Liberals - why Flashcards
Factors
*The social surveys
*The New Liberals
*The rise of Labour
*Municipal Socialism
*National Security
Background
*At the beginning of the 20th century most of the British working classes lived in extreme poverty without government intervention.
*However, by 1914 the Liberal Government had mostly abandoned its “Laissez-faire” attitude and introduced social welfare reforms to improve the lives of the poor.
*When the Liberals came to power in 1906 they did not have a programme of radical reforms already drawn up and had not intended to introduce social reforms. However, it soon became clear to the government that reforms were needed on a wide range of issues.
Line of Argument
New Liberals
National Security (1)
*(K) During the recruitment process for soldiers for the Boer war, recruiters found that they had to reject roughly a third of applicants due to poor physical conditions, such as underdevelopment or malnutrition.
*(A) The Liberal government was worried that the increasingly poor health in the British populace would cause their military forces to weaken, and so many MPs felt government intervention was needed to improve the health of the British people to preserve the Empire.
*(A+) The Boer wars happened 4 years before the Liberal government came to power, so while they may have alerted MPs that there was an issue, there was no government response for several years, so it cannot have been of massive importance at the time.
National Security (2)
*(K) By the end of the 19th century, Britain was facing serious competition for being the strongest industrial nation from several countries, particularly Germany, a country which had already set up several social welfare benefits in the 1880s.
*(A) MPs held fears that if the health of the British working class continued to decline, its power as an industrial empire would be further under threat, which would affect the wealth of the entire Empire, and were inspired by the success of Germanys social welfare system as a solution.
National Security (E)
New Liberals were more important, as while national security being put into question was an important reason because it made clear to the govt that to remain on top, Britain needed to strengthen its working classes as they were the nation’s backbone, the new Liberals were the ones willing to look at the problems highlighted by the Boer War and take action, whereas the previous governments had recognised the issues but did little to solve them.
Municipal socialism
*(K) In some large industrial cities, such as Birmingham, local authorities had taken charge of providing social welfare schemes, with some implementing clean water supplies and cleaning of slums, all paid for by a form of local taxation which applied mostly to the upper classes.
*(A) Long before the national government got involved in social reforms, local authorities were well on the way to doing so in many towns and cities, the effectiveness of these schemes then proved to MPs how government support through redirected taxes could benefit the lives of the working class.
*(A+) There was still resistance from the upper classes, including many MPs, who did not with for their taxes to be raised in order to pay for these reforms.
Municipal socialism (E)
Was important because it showed how social welfare reforms brought positive changes on a small scale, laying the foundations for national reforms, but New Liberals were more important as the bulk of the reforms were introduced after Asquith’s cabinet took power, so municpals socialism evidence was only taken seriously by a govt with sympathy for the poor.
Rise of Labour
*(K) Towards the end of the 19th century, the Labour Party was formed under Keir Hardy, with the promise of improving conditions for the working class. Their focus on the lower classes meant that at the start of the 20th century, their popularity among the poor workers grew, and they began to win more votes.
*(A) This made Labour concerned that Labour was going to steal a large enough portion of their voters that it would allow the Conservatives to get into power. In order to prevent this, they felt the need to act on what Labour was promising and introduced social welfare reforms to appease working-class voters.
*(A+) If the Liberals were truly worried about Labour, they would have acted on these welfare reforms much sooner, but at the time Labour held very few seats in parliament, it was likely that the Liberals were not concerned by their growing popularity.
Rise of Labour (E)
There was fear that without social reforms, Labour would become more popular due to their policies in favour of the working class. The New Liberals were more important because, despite Labour’s growth, it wasn’t a huge threat, so the main incentive to pursue social welfare reforms came from within the party, directly from New Liberal politicians who wanted change.
The ‘New Liberals’
*(K) When the Liberals rose to power in 1906, much of their party had a “Liassez-faire” attitude, meaning they believed that the poor of Britain should be left to fend for themselves. However, when Herbert Asquith became PM in 1908, he brought David Lloyd Geroge and Winston Churchill, two essential “new Liberals” into his cabinet.
*(A) This helped cause the Liberals to introduce social welfare reforms as Lloyd George and Churchill held genuine sympathy for the poor working classes, and in their new positions of power, they were able to help push for reforms to improve their living conditions.
*(A+) Despite being in high government positions, the ‘New Liberals’ were vastly outnumbered by ‘Old Liberals’ within their party, who still help a Liassez-faire attitude, and as such it would have been difficult to sway so many of their fellow Liberals into changing their views and voting for social welfare reforms.
The Social Surveys (1)
*(K) Studies done by Seebohm Rowntree on working-class families and individuals in York consolidated Charles Booth’s surveys, in which he concluded that a third of Britain’s population was living in extreme poverty.
*(A) This brought the huge scale of poverty to the attention of the British government and practically forced them to implement reforms to fix it as there was no longer any way to deny how serious poverty was in Britain.
*(A+) Even before Rowntree’s surveys were released, Booth’s surveys were very well known. Booth surveys were completed and published in 1903, and what they revealed did nothing to change the Liberal’s original manifesto to get into parliament in 1906, so they likely did not hold much influence over the Liberals overall.
The Social Surveys (2)
*(K) The social surveys also concluded the actual causes of poverty, revealing that it was generally caused by disadvantages embedded in the system, rather than one’s laziness or stupidity as previously thought.
*(A) This put a responsibility on the government to right these wrongs, as it was the only institution with the money and power to change the situation. Faced with these facts, the Liberals would have been influenced to introduce the social reforms.
The Social Surveys (E)
The social surveys encouraged reforms with their concrete evidence of the roots of the poverty crisis and were publicly available, showing how poverty could only be solved by the state. New Liberals were more important thought because despite the pressures a government without sympathy would not have cared about the possibility of improving the lives of the poor.
