturbances it created.
It was not welcomed by the firms and families in the regions of origin, which, in
a process of selective migration, saw the most able of their members leaving for
the south. From 1934 it was succeeded by the Special Areas Act, which sought to
alleviate the unemployment problem in four Special Areas, central Scotland, the
northeast, west Cumberland, and South Wales, with a separate arrangement for
