reasons for liberal reforms Flashcards
booth & rowntree knowledge
Booth’s report in London in 1899 found that 30% of people were living in poverty. He drew a poverty map of London.
Booth researched the causes of poverty and found that poverty was not always the fault of the individual in poverty.
Rowntree conducted his study in York. He found that 27% of people in York lived below the poverty line. He also created the poverty cycle to chart poverty through people’s lives.
booth & rowntree analysis
Rowntree proved that poverty was an epidemic in many places across the UK and not just London, which called for the Liberals to make major changes to help those living in poverty.
booth & rowntree analysis plus
the reports were clearly not that shocking to many people as it still took 17 years after Booth’s findings to pass the first reform.
national security and the boer war knowledge
Britain became involved in a war in South Africa in 1899 where volunteers joined the army but almost 25% were rejected as they were said to be physically unfit to fight.
the war was tougher than the British Army expected as they struggled to beat the Boer farmers for 3 years.
finally, Britain won the Boer War in 1902. Although Britain won, they lost 20,000 men with a further 90,000 that were injured or had to be sent home, whereas the Boers just lost 6,000.
national security and the boer war analysis
Liberals were forced to pass the Free School Meals Act 1906 after the Boer War showed them that the majority of the men in Britain were not healthy enough to defend the British Empire, so this was introduced to ensure they would be in the future.
national security and the boer war analysis plus
the Boer War only influenced early reforms such as Free School Meals, it had nothing to do with later reforms such as the Old Age Pension Act. This meant that the free school meals were just to later benefit the British Empire and the Liberals didn’t truly care about the welfare of Brits in poverty and struggling to survive.
municipal socialism knowledge
mayor Joseph Chamberlain used local taxes to give clean, reliable water and safe gas to the city of Birmingham in the 1870s.
using money raised by the people of Glasgow, a dam and a series of tunnels were built to get water from Loch Katrine to Glasgow in 1855.
during the early 1850s in Glasgow, cholera was a common disease which came from water taken from wells that was drawn from the river clyde.
municipal socialism analysis
municipal socialism inspired new liberals and proved that if this worked on a small scale then it could also work on a national scale.
municipal socialism analysis plus
the Laissez-Faire approach was still believed by many Old Liberals who thought poverty around the UK was an issue to be dealt with by local governments. They believed there wasn’t any reason for them to get involved with the day to day lives of the people.
rise of labour knowledge
working class men were prevented from becoming MPs because this was unpaid work so you had to already have a lot of money, meaning the richest people in society were unfairly speaking for those in experiencing the problems they discussed.
in the late 1890s, trade unions sponsored or paid working class people so they could become MPs and have a say in parliament for the first time.
on February 27th 1900, the Labour Party was formed by Keir Hardie and the Trade unions and the working class began to support them.
rise of labour analysis
rise of labour threatened the Liberal Party as the amount of people voting for Labour was only going to increase. This led to the Liberals creating reforms that would benefit the working class so they could regain their vote.
rise of labour analysis plus
in 1906, the Labour Party won less than 5% of the vote, whereas the Liberals won nearly 50%. This meant that Labour clearly wasn’t as popular as it was believed to have been because they were a long way off from the leading party, so the Liberals didn’t have any need to meet the public’s demands.
new liberalism knowledge
following the resignation and subsequent death of Henry Campbell Bannerman, Herbert Asquith was made Prime Minister.
in 1908, Winston Churchill was appointed President of the Board of Trade and David Lloyd George was made Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Winston Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary in 1910.
new liberalism analysis
New Liberals were able to convince people that those in poverty were not at fault for their own situation, as laissez faire promoted, but they were actually born into the cycle and had no way to escape. This encouraged other Liberals to support the reforms being proposed which would benefit those in Britain suffering the most.
new liberalism analysis plus
before New Liberalism started in 1908, the 1906 Free School Meals Act was passed. New Liberalism could not have been responsible for this reform because it took place 2 years before Liberals changed their attitude toward the working class. This means they couldn’t have been that important for the introduction of new reforms as they were being passed before their presence in parliament.
