constitutional crisis 1909-11 Flashcards
background
-Hol- unelected, aristocratic, majority-cons, vetoed against lib govt legislation-IHR.
-it ‘went to sleep’ when there was a cons govt.
-Newcastle programme reform.
-by 1901-Hol & Hoc on even balance/footing, as Hoc power increased & Hol power decreased.
-a parl bill could be passed in either house if it passed 3 readings & had royal assent, BUT last word lay w the lords-power of veto.
-convention that money/finance bills weren’t vetoed in the lords as parl business would be brought to a standstill.
-commons-much more democratic -extension of franchise to w/c & more representative- (redistribution of seats act), this meant the power of the unelected lords of the landed classes to veto govt bills became increasingly questionable.
conservatives & hol
-reduced to 157 seats in 1906-Balfour lost his seat but then returned to parl in a by-election & became leader of a protectionist party.
-lord Landsdowne-leader of Hol- majority of lords-traditional & supported cons party.
-Balfour took advantage of this & worked closely w Landsdowne to encourage lords to vote against liberal legislation.
-defeated Gladstones IHR bill in 1894 that had passed in the commons & continued to bring down his successor Lord Rosebery.
-Balfours tactic-undemocratic & unjustifiable as lib givt had a large mandate from the electorate.
-undermining a govt that was introducing social reform created a great constitutional crisis.
the peoples budget 1909
-DLGs budget aimed to raise money to finance social reforms & to fund buildings of battleships (4 dreadnoughts), in response to growing naval threats from Germany (arms race) through direct/indirect taxation.
-he needed 15 mil to finance new reforms
his budget proposed:
-indirect taxes on motor cars/petrol, beer & tobacco
-death duties
-land taxes-20% tax on any unearned increase in land valuation.
-super tax on incomes over £5000
impact of budget on the pop
-m/c earners of up to £2000-unaffected.
-w/c would bear disproportionate burden of indirect taxes but would be compensated by social reforms.
-budget mainly attacked u/c. -from summer till late 1910 PGs campaigned for & against the budget. -budget league & budget protest league.
Hol reaction
-reacted strongly & broke convention of never voting against a money bill.
-vetoed budget on 30th nov.
-DLG responded by attacking their landed wealth & privilege.
-limehouse speech-DLG implied class conflict & attacked the rich & their opp to the budget.
-Newcastle speech 1909 he said he would succeed in bringing the Hol down & attacked their aristocratic opp, lack of patriotism & social concern.
G.E 1910
-Asquith declared the lords action unconstitutional & called and election- Jan 1910.
-narrow lib victory 274 over cons 272.
-parl act sought to end power of Hol veto & deny lords power to amend or veto a money bill, impose a max delay of 2yrs on any other act, elections every 5 yrs instead of 7.
-Irish nationalist leader- John Redmond agreed their support to get act through on the condition HR was re-introduced.
-Lord finally passed the budget but not the parl act.
-lib & cons politicians had a meeting- ‘const conference’, but failed to resolve the crisis. Asquith risked another election in dec, which again led to lab & Irish holding the balance.
parl act 1911
-may 1911-parl act passed in commons, lords employed delaying tactics.
-Asquith created a deal w the king to create enough lib peers to swamp cons ones if they rejected the act -threat made them accept.
-parl act became law with a maj of 17 votes
why was the 1911 parl act so significant?
-it reduced the power of an unelected chamber
-ended political dominance of aristocracy
-marked ascendancy of hoc
-prevented undemocratic exploitation of their maj in Hol
-democratically elected govt should be allowed to carry out work as they had confidence of hoc & will of ppl
-for labour it removed the barrier of achieving their legislative programme in hoc
-Irish nationalists demanded IHR bill in exchange for support.
