Liberal Britain

I

Introduction

Liberal Britain, period of social and political reform enacted by the Liberal government of 1905-1915. The Liberal government came to power in December 1905, on the resignation of the Conservative prime minister Arthur Balfour. The Liberals went on to win a landslide victory in the general election of January 1906, and formed a historic administration, led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman (the prime minister between 1905 and 1908) and his successor Herbert Henry Asquith (prime minister 1908-1916). The Liberal government introduced a raft of social reforms in the attempt to prevent the collapse of the Victorian Poor Law (the system of poor relief that dated from the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834) in the face of the intolerable burden of poverty that characterized early 20th-century Britain. It continued through two general elections in 1910 until it fused into a coalition wartime administration in May 1915. It was a seminal administration that changed the direction of social reform in Britain by increasing government intervention to a level never known before and establishing that poverty and destitution were the result of a failure of society rather than the personal failing of individuals. It also helped influence the creation of the modern welfare state under the Labour governments of 1945 to 1951 by shaping Labour’s national insurance scheme that provided the minimum conditions for life in modern society.

II

Reasons for the Liberal Reforms

The Liberals had not come to power on the issue of social reform and poverty relief but on a number of other issues, such as popular outrage at the use of Chinese slaves in British-owned gold mines in South Africa. Nonetheless, social reform became the hallmark of the Liberal administrations of 1905 to 1915. The reason for this development has been subject to intense debate, with the suggestions ranging from the impact of the emergent Labour Party (founded in 1900 by trade unionists and socialists) on New Liberalism, the need to deal effectively with the failings of the Victorian Poor Law, and the rising concern about those whose needs were not being met by voluntary help.

A

The Victorian Poor Law

At the beginning of the 20th century the Victorian Poor Law, as established by the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act (see Poor Laws), was faced with enormous financial pressures. According to the 1834 Act, those seeking assistance had to submit themselves to the discipline of the workhouse. The workhouses were overseen by unions of parishes, on which sat local magistrates, Church ministers, and representatives of local ratepayers. By the beginning of the 20th century, more than two million people were falling on the Poor Law for relief during the winter months, mainly seeking indoor rather than outdoor relief, at a time when the Poor Law unions were attempting to move children out of institution buildings and into supervised cottage accommodation.

B

New Liberalism

The influence of New Liberalism has assumed immense importance in the debate about the rise of the Labour Party and the decline of the Liberals. It is argued that Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse, John Atkinson Hobson, and David Lloyd George attempted to retain working-class support within the Liberal Party by offering a variety of social reforms and compromises to the working classes that became known as New Liberalism. It is further maintained that their prime concern was to reconcile the demands of labour with the need for Liberal Party unity, an equation that was never going to be easily arranged given Liberal reliance upon industrial and capitalist wealth. They offered conciliation for industrial conflict, public ownership to serve the demands of efficiency, and communal responsibility over sectional interests. The distinctive feature of these and other New Liberal policies is that they offered a framework whereby harmony, rather than class or sectional conflict, would be promoted. Indeed, Lloyd George stressed to the National Reform Union in 1914 that “it is better that you should have a party which combined every section and every shade of opinion, taken from all classes of the community, rather than one which represents one shade of opinion alone or one class of community alone”. (Manchester Guardian, November 7, 1914).