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.