How far did the Liberals create a welfare state?

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How far did the Liberals create a welfare state?

The term ‘welfare state’ is renowned for the government looking after people throughout their lives, ‘from cradle to the grave’. The government had to ensure that they received benefit payments or other arrangements to help the poor service from unemployment, large families, sickness or old age. Another important essential aspect was the basic services for people’s ‘physical efficiency’, which included housing and health care.

The Conservatives introduced the 1905 Unemployed Workmen Act. The Act used money from the rates for public work schemes but the action was optional and was left up to local authorities. The Conservatives set up the Royal Commission to investigate the Poor Law System. The majority of the commission craved more action by the local council committees and charities but however, the Liberal government were in power introducing its own reforms. The reforms of the early 19th century depended upon various reasons. At the time, there was increased knowledge of poverty. Booth and Rowntree were both campaigning for more government action with new thinking of unemployment being important. Consequently there seem to have been some changes in attitudes towards poverty and Rowntree complied evidence that the ‘labouring class received upon the average of 25 percent less food than has been proved the necessary for the maintenance of physical efficiency’.

National efficiency was another reason to the development of reforms. Britain had to be ‘efficient’ both to keep her empire and to cope with German and American industrial competition. Some thought town living was leading to the decline of the British race; others saw it more as a question of poor environment. The most important contribution to the heart of national well being was healthy children, good food, public health and welfare measures. The empire required modernisation to improve the strength of the army and the health care of ill children. The ‘empire could not be built on rickety and flat-chested citizens’ which proved the sudden urge for the development of the army to improve its strength and progression due to the rejection of 40 percent of the Boer War military being rejected as unfit and to improve the lifestyles of children suffering from the disease, Rickety.

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Liberalism was always been about freedom and Liberals were frequently changing their minds about the type of freedom they wanted. T.H Green, an active member of the Liberal Party developed his idea about ‘positive freedom’. New Liberalism thinking was extremely relevant to the Liberals around 1900 as they become more familiar of the actions that the government could carry out in order to attract the working- class electors. T.H Greens theory of ‘positive freedom’ allowed help for people to become free. Individuals may need strengthening to achieve freedom and happiness and this would only be achieved by the state and ...

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