Liberal success in 1906 owed more to conservative failure than liberal organization, To what extent is this an accurate reflection on the election.

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Emily Podbielski 12RM

Liberal success in 1906 owed more to conservative failure than liberal organization, To what extent is this an accurate reflection on the election.

In the 1900’s British Politics were dominated by two main political parties, these were the Conservatives and the Liberals. The 19th century had been mainly liberal power, however the Conservatives had dominated the elections for the last decade. In the 1906 election the conservatives suffered from electoral defeat at the hands of the liberals. Results show that in 1900 the Conservative Party had 402 seats whereas the Liberals only gained 157. Six years later they had almost swapped as the Liberals were left with a victory of 400 seats to 184 conservative seats. So why did the voting pattern change so dramatically in the 1906 election and leave the conservatives losing their votes allowing the liberal party to win?

         People had argued that during his time in office, Arthur Balfour the conservative leader had handled the problems in society unsuccessfully, and had lost the trust from many of his voters. This, along with new policies on the agenda, didn’t satisfy the large majority of the voters needs, and therefore he lost their votes too.

The growing problems in society during Balfour’s government had lead to the increasing unpopularity of the Conservative Party. There had been in 1901, the “Taff Vale” case in which the trades unions had felt that the courts and government were dismissing their legal rights. A case in the 1890’s meant trade unions had lost all rights to go on strike and that anyone who did was liable to civil action by their employer. In the case of the Taff Vale Railway Company the company had taken the union to court for going on strike, and won. Therefore the union had to pay £23,000 in damages, This left unions all over the country with the clear picture that no union could go on strike without the possibility of being sued in the process. Due to the government backing of this action the trade unions and workforces felt they were being let down by the government and when they refused to reverse the charges by law and only investigate it further. However the Labour party looked more supportive of the trades unions which would have appealed to the workers, therefore the Conservatives lost support.

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It was also known that Balfour had few plans to help the unemployed. This was becoming a big problem within society and it needed to be addressed. An Unemployed Workmen Act was set up in 1905 to help the unemployed find work through labour exchanges with the help of the local Distress Committee. These committees needed funding but the government would not give money to them so they had to turn to private charities for funding. The unemployed soon realised that the government didn’t want to help them, and turned somewhere else for help. At the same time a new ...

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