Reasons for Liberal Reforms Flashcards
How many people did London socialists claim in London lived in poverty?
What was the actual number and how did this information come about?
London socialists claimed one quarter
Booth aimed to disprove this but he proved that 30% of London lived in poverty
Who backed up Booth and with what information?
He wanted to prove it on a national scale and found that 27.8 of people in York lived in poverty.
He also discovered a family of 5 needed 21 shillings per week to stay above the poverty line.
Why was Booth and Rowntree’s discovery important?
It provided factual information which the government could not ignore, Rowntree proved that poverty was not unique to London and was a widespread issue.
Why were Booth and Rowntree a limited reaosn for the Liberal Reforms?
Critics claim the poverty level in 2 cities cannot be reflective of the UK, they also claimed the real reason why people were poor is that they sqaundered their money on alcohol and gambling.
What was discovered during the 1899-1902 Boer War?
1/3 men failed medical inspections and were declared unfit to serve. In industrial cities such as Manchester it was as many as 9/10. This started media claims that unfit people were not able to protect the largest empire in the world.
Why were fears over national security important?
The first reforms passed were free school meals and child medical inspections in order to improve the health of the future generation of soldiers.
Why were fears over national security limited?
The early reforms only impacted children and the current working age men were unfit for war, the government’s lack of urgency shows it was not their top priority to improve the fighting force.
Why did the Liberals begin to fear Labour?
The Labour party claimed to be a party for the working class, they vowed to implement reforms and improve both living and working conditions which appealed to working class Brits. This threatened the votes for the Liberals and they knew if they wished to retain working class votes they would have to introduce changes.
Why was the rising threat of Labour significant?
The Liberal party realised that the Labour party was a threat to their dominance, to counter this the Liberals insigated social reforms or they would face losing support from the working class.
Why was fear of labour a limited reason for the Liberal Reforms?
It is claimed many Liberal polticians wanted to ‘wage war’ on poverty, if gaining support from the working class was the driving force then Liberals would’ve stated reforms in their manefesto in order to gain votes.
Who were the new liberals and what did they aim to achieve.
Lloyde George and Winston Churchill wanted to abolish laissez faire ideas and wanted to help people in certain circumstances - they were referred to as the interventionists.
Why was new liberalsim important
It opened the doors for fresh ideas to be introduced and allowed the restraints of laissez faire to be removed. The new appointments in government also allowed for more influence in policy decisions.
Why were new liberals less important?
Many Liberals did not support the new liberals’ views, they found it difficult to remove this barrier.
Early reforms were not influenced by new liberals and had been passed under the old liberal ideology.
What refoms were introduced locally (municpically)
In some Liberal councils welfare improvements such as street lighting and clean water were introduced. For example, in Birmingham under a Liberal Mayor, a fresh water supply was introduced and many of the slums had been cleared. These reforms gradually improved the lives of the people.
Schemes to improve public living and health had been established in the late 19th century by Liberals.
Why was municipal socialism important
It showed that it was both financially and logistically possible to set up schemes and proved they could work on a larger scale.
They proved that intervention did in fact help the lives of citizens.
