Britian Issue 4 (Liberal Reform causes)

Question 1

What is the context and background of this issue?

Answer 1

• At the beginning of the 20th century, poverty was at large in the UK, and the government had adopted a policy of ‘laissez faire’ which meant that they didn’t do anything to help these people in poverty. It was majority believed that poverty was your own fault, that you didn’t work hard enough to get out of it, and that you are responsible to get out of it through ‘positive thinking’. However, during the 1900s the public realised that poverty was not their fault and demanded social and welfare reforms.

Question 2

What are the factors of this essay?

Answer 2

• The reasons why the Liberals introduced reforms because of; the Surveys of Booth and Rowntree, New Liberalism, Municipal Socialism and the Rise of Labour.

Question 3

What is the essay arguing?

Answer 3

• This essay will argue that the Surveys of Booth and Rowntree are the most important reason why the Liberals decided to introduce social and welfare reforms during 1906-14.

Question 4

What is the first factor of this essay?

Answer 4

• One reason why the Liberals introduced social and welfare reforms are due to the Surveys by Booth and Rowntree.

Question 5

What was the name of Charles Booth’s study and what did it find?

Answer 5

• In 1889, Charles Booth published his study named ‘Life and Labour of the people of London’, which included his studies taken all over London.
• He found that 30% of East London was living in abject poverty, found that charitable aid alone was not enough to help fix this situation, also proved that 1/3 of London’s population was living in abject poverty and discovered that out of the 30% living in poverty in East London.
  -As well as this, Booth proved that low pay, unemployment, sickness and old age were the real causes for poverty.

Question 6

Who made the second study?

Answer 6

• The second study that was made was by Benjamin Rowntree.

Question 7

What was the name of Rowntree’s study?

Answer 7

• He was inspired by Booth and spent 2 years studying poverty in York in 1901 released his findings in the book ‘Poverty (A Study of a Town Life)’.

Question 8

What did Rowntree find?

Answer 8

• These findings were like Booth’s he found that 28% of those in York were living below the poverty line.
• He found ‘primary poverty’ - families that earn less than 21 shillings per week and ‘secondary poverty’ - families whose spending took them below 21 shillings per week.
• Rowntree’s studies were as powerful as York, unlike London was small.

Question 9

What did the people realise and what did these surveys give to the government?

Answer 9

• If a third of people in small towns such as York were struggling, then they realised this must be a bigger issue than they originally thought, which drove calls for change.
• These surveys gave the government statistical proof that no matter how hard the people tried, they couldn’t get themselves out of poverty therefore, a need for reform.

Question 10

What is the A+ argument for the Surveys?

Answer 10

• Furthermore, once the surveys had increased awareness of poverty, it was popular to be seen to be doing something about it, and therefore a potential vote winner. So, this could suggest that while the surveys raised awareness and changed opinion, the Liberals only changed their stance on reform to get elected.

Question 11

What is the second factor of this essay?

Answer 11

• Another reason why the Liberals introduced social and welfare reforms are due to Municipal Socialism.

Question 12

What did local councils start to do throughout the 19th century?

Answer 12

• Throughout the 19th century, local councils started to introduce small schemes around Britain to help improve poor hygiene and healthcare standards.

Question 13

What did they do in Liverpool to improve living conditions?

Answer 13

-People were happy with these changes and didn’t mind paying taxes as they saw positive results.
- For example, in 1873 in Birmingham, the Liberal Mayor Joseph Chamberland made reforms such as buying the waterworks and running it, as beforehand the water supply was polluted and only ran three days a week.
- He did the same with the gas and made housing better by clearing slum housing.

Question 14

What is another example of what local councils did?

Answer 14

• Another example of this is in Glasgow after the cholera outbreaks in 1842 and 1953, the nicknamed “Founding Fathers of Glasgow” regulated sanitary conditions, brought clean water, electricity and gas, provided public transport which included trams and provided housing provisions for the poor.

Question 15

What is the A for municipal socialism?

Answer 15

• This was important to the introduction of the liberal reforms as the work these governments did to improve the general hygiene and health of the cities benefitted the poor and the liberals may have taken inspiration from this.
• It also showed that if ‘lassisez faire’ was abandoned, things would be better.
• The improvements made to these towns and cities by local councils using taxes showed the people that municipal socialism worked and even though the taxes were high, the result was worth it.

Question 16

What is the A+ argument for municipal socialism?

Answer 16

• However, the local governments fixing these problems that many people in poverty faced, it made the government delay the need for national action to be made as local governments were already dealing with it, which made municipal socialism a weaker factor for why Liberals introduced reforms.

Question 17

What is the third factor of this essay?

Answer 17

• Another reason as to why the Liberals introduced social and welfare reforms is due to New Liberalism.

Question 18

What were the names of the main two political parties in the 1800s?

Answer 18

• Near the end of the 1800’s there was mainly two major political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Question 19

What were the two types of Liberals?

Answer 19

• There were two types of Liberals, old and new. Older Liberals believed in ‘lassiez faire’ meanwhile the new did not.

Question 20

Who were the New Liberals and what did they believe in?

Answer 20

-There were many new liberals such as Herbert Asquith, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, they mainly represented poorer areas such as Dundee and Wales and wanted to help those in poverty for personal reasons and to remove the stigma around the Poor Law in 1834 and the ‘lassiez faire’ approach.

Question 21

What is the A argument for New Liberalism?

Answer 21

• This contributed to these reforms as it made the Liberal Party’s motivation and duty to help these people in poverty, which was seen in the social reforms.

Question 22

What is the A+ argument for New Liberalism?

Answer 22

• But the problem with this is that the New Liberals had a much smaller quantity than the old ones, plus the fact New Liberalism wasn’t a very big issue at the 1906 election and they had to wait until PM Campbell Bannerman died in 1908 to take any real action with Herbert Asquith as PM.

Question 23

What is the final factor of this essay?

Answer 23

• Another reason as to why the Liberals introduced social and welfare reforms is because of the Rise of the Labour Party.

Question 24

When did the Labour Party come to rise and why?

Answer 24

-The Labour Party came to rise in 1901, they represented the working class and genuinely wanted to help them out of poverty.

Question 25

Did the Labour Party give a cause for concern?

Answer 25

• Even though they seemed significant to the other parties in power, they gave a cause for concern as their growth showed that the working people felt that they very much needed representation within the political system.

Question 26

What did Labour offer to the working-class?

Answer 26

• Labour offered the working class many benefits to attract voters such as more job opportunities, better housing conditions, equal voting rights and an eight-hour working day (which many did not have).

Question 27

How was the Labour Party a threat to the Liberals?

Answer 27

• In 1906, the Liberals and Labours were competing for the same votes, and as the Labour Party were giving benefits and the Liberals were not making them look ‘unsympathetic’, so, therefore, the Liberals had to keep an eye on the Labour Party as they started to become a threat.

Question 28

What is the A argument for the Rise of Labour?

Answer 28

• The Liberal Reforms were a response to the threat to the Labour Movement and how the voters were attracted to the benefits given by Labour, they could not take their voters for granted and they could have moved.

Question 29

What is the A+ argument for Rise of Labour?

Answer 29

• However, these reforms might not have been a response to the Labour Party as in 1906, the party was small in miners with only 29 seats in parliament, so the threat they posed was a smaller one, this limits the strength of this factor as a reason to why Liberals introduced reforms.

Question 30

What is the first line of the conclusion?

Answer 30

• In conclusion, the Surveys of Booth and Rowntree is the main reason the Liberals introduced the social and welfare reforms between 1906-1914.

Question 31

What is the first relative rating?

Answer 31

-This was because although New Liberalism was important, it was not the biggest in terms of numbers, and could only influence any real action with PM Campbell Bannerman dead.
- Meanwhile, both surveys made influence within the public eye, and got information about how “lassiez faire” was not accurate, when new liberalism could not do this until later.
-This means that the Surveys of Booth and Rowntree are a more important reason as to why liberal reforms were introduced.

Question 32

What is the second relative rating?

Answer 32

• Although municipal socialism did improve conditions for local towns, it did not influence the government to make the same decision, meanwhile, the Surveys that Booth and Rowntree created provided statistical proof that “lassiez faire” was outdated, which the government could not ignore. Thus, making the Surveys of Booth and Rowntree a more important reason.

Question 33

What is the final relative rating?

Answer 33

• Although the Rise of the Labour Party was an important reason as it promised better conditions for the poor and provided fierce competition against the Liberals. It was not effective as it did not bring these promises that were made, and the Liberals outnumbered them severely with the Labour Party only having 29 seats.
• However, the Surveys of booths and Rowntree did bring the proof that was needed to be able to influence the public, which then influenced the Liberals, which the Rise of the Labour party could not do as they were too small.

Question 34

What is the mini-conclusion at the end of the major conclusion?

Answer 34

• Overall, the Surveys of Booth and Rowntree and the most important reason as to why the Liberal reforms were introduced.