House of Lords

Question 1

What is the role of the House of Lords?

Answer 1

• The Upper House
• ‘Watch dog of the constitution’
• Job is to make sure any party does not abuse its position when in government
• Doesn’t just pass legislation that serves its own political purpose

Question 2

What were the main terms of the People’s Budget 1909?

Answer 2

• The standard rate of income tax to be raised from 9d to 1s.3d in the pound, on incomes up to £3000 a year
• A new ‘super tax’ of 6d in the pound on incomes over £5000 a year
• Death duties to be paid on estates valued at over £5000
• A 20% levy on the unearned increase in land values
• Increased taxation on the sale of motor cars, alcohol and tobacco

Question 3

How would necessary revenue be met?

Answer 3

• Lloyd George planned to increase taxes on the propertied classes. This was the purpose of his 1909 budget

Question 4

What did Lloyd George’s plan lead to?

Answer 4

A conflict between the House of Lords and the House of Commons 1910-1911 (one of the 4 major crises)

Question 5

What was the Conservatives reaction to the People’s budget?

Answer 5

• They decided to resist the budget on the grounds that it was an unprecedented attack upon the rights of property - argued that this entitled them to ignore the long-standing convention that the Lords did not interfere with finance bills

Question 6

Why was the People’s budget thought to be a controversial budget?

Answer 6

• It marked a clear departure in terms of approach to taxation
• Taxes were deliberately raised to pay for state-run schemes
• There was a redistribution of wealth for the first time
• War Budget - lots of the profit went towards new battleships - not welfare reforms

Question 7

What course of action did the Conservatives in the House of Lords take?

Answer 7

• They used their majority to delay the budget, they agreed to pass the budget after 2 elections
• Asquith’s government were still in power
• Rejected the 1909 budget

Question 8

What is ‘wrong’ about the actions the Conservative lords took?

Answer 8

By protecting the political and financial interests of the conservative party, the Lords were acting in a blatantly partisan manner - supporting the interests of the conservatives rather than the national interest

Question 9

Were the Lords within their rights to take the action they did? How did they defend their tactics?

Answer 9

• They resisted the budget on the grounds that it was an unprecedented attack upon the rights of property.
• They argued that this entitled them to ignore the 200 year convention that the Lords did not interfere with finance bills. Legally they could

Question 10

What was the people’s budget?

Answer 10

• A ‘convention’ (unwritten rule) of Parliament
• That financial bills were not opposed, therefore no budget had been rejected by either the Lords or the Commons for 200 years

Question 11

How did the Liberal’s feel about the people’s budget?

Answer 11

• Not all Liberals were happy with the budget
• Many didn’t like the increase on defence spending, including DLG
• Liberals had been losing by-elections so their popularity of 1906 was possibly in decline

Question 12

What was the opposition to the House of Lords?

Answer 12

• Balfour had essentially said in the 1906 election ‘the function of the House of Lords was to ensure that who ever won an election, the ultimate destinies of the country would be in the hands of the Conservative party’
• DLG said that of the House of Lords ‘it was not the watchdog of the constitution, but Mr Balfour’s poodle’

Question 13

What was the opposition to the budget?

Answer 13

• Balfour was in a difficult position, he had lost control of the Conservative Lords and was now forced into opposing the budget
• DLG - ‘we have not provoked the challenge, but we welcome it’
• Asquith called a general election on the issue of the ‘People’s budget’ (good propaganda)

Question 14

What were the results of the election in January 1910?

Answer 14

• Left the Liberals as a minority government
• Liberals - 275
• Cons and Unionists - 273
• Labour 40
• Irish Nationalists - 82

Question 15

What did the results of the January election mean for the parties?

Answer 15

• Liberals now have to rely on Irish Nationalists for support and Labour
• Price = Home Rule for Ireland
• Most Liberals agree with this BUT conservatives are against it
• Irish Unionists against it
• Much of the British Public are against it

Question 16

What was the impact of the January 1910 election?

Answer 16

• The budget is passed in light of the election result as the Liberals had the support of the Irish Nationalists to secure a majority
• The cost of Irish support is ‘Home Rule’
• Home Rule won’t pass the Lords until the Lords is reformed
• Reform of the House of Lords in the form of the Parliament Bill becomes the next key issue

Question 17

What were the results of the December 1910 election?

Answer 17

• Liberals - 272
• Cons and Unionists - 272
• Labour 42
• Irish Nationalists - 84

Question 18

Explain the results of the December 1910 election.

Answer 18

• There was no real change

Question 19

What was the impact of the December 1910 election?

Answer 19

• The King agrees to create more Liberal Peers to get the Bill through Parliament
• Lords talk of a vote of censure against the King for failing to support the hereditary aristocracy
• Bill finally passes when 29 rebel Tory peers support the Bill (most were bishops + 2 archbishops)