4. Liberal challenges and crises Flashcards
What did the Conservative Lords see the People’s Budget as?
An attack on the rich
When did the Lords reject the People’s Budget?
November 1909
When the Lords rejected the People’s Budget, what convention did they break?
The unspoken agreement that the Lords should not interfere with any monetary bills. The Liberal government was left with no legal authority to collect taxes
What were the Liberals forced to do because of the Lord’s veto? When did they do it?
- Forced to call a general election
- Called one January 1910
What was the Liberal’s slogan for the January 1910 election?
‘The Peers versus the People’
How did the Liberals try to fight the election of January 1910?
Whether Britain should be governed by a majority of elected MPs in the Commons or non-elected, hereditary Lords peers
How did the Conservatives campaign in the election of January 1910?
By suggesting there was other ways to raise money and that the Lords were right to stop the government making sweeping changes that the electorate hadn’t voted for - that was their job!
Who won the January 1910 election?
The Liberals (very narrowly)
How did the Liberals get an overall majority?
- They only had a majority of two
- This forced them to appeal to the Irish Nationalists to support the passing of the budget in return for an attack on the powers of the Lords
- They wanted to see Lords weakened to achieve their desire for Home Rule
What did the 1910 Parliament Bill propose?
- House of Lords would have no power to reject bills that the Commons speaker says are money bills
- House of Lords would have no power to reject bills for other legislation but can delay it for two years with a ‘suspensory veto’
- Max period between general elections reduced from 7 to 5 years
What was the issue with passing the Parliament Bill?
- Could easily be passed by the Commons
- Any bill to curb the Lord’s power would actually have to be passed by the Lords themselves
What solution did Asquith come up with to pass the Parliament Bill?
- Ask King Edward VII who, with the power to create new peers, could flood the Lords with enough Liberal peers to outvote the Conservative peers
- He promises to do this
Who died suddenly in May 1910?
Edward VII
How did the new King try to deal with the constitutional crisis? How did the Conservatives and Liberals react to this?
- Tried to get the Liberals and Conservatives to simply agree on a solution without creating new peers
- Constitutional Conference between June and November 1910
- Conservatives offer to reform the composition of the Lords but the Liberals stay determined to reduce constitutional powers
- Conservatives insist that the Lords should have power to veto any constitutional change unless the electorate approved a change in a referendum
What did George V agree to do after the constitutional conference broke down?
Finally agreed to create more Liberal peers to pass the Parliament Bill as long as the Liberals won a general election about the issue
When was the second 1910 election held?
December
When did the Commons finally pass the Parliament Bill?
May 1911
What did the Lords do when faced with whether to pass the Parliament Bill?
- Sharp divisions ensued about whether to pass it
- On August 11th 1911, the Lords actually showed sufficient enough support to pass the Parliament Bill in order to ensure they didn’t become swamped with Liberal peers
What were Conservatives who cooperated with the Parliament Bill nicknamed?
‘the rats’
Who led the faction of the Lords that was undecided about the Parliament Bill? What were their nicknames?
- Lord Lansdowne
- Nicknamed ‘the hedgers’
Who led the faction of the Lords that was starkly against the Parliament Bill? What were they nicknamed?
- Willoughby de Broke
- Determined to oppose the bill ‘to the last ditch’ and therefore called ‘the ditchers’ or ‘diehards’
What impact did the constitutional crisis have?
- Divided the Conservatives so much that Balfour was forced to resign leadership in Nov 1911
- Andrew Bonar Law succeeds Balfour
- Makes the constitution more democratic
- Liberals can move on with their legislative programme for reform
Which Liberal was an open opposer to the issue of female suffrage?
Asquith
What were the obstacles in the way of women being enfranchised?
- Campbell Bannerman was half-hearted in support for female suffrage. Asquith opposed it
- Political parties didn’t know how a female vote would impact politics and which party (between Liberals and Conservatives) it would benefit. Many Liberals were scared it would disadvantage the party
- Social reforms were taking up too much Liberal time. They couldn’t tackle another issue
- There were still some males who couldn’t vote which was meant universal male suffrage and women’s suffrage was intertwined
- Not all women support female suffrage
- Belief that men and women operate in different societal spheres: public vs private
