Arthur Balfour had never led a party when he took over the conservatives in July 1902 and it can be said that he was just ‘not up to the job’ and this can be perceived as a key reason to why the conservatives lost the 1906 general election. Balfour made many mistakes in his brief period of power before loosing the 1906 election. He was a weak leader as can be seen from his compromise on tariff reforms where he did not want to distance himself from Joseph chamberlain and this meant that he introduced a half hearted tariff reform where he would only tariff countries in retaliation to other events. He also portrays the image that he does not have any sympathy for the working class through such event as Taff vale and Chinese slavery. In addition he publicly promotes the education act which looses support and this shows clearly that Balfour was not up to the job of leading the dominant conservatives because Salisbury the previous leader had already said that there was ‘no sense in promoting the education act’ and so Balfour’s mistake appears to prove that he was not up to the job bestowed upon him.
The 1902 education act is seen as such a major mistake by Balfour because the consequences of it meant that non conformists were alienated because they were now being forced to pay rates (taxes) to catholic schools and so they were forced into changing their political stance. The 1902 education act also annoyed upper classes because they believed poorer people didn’t need a good education in Latin etc, Middle classes because they believed that the schools should not be teaching so many classics (Latin) but also that they should be teaching sciences. By loosing support from these three sections of the electorate it shows that the 1902 education act was a failure and it contributed to the defeat suffered by the conservatives.
The foreign policies adopted by Balfour collided with the slow change in the public’s opinion of the Great British Empire. British people’s opinion had changed from a very pro empire to a more liberal view off anti empire by 1906, Whereas Balfour wanted it strengthened. The Boer war is an example of the conservative’s attempts to strengthen the empire and bring more wealth into Britain. Initially it was very popular with the electorate and helped win a landslide victory in 1900, The Boer war did bring to light poverty in Britain as 2/3 of volunteers for the war were rejected because they were malnourished, This meant that British people began to wonder how so many people were living in poverty if Britain was such a prosperous country. The Boer war also left vacancies in the Transvaal for gold miners as many of the natives had been killed; the plan to combat this by the conservatives was to bring 50,000 Chinese workers on very low wages to South Africa to work in appalling conditions. When this news reached the British public it was seized upon because the working class felt their jobs were insecure because the government could get away with bringing these cheap employees to Britain. It also shows what was already apparent from the Tariff reforms that the conservative party had no care for the working class this would have meant that the conservatives would have lost most working class votes and any voters in Britain who were sensitive to humanitarian issues. The Taff vale case shows the same reaction from the Government and shows no care for the working class. The Taff vale case also undermines trade unions because now the employee can sue its workers if they strike over low wages etc. So any unionist voters were lost and it also contributed to the loss of any working class votes because it appears to the public that the conservatives only care for you if you have money like the business owners, this happening makes the liberals a more appealing party to the electorate because they exploit this bad publicity and make it seem like they are a caring united party.
The Liberals are made to look united by the lack of unity displayed from the conservatives. The Liberal Leader Campbell-Bannerman was good at exploiting conservative mistakes and so this made the liberals look like a strong united party which they had not looked in the 1900 election and so old liberal voters began to return to their party because they believed it was strong enough once again to rule over Britain. Traditional Conservative voters may have suffered electoral boredom where they felt that everything that could be done by the conservatives had been and so the liberals offered a different option to the electorate and new ideas. The lib-lab pact is a sign of Campbell-Bannerman’s good leadership by building ties with the labour party he gained voters by showing he had compassion for the working class an it also meant that the liberals never faced the labour party in a regional election and so more voters and votes were gained contributing to the ‘crushing’ defeat suffered by the conservatives.
In the 1906 election 400 Seats were gained by the liberal party to just 157 gained by the conservatives and this appears to be a ‘crushing defeat’ but there was in fact only a 5% difference in the overall vote total with the liberals gaining 49% of all votes whereas the conservatives got 44% of the votes, Knowing these further statistics it is clear that the original statement of a ‘crushing defeat’ is in reality not crushing at all but quite close in vote totals. In addition the liberals do gain a lot of ground on the conservatives between 1900 and 1906 this is largely to do with the conservatives showing no compassion for the working classes, and the unstable leadership of Arthur Balfour, But The liberals are very good at making the conservatives look worse and so the 1906 general election was as much to do with the strength of the liberals as the poor leadership of Balfour.
Bibliography
Britain 1890-1939 – Rosemary Rees
British history for as level
Modern history revised
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