Although the war had split the Liberals in 1902 - the end of the war meant that they could come back together and form a stronger and more powerful party, which was able to compete against the Conservatives. As people started to see the mistakes the Conservatives were making the Liberals became a real alternative, they believed that maybe the Liberals would be able to do a better job; getting the economy and wealth of the country back. The war also led to moral outrage when it was found out that many of the prisoners of war were being kept in cramped and unclean conditions. The Liberal leader (Campbell-Bannerman) accused the conservatives of using ‘methods of barbarism’ as the conditions were insanitary and disease were spreading, killing many.
Many people were also outraged by the treatment of Chinese slaves that were sent to South Africa. Many nonconformists and other social groups such as the trade unionists were angered by this situation. The nonconformists were extremely disgusted at the ill treatment of the Chinese labourers who were sent out to South Africa and paid very low wages and treated badly. The Trade unions and the workers were not so worried about the moral issue but they were scared that Chinese workers would be sent to Britain, employers may then lower the wages and the Chinese would take their jobs.
Britain had experienced a large growth in population in 40 years due to industrialisation; this meant there was a big need for well organised sanitary conditions, however the governments original view was ‘laissez-faire’; the belief it was not their business and therefore poverty and unkempt conditions had spread. ‘More than one-fourth of the population are living in poverty … There is surely need for greater concentration of thought by the nation upon the well-being of its own people’ (Seebohm Rowntree, 1901) the amount of poverty around the country made many start to realise something must be done. The parties agreed that government needed to intervene and tackle the problem. As the army recruits had been so unhealthy this also strengthened the case for parliamentary action. The people of Britain believed that they must reach ‘national efficiency’; the term was used to signify the level of health and wellbeing that the British people needed to achieve if they were to stay in its strong position around the world – the only way of doing this was with government intervention. Despite this desperate need for social reform, the government had failed to provide the necessary help so far.
The Liberals had started to build a new form ‘New Liberalism’ which stated that the government would pay more attention to the conditions of the people; they would ensure better living standards for the most needy. Despite the Liberals changing their views and fixing some of their old ideas, the Conservatives proceeded to do nothing other than an Education Act that was passed by Balfour in 1902. The Education Act although gave money to schools which would have eventually led to better education and improving ‘national efficiency’ it angered the non-conformists as they had to pay more taxes and yet not all schools were given money, only church schools (Church of England and Catholic); so in fact they were paying for schools that their children did not attend.
Another Act passed by Balfour was the Licensing Act, this act although at the beginning was a good idea – the closing of many pubs - and the Temperance movement were happy to see many of the pubs closing – Balfour gave compensation to the pub owners and this enraged the Temperance movement again. The situation was just badly handled by Balfour. The Licensing act would have meant less pubs and workers wouldn’t have turned up in a drunken state for work which would have meant better health and again would have helped ‘national efficency’ however this not only angered the Temperance movement but it would have made the workers cross as well, their free will to go drinking in their spare time was nothing to do with the government and therefore they would have believed the closing of pubs was unnecessary and interfering with their free-will. Both the education and the licensing act both led many to switch their support to the liberals and there is evidence of this from the by-election results.
Britain was the largest empire at this time however countries such as Germany, Japan and the USA were rapidly catching up with them. These countries soon became Britain’s economic rivals as they were enjoying a much faster economic growth and they had the ability to use newer industrial techniques whereas Britain’s economy was slowing down. In order for Britain to keeps its high status in the world economically then again changes needed to be made by the government. The idea of Tariff reforms was a way to protect the British industry and that coming in from the empire. Joseph Chamberlain lead the campaign for Tariff reform – imported goods from countries outside the empire must pay a fee to bring their goods into Britain, which means they either might put the price up or make smaller products but those goods from Britain and its empire would not have to be paid for and therefore it encourages British production. This idea in theory is a very beneficial and useful one and would have strengthened the British Empire which was a very important part of the nation in the twentieth century however there were many arguments against it.
Tariff reform would take over from the old method of free trade which had been used throughout the nineteenth century and was extremely fixed with the economy of Britain. People believed that as free trade had been used for so many years successfully why should they change, this as tariff reform meant that food prices would raise or they would get less for their money. The money that could’ve been made from tariff reform may have been spent on social reform however people still did not want to change. Tariff reform led to many disputes within the conservative party which had another catastrophic effect on them as they were split on this idea and yet the Liberals stayed united, all believing in free trade – and promoted their hatred for tariff reform by a campaign called ‘big loaf, little loaf’. This campaign led many of the working classes to vote liberal as they were worried voting Conservative would mean higher food prices.
The Conservatives also lost many of the working classes vote over the Taff Vale case. Taff Vale was a railway company in Wales and in 1901 a dispute had broken out between the company and its employees. The railway worker’s trade union had organised strikes and the company got angry about this and took them to court for striking demanding that they pay what the company had lost due to their strikes. The court agreed to this and believed that the company was within its rights to ask for the money. The trade union was outraged as this meant the employers could no longer hold strikes without the fear of being sued. In an attempt to over rule what the court had said they took it to parliament, however the conservatives refused. Balfour believed it was none of his business and it was a matter to be dealt between the court, the railway company and the trades union. This meant that many of the workers began to support either the liberals or labour and a lot campaigned against the conservatives.
In a couple of years the conservatives had alienated many sections of the voting public – nonconformist over Chinese slavery and the education act, workers over Taff vale and tariff reform; because of this it helped the liberals as they could use these mistakes in their campaign. The Liberals were united over issues whereas many ideas had split the conservatives and the new liberal leader Herbert Gladstone was able to organise, and improve the liberal party. Many people may not have chosen to vote liberal because of there schemes and ideas but because they believed the government needed change the ‘political pendulum’, reforms needed to be made and the economy needed to be fixed, many may have believed that the Liberals were able to give them what they needed; when in fact the liberals wanted to do more investigations into the poverty of the country rather than dealing with it. The idea of ‘new liberalism’ would’ve intrigued the workers who were in a desperate state of poverty, the idea that the government will help them and create more social reforms. The liberals had much more to offer than the conservatives, however the main part of the liberal campaign was negative against the conservatives and they showed little in the way of what they were going to do for the country. I believe the liberal party used the conservatives past failings as a way to gain more votes across the country and I agree that ‘it was not the liberals who won but the conservatives who lost’ since the people were more likely voting against the conservatives and their lack of social reform than they were because the liberals were going to make many.
Bibliography:
AQA History, Britain 1906 – 1951 by Chris Collier and Chris Rowe
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