How successful was Lloyd George as peace-time Prime minister?

James Patterson - -

Lloyd George was partially successful as a peace-time Prime minister: he had success in achieving certain goals as: demobbing of many war heroes; averting a general strike, crushing the imminent threat of Communism, increased the quantity of housed people, and used his position as a leader with no party with incredible bravery all this despite facing huge economic problems. However George had failures: Lloyd George had an inability to adapt from going from a war time leader to a peace time PM; often making rash and important decisions without the backing of the cabinet; and although some of his reforms had successes they also had major failures.

After the conclusion to the Great War and the success of the Versailles settlement, Lloyd George and his coalition government were faced with, arguably their toughest task to date, domestic politics. The domestic situation in the aftermath of the war was chaotic and needed all of Lloyd George’s brilliance.
Many people have debated that Lloyd George’s handling of the situation was eccentric at the least. For example his statement to gain popularity with the British labourers, “Well, I am for hanging the Kaiser”
“Lloyd George was undoubtedly a national rather than party leader and was convinced that he could most effectively lead Britain through the war into peace and reconstruction within the context of a coalition government rather than with the resumption of party politics.”
To comprehend the success of Lloyd George, an understanding of the domestic problems which arose during the war must be mentioned. George was faced with economic problems, the breakdown of Industrial relations between industries and the government, unemployment, the need for new homes, his popularity with the public, controlling Government spending and the all important question could he survive without the Conservatives? George was successful in performing a balancing act between dealing with the problems after the war whilst trying to achieve these goals. It is possible to assume that he achieved the vast majority of goals and was one of the twentieth century’s greatest politicians.
Lloyd George’s reign after the war was set off to a great start with the successful demobbing of many war heroes and the post war boom. The first success for the coalition
One of George’s largest problems was that he had to prevent a major strike from the coal industry, the transport workers and railway workers, also known as the Triple Alliance. The Triple Alliance felt that they should be handed to private owners; they were not in favour of nationalisation. Lloyd George wanted to achieve nationalisation, and succeeded in his goal, with some difficulty however. On April 1st the coal industry went on strike and this gave Lloyd George his chance to achieve nationalisation. He handed the mines to private owners and for a while, the aggrieved miners threatened that their strike would become a general strike. They were claiming that that wasn’t enough, now they wanted a pay rise. However, on April 15th, labelled Black Friday by the miners, the rail workers and transport workers pulled out. The miners had to carry out the strike alone, and to their credit, did so for three months. However without support, they were helpless and they had to give way on all arguments. They were forced to go back to work and take reductions in pay from the very employers they were striking not to work for. Soon after the strike was called off, other trade workers suffered wage cuts.

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Lloyd George’s achievements at handling that situation can be seen in two ways; the first that he averted the strikes and reduced the wage expenditure the government had to pay. However, secondly, he lost an enormous amount of popularity from the working population. However to George’s credit, he knew that people no longer were going to vote for him, they were voting in the Conservatives who would keep him in power. With hindsight, nevertheless, maybe he could have foreseen the quick rise of the Labour party.
During the immediate years post world war one, Britain was left war torn and short of “homes fit for heroes”. Lloyd George pounced on this opportunity to extend his popularity with the British population. He claimed that he could devise a system to create these “homes fit for heroes”. In his election manifesto (1918-the coupon election) he stated that the war heroes came home to modified and more elaborate homes. His proposal involved the building of council houses. This was to be called the Addison Housing Act of 1919. Its plan was to give local authorities power to build houses, and in return the council would receive £260 for each house built. The government then hoped to cover the £260 by charging people rent to reside in these homes. Unfortunately, the post war boom in timber, bricks, steel, etc. ended. Due to this now inevitable rise in prices, the council had to charge higher rent and therefore only the richest of the population habituated these homes. Many historians have claimed that the Addison Housing Act scarcely scratched the surface of governmental administrative changes because its subsidies tended to promote building at the upper end of the price-range.
To look at Lloyd George’s success at rehousing the war heroes, we must not be drawn from the fact that no matter who rented the council houses; lower, middle, or upper classes, there were new houses built. Even if it meant that richer people were moving to council houses and the war heroes then employed their property, so be it as they now had homes.
Since the demise of the coalition, many have claimed that if Lloyd George was not a prisoner to the Conservatives, he could have achieved a lot more. Looking back, we can see that with the split of the Liberals, George was left with no alternative but to carry on as the leader with no party. He arguably led the party with no leader, the Tories. Lloyd George was very aware of such a fact and used it very cleverly, he felt that to a large extent he could do what he wished without having to worry about his political votes because it was the Conservatives that were gaining the votes and keeping him in power. This gave him the freedom to be a bit of a maverick.
Many people who lambaste Lloyd George’s coalition and their achievements surely do not know the challenge that lay ahead of them. “.....that conditions were very difficult.......745,000 Britons had been killed (9% of all men under 45).....In fact about 3.5 million people were soon receiving some form of war pension or allowance.” Britain was heavily in debt to the US, foreign trade markets were lost, and now the post war boom had ended rather sharply. All in all it could be said that Lloyd George was one of the most successful politicians of the 20th century, considering what he had to deal with.
One major question facing the coalition was how to cut back on government spending. In 1922, the Geddes Axe was unveiled; it’s aim to simply cut back government spending by £175 million. Eric Geddes, head of the committee, (hence the name) requested that all ministers as a collective should reduce their government spending by the specified amount. Only £75 million was put forward by the ministers. Geddes’ axe chopped around to discover an extra £64 million, still £36 million short of the desired amount. However, it was £139 million more than any government before George had uncovered.

However Lloyd George had failures, he had an inability to adapt from going from a war time leader to a peace time PM. Lloyd George did have a huge, unquestionable amount of power through the duration of his office in wartime. Acts passed such as the DORA and nationalisation of the staple industries, as well other emergency wartime legislation gave the government and in particular Lloyd George a never before seen influence over peoples lives.
Subsequently, after war stopped his power was reduced significantly. Obviously during the war his main concern had been foreign affairs and trying to win the war, a cause all the coalition would agree with. However, now the war was over, Lloyd George now had domestic affairs to worry about. Being a liberal PM in charge of a Conservative dominated cabinet this was always going to be hard, as Conservatives and Liberals do not share the same ideologies. Inevitably there was a disagreement about economic matters, soon after the war. Lloyd George wanted to keep public spending high to fund social reforms such as his ‘homes fit for heroes’ programme and Fishers educational reforms. The Conservatives completely disagreed with this, and put together a committee headed by Sir Eric Geddes, to discuss possible cuts with the treasury, this was nicknamed ‘Geddes Axe’, which due to Conservative pressure Lloyd George was forced to ‘swing’ in 1922. This was not what Lloyd George was used to, in wartime he had been allowed to have a very hands on, almost presidential style, often making decisions without consulting his cabinet. But now he and his cabinet had different aims and ideologies, so his decisions were now often not reflecting the opinions of the majority of his own cabinet.

One major factor which culminated in his forced departure was the resignation of Andrew Bonar-Law, whose position in cabinet was crucial for the working relationship between the two parties. This was not important during wartime, as a time of national unity was needed; differences in opinion about domestic policies were sidelined in order for one united effort to win the war. This showed a lack of foresight from George in knowing that Bonar-Law was vital to his position. This was the main reason for his downfall, even after the war he continued with his presidential style of government, often making rash and important decisions without the backing of the cabinet.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty and Versailles Treaty angered the Conservatives, the latter deemed too lenient. Also in the ‘Chanak’ crisis he almost started a war with Turkey pointlessly without consent of the cabinet, purely because of his own pan-Greek stance.
Due to problems with the economy and the failure of his reforms, Lloyd George was not as popular as he had been previously especially as he had been during the war: soon after the war he was called: “The man who won the war”. So as he had clashed so many times with the Conservatives over varying issues, and made many rash decisions without their consent, they agreed that they no longer needed him as their head and eventually ditched him at the Carlton Club meeting in 1922. Ultimately, although not the only reason, I believe Lloyd George’s inability to adapt to the needs of a peacetime government, was his major weakness and which effectively led to his downfall. Because although, during peacetime, a completely different style was needed, he continued as he had done throughout the war.

In conclusion, although George had flaws consisting of: an inability to make the transition from going from a war time leader to a peace time PM. I believe that Lloyd George and his wartime coalition were incredibly successful with the resources they had at their disposal. They had just won a world war and were left with a “depleted Britain”. The economy was in a shambles, it was rescued. The war heroes were homeless, homes were found. Government spending was too high, they reduced it. The country was in threat of a Communist take-over, they averted it, relations with the industry were, admittedly, debilitated. However, the threat of a general strike was held back. Lastly, while the domestic scene was radical, George also had to keep international peace and attempt to resolve the Irish question. He was successful on all fronts to the fullest, most possible extent. I conclude by saying that it is impossible to argue against Lloyd George’s political ability and achievements

The Age of Lloyd George: Kenneth O. Morgan.

Britannia.com: Lloyd George

The Age of Lloyd George: Kenneth O. Morgan

Britannia.com: Lloyd George