World War I and the 1920s

This chapter describes a decade of different types of fiscal squeeze under four different governments: massive tax hikes coupled with cuts in civilian services under the war coalition government in 1916–18 (during World War I); the ‘double hard’ squeeze (the only one over the whole century) immediately after the war, with massive defence cuts combined with retention of high wartime tax rates to fund a programme of post-war reconstruction promised by a coalition government elected in 1918; and an abrupt switch to deep cuts in spending to cut taxes (triggered by an electoral tax revolt in 1921), with spending cuts recommended by an expert committee (the Geddes Committee) in 1922 and broadly continued under three successive governments in the 1920s.