Building the planned capital ships would not by itself have prevented British social reforms, since earlier welfare legislation had already appeared during a major naval race. Continued construction would preserve demand for shipbuilders and the industrial arrangements supporting them. Those shipyard interests were connected to miners and the wider trade-union movement, giving naval procurement consequences well beyond the dockyard gate. The counterfactual connects battleship policy with industrial employment, organised labour, and the political economy of interwar Britain.
Chapter · 2:59:12-3:01:29
Capital-ship building, shipyards, and organised labour
An alternate-history discussion links continued capital-ship construction to shipyard employment, coal mining, trade-union alliances, and the politics surrounding interwar welfare reform.