Why did the Liberals introduce major social reforms from 1906 to 1911 and how significant were they?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Why did the Liberals introduce major social reforms from 1906 to 1911 and how significant were they?

Between the years of 1906 and 1911, the Liberal government introduced a series of reforming Acts which attempted to deal with the escalation of widespread poverty, ill-health and unemployment that were endemic in Britain. A growing concern over the efficiency of the nation drove Edwardian society to place a strong emphasis on the condition of children, the future engine of the economy, and labourers, the driving force of the empire. Principally through the efforts of Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, the Liberal social reforms concentrated on improving the living standards of children, the unemployed and the elderly. Some of the measures included, for example, the 1908 Children and Young Person's Act, the 1908 Old Age Pensions Act and the 1911 National Insurance Act. In this essay I will look at a combination of political, ideological and economical factors which may have prompted the Liberals to embark on such a vast programme of social reform.

There is a wide measure of agreement among historians that one of the principal reasons behind the origins of social reform was political pressure from the