Asses the most important factors that led to David Lloyd George(TM)s downfall in 1922

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Asses the most important factors that led to David Lloyd George’s downfall in 1922.

Prime Minister, David Lloyd George made a greater impact on British public life than any in 20th century. He laid the foundations of what later became the welfare state and in 1918 he was acclaimed, as “the man who won the war”.  However, after just four years served, Lloyd George fell from power abruptly in 1922. His downfall came as no surprise to some, who saw his reign doomed from the start, due to the fact he was a Prime Minister without a political party. Lloyd George's political situation slowly began to worsen after his victory in the 1918 election. It was difficult to see what section of the community he could appeal to. The rise of the Labour party made it difficult for him to appeal to the working classes as a man of the people. The political environment of cut-backs of 1922 was unsuited to him, and he was increasingly dependent on the Conservatives. There were a number of issues, including his style of government, and the honours scandal, which made Lloyd George a liability in the eyes of the Coalition, which made his fall from power in 1922 inevitable.

LG’s style of government often came under scrutiny, a style which was considered suitable for wartime, but dramatically less effective in peace time. His tendencies to act impulsively, rarely attend parliament and consult few people seemed appropriate during the war. However, these tendencies began to disgruntle his backbenchers, which was one of the key factors that led to his downfall. LG’s bizarre style of government made him seem arrogant, he often took long holidays and on one occasion he actually called all his ministers to him rather than returning to London.

The first problem LG faced after the war was the demobilisation of over four million soldiers. The slowness of demobilisation began  to frustrate the forces; this eventually led to a number of protest marches by military units. These protests begin to turn nasty; a disturbance by Canadian soldiers at a camp in North Wales led to a number of deaths. This was the first sign of Lloyd George’s lack of capability to govern during peace.

Lloyd George was becoming untrustworthy, not only in politics but also in his personal life, as he had a wife and long-term mistress, and rumour had it he was unfaithful to both. These weren’t the sorts of things that the people expected from their Prime Minister and when LG didn’t punish Germany as much as the public expected him to, they began to query his motives and his loyalty to Britain. This was the man who won an election on the promise to “make Germany pay”, so LG was effectively going back on his word, which the public didn’t appreciate. His untrustworthy and sneaky nature led to one of the major factors which led to his downfall, the honours scandal. Many PM’s would at times ennoble men who gave money to their political party, Lloyd George however turned selling honours into an industry. As if this wasn’t bad enough, LG would sell honours to almost anyone, for example Drugham (who was found guilty of trading with Germany during WW1). This tarnished Lloyd George’s reputation and was the moment the Conservative party began to seriously reconsider their relationship with him, for the Tories were beginning to realize they had to get rid of LG before he tarnished their reputation too. The Tories would only support Lloyd George as long as he won them votes, and they would have no hesitation to get rid of him if he became a liability, which he was quickly becoming.

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Lloyd George was reduced to political manoeuvring to maintain his position, and he would employ such ruses as offering to resign in favour of Austen Chamberlain, which Chamberlain refused. He made the mistake, as Asquith had done before him, of thinking that he was indispensable. Lloyd George was known for his poor handling of foreign affairs, especially the Chanak crisis, which I will mention later in the essay. In an attempt to gain a foreign policy coup in 1922, Lloyd George proposed what would be the twenty-fourth conference between European leaders since the war. It was held at Genoa ...

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