Lloyd George "I am just a beetle in a glass case". This was Lloyd George speaking during the peacetime coalition and basically refers to the amount of problems he was faced with. We know he had many problems, and we know that he dealt with the important ones badly but why did he eventually resign? Was it the fact that he was a prisoner of the Conservatives? Was it because of his part in the decline of the Liberal party? Or was it just Lloyd George himself? For me, it would have to be his own actions.Martin Pugh would argue that it was being a prisoner of the Conservatives that led to his downfall the most. He would argue that they knew Lloyd George was going to have problems but as they were just coming back from the political wilderness, they needed someone to 'tide them over' and maybe get some 'Conservative' reforms through. Once they were stronger, they ditched him as they had gained more influence from the Irish problem. He said, "Politicians need a common basis of sentiment or objective", and was referring to the fact that according to him, Lloyd George had to forget his ideals and do what the Conservatives told him to.Trevor Wilson has argued that it was his part in the decline of the Liberal party, which contributed to his downfall. He argues that Asquith can't play any real part in the failure of the Liberals as he stuck with them during the war and blames it all on Lloyd George. From his attempts to overthrow Asquith during the war, by working with the Conservatives and his Coupon Election, people are always going to remember this. As he said, "It was Lloyd George's Coupon which fractured the Liberal party and greatly diminished its political influence".AJP Taylor believes that it was his own fault and his own failures. He has argued that Lloyd George was foolhardy in getting involved in some of the affairs in the way that he did - for example Ireland - as some of the problems were insoluble. As he said, "Ireland Ruined Lloyd George, as it had ruined Peel and Gladstone before him". You could argue that this maybe goes some way to saying that Lloyd George just 'slithered out of the coalition' but I think Lloyd George should have done his best to steer clear.I don't feel that Lloyd George was a prisoner
of the Conservatives because for me, that would suggest he was constrained in the policies that he had to follow when he wasn't for most of the time. But that isn't important and although being with the Conservatives wasn't a very big reason as to why he fell from office, it is nonetheless important. This did contribute to him falling from office in 1922 in some ways because he relied on their support and therefore he had to follow some Conservative policies. To keep them 'on side'At the end of the economic boom, he was forced to "trade his principles ...
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of the Conservatives because for me, that would suggest he was constrained in the policies that he had to follow when he wasn't for most of the time. But that isn't important and although being with the Conservatives wasn't a very big reason as to why he fell from office, it is nonetheless important. This did contribute to him falling from office in 1922 in some ways because he relied on their support and therefore he had to follow some Conservative policies. To keep them 'on side'At the end of the economic boom, he was forced to "trade his principles for power", which meant "retrenchment dominated government thinking instead of reconstruction". This led to him following policies like decontrol of industries taken over by the government, resistance of proposed expenditure and social reform, safeguarding of industries and cuts to benefits as part of the important Geddes Axe. These were all Conservative policies which Lloyd George would probably never have considered before therefore suggesting that he was a prisoner because he had to follow their policies, which at this time people would have hated, and would therefore have made him look bad and possibly contributed to his downfall. Also they wouldn't allow him to call a general election which could have probably strengthened his position.But all this could possibly be explained by the end of the economic boom and that therefore, he had to cut benefits, as the government couldn't afford them. Also, during the economic boom he followed many policies, which didn't anger the people. Things like the Addison housing act, Education act and the broadening of the electorate were all not Conservative and were policies that the people would have welcomed. It would therefore seem that Lloyd George wasn't really a prisoner of the Conservatives and therefore they didn't contribute to his downfall as if anything, they were a prisoner of him and he could have contributed to their downfall. Possibly, the only real thing that led to all of his 'bad' decisions was the end of the economic boom. At the end of the day, they were the ones who forced him to resignNow we come to the decline of the Liberals and his part in that. Asquith had always been highly respected and it is because of this, people saw Lloyd George as the main reason the Liberal party failed. Firstly, he was the one who got Asquith out of office so that he could become prime-minister and then he left them to join a party that benefited him and not his country - and who were also in strong contention for power with the Liberals and this was a very 'Liberal time'. This is the kind of thing that the Conservatives would remember when they struggled with him and wouldn't let him do the same.Having moved, he had now managed to leave the Liberal party divided and most of them were not on his side. The ones who went with Asquith started a very anti-Lloyd George campaign that according to AJP Taylor led to Conservative mistrust. This was made worse when he attempted 'fusion', as the Conservatives didn't want to join forces with the Liberals. As you can see, the popular opinion is that it was Lloyd George's fault that the party failed and I would probably agree. People despised him when the Geddes axe led to the resignation of Addison and Montagu who were very influential Liberal politicians.I would say that this certainly contributed to his downfall more than being a prisoner of the Conservatives because this showed what he was like and would lead to massive mistrust as this kind of incident would always be in the back of someone's mind, whoever it may be. But it isn't the main reason as this wouldn't have happened but for his own actions, which I think were the main reason he fell from office.There are many small points to consider here which all culminate into a very big thing. Pugh feels that Lloyd George's strengths were in international relations and not so much the domestic administrative work. This would suggest that maybe Lloyd George didn't really stand a chance form the very beginning and that his downfall was only a matter of time. Also, things like his interventionist policy upset many people and they would mistrust him because of this. They also objected to his seemingly presidential style of leadership, as it wasn't what Britain was used to. According to Baldwin Lloyd George had "a morally disintegrating effect on all whom he had to deal with", It was just the way he was.Lady Violet Bonham Carter has said, "although he never sold his soul he pawned it". This suggests that, "he had a natural penchant for working with his own opponents to get what he wanted", and then he dumped them. This could have led to his downfall because maybe the Conservatives started to realise that he was a user and before he could do it again, they got him to resign. Also, he spent a lot of time working on the Treaty of Versailles and when he didn't cripple Germany as much as the people thought he should, they began to question his motives and his loyalty to Britain, again this could have contributed to his downfall.People lost faith in him due to his inability to keep promises, eg. "Land fit for heroes" is what he promised but he didn't have this in 1922. He had never been forgiven for some of the extremist measures he had used in the past, eg. Threatening to starve people to death and the 'Black and Tans'. These weren't the sorts of things that the people expected from the leader of their country.Also, his labour policies followed around Black Friday lost him support with the Conservatives (because they were too liberal) and the way he dealt with the Irish question lost him support from the Liberals and Labour (because it went against their ideologies). In January 1922, one of the nails in the lid of his coffin was when he tried to dissolve the parliament. This was a bad thing to do and now people and the Conservatives were beginning to wonder why they should stick with him. He was, by the end of his tenure, generally seen as an arrogant, unscrupulous, devious and full of self-confidence. These aren't the traits of a successful leader.As you can see, these are mainly policies and things he did, which all failed badly and made him look in a worse position until he looked like a man who was just incapable of doing the job. Finally, the most important things in contributing to his downfall were three major incidents, which he dealt with badly - Geddes Axe, Honours Scandal and the Chanak incident.The Geddes axe was created in 1921 after the economic boom and proposed severe budget cuts, as the government desperately needed to cut expenditure. He said that it was going to be done to help the people but it was just a cover-up to try and calm down the protests. As soon as people realised that it cut their benefits, they began to despise what was seen as one of his 'anti-waste' policies. One could argue that this was due to him being a prisoner of the Conservatives because it was a very Conservative policy but I think that this was done off his own back, mainly for the fact that everything else that he did was.That was the first nail in his coffin and then came the Honours Scandal. Britain had always considered honours to be very special but Lloyd George acted very badly. In order to keep the 'Lloyd George fund' going, he allowed the rich people to but whatever honour they wanted, which some did out of desperation. In theory, this shouldn't have mattered too much because Gladstone had done it all through his tenure and no one had ever said anything to him, but it did. This was because it was done a lot more publicly and with everything else that he had done, people didn't trust Lloyd George much. Also, consider the fact that it went into his pocket and not back into the country.With two nails in his coffin, the final one was the Chanak incident. This was very big because according to Morgan, just before this time things were looking quite good as Ireland had settled down, critics had been silenced, Washington Naval agreement was a step towards peace and people were letting him off because of what he had done to win the war. But, the Turks were unhappy with their treaty as they thought it was too harsh. They began to rebel and Lloyd George, "precipitated a war with Turkey to perpetuate his government". Basically, he wanted to scare Turkey off and win points with his party. As it was, they managed to calm Turkey down but it had shown the people that he was willing to go to war so soon after such devastation as World War One and he was willing to do it without any allies as well. Bonar Law published a letter, which spurred people on to taking steps to get rid of Lloyd George.In Conclusion, there are many reasons as to why Lloyd George failed but I think that it was his own actions, especially in the final three incidents I mentioned, which led to his downfall. That he was a great politician is undeniable but he was faced with hard times and dealt with situations the wrong way. His own actions do go quite far to explaining his downfall because they account for everything - why he lost support from the government, the people and even outside countries whereas the others can only really explain one of these. Although many ideas can be taken one of two ways, what he did was always going to be the dominating force.
