Why Did the Liberals Experience a Constitutional Crisis in the Period 1909-1911? How Successful Were They in Dealing with the House of Lords?

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Why Did the Liberals Experience a Constitutional Crisis in the Period 1909-1911? How Successful Were They in Dealing with the House of Lords?

The period from 1909 to 1911 is known as one of constitutional crisis due to the unrest in both politics and industry. Arguably the most complex issue to handle was that of the Liberal party’s dispute with the House of Lords. This follows on to ask the question ‘how successful were the Liberals in their dealings wit the House of Lords?’

The two groups of politicians were unlikely to ever see eye to eye due to the House of Lords consisting of strongly conservative upper-class men; therefore they were now the Conservative Party’s only tool for blocking any unwanted acts. This automatically leads us to the conclusion that the Lords were primarily to blame for the political crisis, and that it was simply their alliance with the Conservatives, coupled with their arrogance that stood in the way of the Liberals. There is however, another side to the argument, stating that the Liberals were in-fact to blame for the conflict with the House of Lords and that it was due to their deliberate introduction of Bills that they knew the peers would never pass that led to the confrontation. An example is that of the 'People's Budget' introduced by Lloyd George on 29 April 1909. It was an attempt by the Liberal government to answer its critics, and its followers alike, who could clearly see that the Liberals were failing to live up to expectations, mainly as a result of the House of Lords blocking a large proportion of their legislature. This disappointment with the government was reflected in a series of by-election reverses in 1908, forced upon them by the peers to prove the Liberals remained popular in the promise they would pass the bill if so, and it had somehow to restore its authority if it was to retain and rally its supporters. However, after the failure of the Lords to keep their word and pass the Budget after the state had, narrowly, won two successive by-elections, it appeared the Liberals were loosing the ‘peers versus people debate’. Fortunately, for the government, the death of Edward VII, a very conservative man, allowed Asquith and Lloyd-George to manipulate his less politically minded son, George V, into creating one to two hundred new Liberal peers to sit in the Upper House unless they agreed to both the Peoples Budget and a reduction in their power of veto.

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The People's Budget precipitated the constitutional crisis, which ended two years later in the 1911 Parliament Act, which curtailed the Lords' veto. How far it was deliberately contrived to provoke a clash with the Lords remains a matter of some controversy. Malcolm Thomson, the official biographer of Lloyd George, claims that Lloyd George, with Asquith's approval, intentionally drafted his Budget so as to court its rejection by the peers. This would appear to be in accordance with the Chancellor's increasing resentment at the irresponsible conduct of the Lords and with his strong desire to reduce their powers. However, others ...

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