who was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister. Stafford Cripps became the President for the Board of Trade, and later succeeded Dalton as Chancellor in 1947, and Aneurin Bevan, Minister for Health. With the exception of Bevan, all had served in Churchill's wartime coalition and were a strong and able team. One criticism, perhaps, could be that, apart from Bevan, the main players in this Labour government were of an ageing political generation, with the average age in the cabinet being over sixty. Of course the experience of age may have worked to their advantage, but by the end of their period in office Bevin had died, shortly followed by Cripps, Attlee had ulcers, and most of their senior colleagues were exhausted.
             The first major task of the newly elected Labour party was to confront the financially crippling effects of six years of global war. It was not long before the cabinet realised that they had very little money with which to finance the post war reconstruction promised in their pre election campaign. Urged by the econom
             ...