Consider the view that the liberal government reforms 1906-1914 were more concerned with the maintenance of Edwardian society than its radical overhaul

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Consider the view that the liberal government reforms 1906-1914 were more concerned with the maintenance of Edwardian society than its radical overhaul

Between 1906 and 1914 the Liberal Government passed many reforms concerning the

old the young, the sick and those without work. At the time the acts were fresh and far

reaching and some believe them to be the foundations of the welfare state, to what we

know it today. The acts were considered radical as a shift of attitudes towards the poor

and needy seemed to be occurring. The liberal party pre this period stood for certain

principles and ideologies which are referred to as individualism. Up until this period

the government only intervened in reasons such as law and order and protecting the

country from attack. It was seen as each individuals obligation to be responsible for

their own well being. Poverty amongst the working classes was often seen as a

circumstance caused by drunkenness or idleness.

To consider the view that that the liberal government reforms 1906-1914 were more

concerned with the maintenance of Edwardian society than its radical overhaul is to

regard the reforms passed as acts of the government clutching at straws because they

wanted to grant just enough change to head off the Socialists and keep the old way of

society in place and to maintain electoral popularity, rather than acts of genuine

sincerity towards welfare change. It will be argued that the new merged Labour party

was laying down pressure thus became a  major reason that the Liberals had to try and .

head off socialist advance

The difficulties in the question is that there are many views as to why the reforms

were passed and some reforms did reach extremely far reaching measures, making it

easy to understand why one would come to the opinion that the acts passed were those

of radical sincerity. Other problems are that when researching reform bills passed

there have only been a selected few mentioned. If each reform passed in this period

was to be investigated the question proposed for discussion would greatly exceed the

expected words of the essay.

To establish authenticity to the view that the liberal government reforms were acts of

maintaining Edwardian society this essay will include information on vital events

leading up to each reform that I feel is of great significance for the validity of the

essay. Arguments and sources by historians will also be mentioned in order to add a

wider scale of argument into the essay. The essay will be structured by exploring each

group in which the reforms belonged to, beginning with the first group of measures

that were passed, which were those affecting children, followed by those effecting the

old, those affecting the sick and those affecting the British workforce.

January 1906, the liberal government won the general election in a landslide result.

The Liberals won 401 whilst counting on the support of 29 labour members. Although

when the liberals were in power it was known as an ’era of great social reform’, there

was vague mention of reforms pre election. It would be then, extremely likely that

reform was most certainly not an intended measure but a consequence of what the

essay will be exploring greater into, that, when in power, the Labour party pressured

the liberal government  to push through reform bills. A manner of being that was

accepted by he government in order to grant crumbs to head off socialist advance. 

The liberals were victorious almost everywhere, even in well known conservative

areas. The argument of tariff reform lost the Conservatives a lot of support as the

Liberal Party promoted free trade. Already it is clear then, that to get into power and

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to retain it, that the liberals had to rely on right wing support in the conservatives,

which mean that any reforms passed needed to suit this way of thinking. However,

tariff reform was a programme that failed to attract the working classes, therefore the

liberals had also gained power on votes from the left wing too, as well as making a

pact with the labour party to secure a non-conservative victory4.

The fact that there had all of a sudden grown a strong emergence of the labour party ...

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