the impact of the war on political developments Flashcards
who were the ILP, when did they form, who did they represent and what was there relationship to the labour party
the ILP formed in 1893 to represent the working classes in parliment
the ILP was one of the groups who later came together to form the labour party
labour wasn’t a very strong and hadn’t made much of an impression in scotland prior to the outbreak of war
before 1914 who dominated scottish politics and what later weakened this party
before 1914 the liberal party dominated Scottish politics however the issue of going to war decided the party - some mp’s who where against the war declined
the liberals were weakened by the shell scandal (1915) as newspaper reports suggested the liberals were a party who could not run the war on there own and needed help from the conservatives - a new coalition gov formed in may 1915
ILP and labour had differing views on the war
the ILP took a strong anti-war stance whereas the labour party opposed the war but then after war was declaimed they supported the government - that being said labour were still very keen to bring the war to an end as soon as possible
what was the main appeal of the ILP to scottish (working class) voters
although the ideology of the ILP was socialist - their campaigns were aimed at local issues and they worked to improve local conditions for working class people rather than focusing on international issues which were not of immediate concern this made them popular in Scotland
what was the ILP’s response to conscription
what happened on 11th april 1919
the ILP were outwardly anti-conscription and 70% of conscientious objectors were members of the ILP political organisation
on the 11th april 1919 the ILP held a public meeting at St Andrew’s Halls, Glasgow to hear various speakers call for the abolition of conscription and the release of conscientious objectors - this was because 1,300 conscientious objectors were still in prison 5 months after armisist
why did the issue of conscription also cause problems for the liberal party
by autumn 1915 the conservative party was leading a drive to introduce conscription and the already prominent device within the liberal party was further separated as some MP’s agreed with conscription and therefor the conservative party
between what years and by how much did labours share of the vote increase
between 1918-1922 labours share of the vote increased substantially
in 1918 they won 7 seats in scotland but by 1922 this had increased to 29 seats
