How important were David Lloyd-Georges own actions & activities in explaining the fall of the coalition government in 1922?

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Jennifer Hatton 12NHB

How important were David Lloyd-George’s own actions & activities in explaining the fall of the coalition government in 1922?

        David Lloyd-George, a liberal MP, entered the wartime coalition in 1915 as the Minister of Munitions. After Herbert Asquith resigned David Lloyd-George became Prime Minister in December 1916. He was known as the man who won the war, and was very well respected at the end of the war. In the 1918 General Election the coalition Conservatives gained 335 seats, whereas the Coalition Liberals had only 133 – Lloyd-George was a “prime minister without a party”. The coalition came to fall on 26th October 1922.

        David Lloyd-George’s actions and activities played an important role in the downfall of the coalition government. One of the most sensational activities of Lloyd-George’s was the Honours Scandal. Lloyd-George was accused of selling knighthoods and peerages to untrustworthy and dodgy characters (Sir J.B Robinson, Sir Samuel Waring and Sir Archibald Williamson). Handsome donations to party funds had in the past frequently resulted in the granting of honours – usually after a decent interval had elapsed and providing the donator has good reputations – Lloyd-George had dispensed with such formalities. This angered the Conservatives – even though they were taking half the profits that Lloyd-George made.  Another action that offended many was the “Garden Suburb”. Lloyd-George recruited a bevy of private secretaries from outside the ranks of the civil service. They occupied huts in the back garden of number 10 Downing Street and hence were known as the “Garden Suburb”. Some complained as Lloyd-George was acting unconstitutionally in by-passing the civil service and in extending the areas of Government control – he took shipping, railways and mines under state control. Factories were told what to produce; prices were controlled and conscription introduced – Lloyd-George was accused of acting in a presidential way. Lloyd-George never enjoyed a reputation for orthodoxy or absolute honesty.

He seldom visited the Common’s and he leaked secret information to the press, and there were well-founded rumours that his private life was not above reprimand.  

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Domestic issues were also an important part of the fall of the coalition. The failure of reconstruction after the war made a large majority turn against the coalition and David Lloyd-George. During the war Britain lost many international markets, and substantial debts were incurred, especially to the USA. In December 1920 unemployment climbed from 300,000 to 700,000 and by June 1921 it soared to 2 million unemployed. The demobilisation of millions of men and absorbing them into the peacetime economy proved very difficult – the national economy was crippled by war debts and it was not easy to switch the ...

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