How effective a leader was Lord Salisbury?

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HOW EFFECTIVE A LEADER WAS LORD SALISBURY?

Lord Salisbury, the most successful conservative leader, had been in office 3 times over 17 years and also passed some key reforms. What really mattered was the fact that he passed reforms that directly affected the working classes, who at the time were the main body of voters; Salisbury was a strong leader and did much to keep the party in line.

The Labourers Allotment Act of 1887, allowed local authorities the power to buy land and rent it cheaply to the people in an attempt to improve their health growing more vegetables and healthy foods. They also introduced the Mines regulation act in 1887. This act dramatically changed the safety in mines by regulating the hours people could work and the conditions in which they worked. This was a successful reform for the conservatives as it gained the support of the working classes. Another big issue at the time was education and the Free Grant act of 1891 was a turning point, it granted free elementary education to children and abolished the old system. This again helped to improve the overall state of the nation and would help to reduce future unemployment. .

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Salisbury was an "unenthusiastic imperialist." He used the issue of the English victory in the Boer War tremendously in the election of 1895 in the favour of the Conservatives. Salisbury saw that imperialism could be used to distract the people from any wayward political issues. It caused a massive amount of frustration with the Liberals, who, already were weakened by the retirement of Gladstone.When we judge the performance of Lord Salisbury, he was an extremely clever politician and his success did not come by chance. He turned the situations in his favour which strengthened his position as a leader within ...

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