DAVE MANS6LL THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY & IRELAND As we have seen the Unionist one-party government in Ulster adopted the social welfare programme of the 1945-51 Labour government in Britain as the solution to its problems of political control of its working class: the securing of British subsidies appeared to have given it the means of quasi-permanent tenure of power. But whilst the Unionist party in Ulster was busy annexing as much of the social welfare programme as possible for its own purposes, the Unionist M.P.s representing the province at Westminster were joining with the Conservative opposition inresisting it. This identification of the Westminster Unionist representatives with the Conservatives (which was to break down after the dissolution of Stormont in 1972, was countered by a lobby within the British Labour Party, the Friends of Ireland group whose aim was "to secure democratic Labour government in Ireland both North and South, with a view to attaining a united Ireland by common consent at the earliest possible moment". When the Labour government reacted to the anti-Fianna Fail coalition's rejection of the Commonwealth link with Ireland in 1949 with the Ireland Act which confirmed the British tie with Ulster, 63 of the Labour Friends of Ireland voted against the Act in committee stage. There was undoubtedly sorne connection between these Labour M.P.s' concern with nationalist aspirations in Ireland and the importance of the emigrant Southern Irish communities' vote in Labour constituencies in Britain. TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION When the second post-war Labour government was returned to power in 1964, it was in its "white-hot technological revolution" phase, and it was undoubtedly elected with the aid of the vote of a young ambitious managerial stratum which saw heavy investment in technological transformation (naturally involving increasing use of technical-managerial skills) as increasingly necessary for economic survival given Britains failure to get into the European Economic Community. Similar developments had been taking place in the economy of the Irish Republic, under the premiership of Sean Lemass who had succeeded De Valera in 1955. An Industrial 64
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