British Politics, Domestic and Otherwise - 1900 - 1918

National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (NUWSS) 1897

The group formed as a merger between various women's movements united under their leader, Millicent Fawcett. It
had not been formally aligned with any political party but did support individual candidates. They were dedicated to a
democratic achievement of equality through legislative means; this caused the WSPU to split in 1903 in order to take
more direct action against the government. It could be argued that their moderate nature failed to fully capitalize on
the radical idea of equal suffrage, making more radical and expressive action more appealing; the innate prejudice
and discrimination on behalf of most established politicians made constitutional reform effectively useless.

The Boer War 1899 - 1902

Half a million men in the British Army failed to take down a relatively small number of Boer guerillas; the war was
eventually won but with heavy casualties. It was effectively Britain's Vietnam war. Britain employed barbaric
techniques to win, such as burning down undefended farmland and then placing the displaced women and children
into holding facilities (which later became history's first examples of concentration camps). The war represented the
effective death of the imperial idea; Britain had shown themselves to be barbaric and scandal ensued with the
mention of concentration camps.

The Creation of the LRC, Feb 1900

Realising that the elite of the Liberal Party wouldn't sufficiently represent the working man, the LRC was established
by Fabians, the TUC and the Social Democratic Federation (a marxist organisation). It principle aim was to get
working class people into Parliament through evolutionary, not revolutionary, means. It eventually became known as
the Labour Party.

The Rowntree Report 1901

Seebohm Rowntree, a prominent industrialist, published a report which concluded that over a quarter of people lived
below the poverty line in York; he found that the number of those malnourished was also extremely high. This
shocking discovery propelled the feeling of discontent with the Conservatives and laid the foundations for the Liberal
Reforms.

The Taff Vale Judgement 1901

In South Wales, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants went on strike at the Taff Vale railway over poor pay.
Once the strike had been ended by Taff Vale agreement to talk about wages, the company took the Union to court
over their lost profits. The case went all the way to the law lords and came back stating that the union was
responsible for money lost during industrial action. This set a legal principle that effectively crippled Trade Unions.
This judgement was a test for the Tory government which found them on the opposing side of the working man; it
was a main factor to both their defeat and Liberal victory.

The Education Act 1902

After Lord Salisbury left office, he appointed his nephew, Arthur Balfour, as his new successor. Balfour, despite being
an aristocrat of old money, realised the dire need for change in regards to state intervention in people's lives. The
Education Act provided public money to church schools, giving thousands of children a free public education.
However, its introduction was controversial as nonconformists such as Quakers argued that it placed way too much
power in the hands of organised religion and would create sectarian divides between communities. Churches were
free to appoint and dismiss teachers as they liked and courses had a heavy Anglican influence. The Act effectively
split the Tories and united non-conformists behind the Liberals, playing a huge part in their defeat in 1906.

Chinese Slave Labour 1902

After the war, the government had been keen to get industry moving again in South Africa. Controversially, they
decided that the most effective way to do this would be to import cheap Labour from China, keeping workers near
starvation under slave-esque conditions. The result at home was public outcry, at a time of strain between industrial
organisation and business, the government had once again sided with rich capitalists over the worker. It raised a
question: "if cheap work can be imported at a moment's notice in times of a Labour shortage in South Africa, could
the same happen in the UK"? This injustice did 2 things: (1) - reinforced the idea that Tories were a club of out of
touch capitalists and (2) - bolstered support for the Labour party.

Tariff Reform 1902 - 1905

Joseph Chamberlain, a firebrand Birmingham Tory MP who had previously split the Liberal party, announced in a
town hall in Birmingham his opposition to free trade. He envisioned a fully economically integrated British Empire that
used tariffs in order to keep trade exclusively within. He argued that patriotic protectionism coupled with social reform
would combat the menace of socialism

Women's Social and Political Union, the Suffragettes 1903

Established by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, their aim was "immediate enfranchisement". They had
promised the newly elected 1906 Liberal government that there would be no peace until their demands were met.
Direct action gained more media attention than peaceful means; in 1905, one of Churchill's meetings was disrupted
by Christabel Pankhurst, gaining her time in prison and national coverage by the media.

The 1906 Election

The main topic of the election was undoubtedly Tariff Reform, which the public widely rejected. Other issues such as
Chinese slavery, Taff Vale and social welfare also made headlines, often forcing the Tories into a defensive position.
Bannerman looked to be the man for reform while a more hardline approach was made by the LRC. However, the
LRC, lead by Keir Hardie, refrained from sounding too radical in order to win the middle ground between Liberalism
and Socialism. In an attempt to further damage the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberals made a sort of electoral
alliance in certain areas, a "lib-lab" coalition. Historians have argued that by creating this pact, the Liberals effectively
secured their death as a party in the near future.

The result was an astounding 401 seats to the Liberals, 29 LRC and 24 Lib-Labs. This election was a symbolic
rejection of the old aristocracy and a material acceptance of bourgeois democracy; the old values of true
conservatism had been defeated and would never again fully recover. Middle class seats had been lost by the Tories
by a swing to the Liberals by non-conformists and others disillusioned by the Education Act 1902.

The Education Act (Provision of Meals) 1906

This act replaced the charity method of free school meals with direct state subsidies for food for impoverished
children. Local councils were directly given money by the treasury to provide monetary assistance to pupils in order
to combat malnutrition, a leading cause of death outlined by the Rowntree report. However, it did not force councils to
provide meals and there were still councils that failed to provide by 1914; it was also extremely costly to the
government.
The Lord's Rejection of Liberal Measures
The house of Lords remained dominated by Unionists; every radical measure that was put to theme was rejected. As
it was clear that conservative electoral victory wasn't going to happen anytime soon, the party decided that their last
line of defence was to be the Lords. Lloyd George decried the house as "Balfour's poodle" and Liberal strategy
developed into "filling the cup"- meaning that they would allow the lords to reject every measure put to them,
eventually securing their demise

The Trade Disputes Bill 1906

This Act overturned the Taff Vale Judgement, crippling the unions and sanctioning industrial action. It was done both
for social justice and to quell the threat of revolution through concessions. Labour had proposed their own private
members version of the bill, but it was rejected.

The Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907

This act introduced medical checks upon children three times during their school years to ensure their health. Local
authorities were given the ability to act against parents who bought children to school in a poor condition. However,
the act failed to give free treatment until 1912, making many poor people unable to act on their children's conditions
even if they knew they were unwell.

Prison Hunger Strikes 1908 Onwards

In attempts to bring national attention to unfair treatment on behalf of the government, the Suffragettes would often
go on hunger strikes; the media attention that this bought them brought great sympathy to their cause, portraying
them as less hysterical and more determined.

The Children's Act (Children's Charter) 1908

This Act provided the structure for childhood life that is still apparent today. It: banned children from buying cigarettes
and alcohol, created juvenile courts to separate child and adult offenders, banned children from begging and halted
the death penalty for them. However, many children relied on money from begging as job prospects were relatively
poor, making them often without any money at all. Crime was also born out of poverty, which the act failed to tackle
at all.

The Pensions Act 1908

Regarded as the foundation of the modern welfare state, the act gave all over 70s 5 shillings a week. Many families
couldn't support old people before this; having an unworking extra mouth to feed in the family was often massively
draining financially. This bill was a huge step forward in tackling absolute poverty in the UK. However, there was
drawbacks to the legislation. Many poor people didn't have a birth certificate and so couldn't prove their age to
qualify. Public healthcare was non existent, so many died before qualifying for the pension. Also, the amount
provided still didn't bring people above the poverty line outlined in the Rowntree report 1901

The People's Budget and the Constitutional Crisis 1909

After becoming chancellor in 1908, Lloyd George introduced his radical new budget a year later; its introduction
triggered a constitutional crisis. The Lord's rejection of this budget "filled the cup", giving the Liberals the needed
public support to tackle the Lords head on. In order to fund pensions schemes, welfare and 8 Dreadnaughts, Lloyd
George looked to the wealthy to fund his project as he couldn't place tariffs. Lloyd George called it a "war budget" to
fight against "squalidness and poverty". Death duties and income taxes were to be vastly increased, hitting the kinds
of people who dwelled in the Lords the hardest. Unionist anger was mainly directed at a "supertax" which heavily
took from earnings over £5000. The Lord's final rejection of the bill caused a constitutional crisis, moving the
conversation away from the budget itself and towards constitutional reform.

January 1910 Election Onwards

Called immediately by Asquith after the Lord's final rejection of the budget, this election was fought and won over the
merits of the people's budget. Though the Tories made a comeback here, Liberals remained in power with support
from Irish Nationalists and Labour. Their budget wasn't ratified at this point though, mainly due to Unionist opposition
and the Nationalist hostility to the bill until home rule had been granted. It was from here that the Liberals introduced
their Parliament Bill, which was to remove the veto from the Lords, giving the commons ultimate supremacy.

People's Budget Passed April 1910

Knowing that further opposition would detrimentally affect their position in Parliament, the Lord's passed the bill
without division, giving Asquith the money needed for his social reforms. However, the question of passing such
reforms came to the forefront; Asquith, L.G and Churchill all knew that the Lords had to be crippled for their
measures to be passed through Parliament.

December 1910 Election

From May to November, Asquith held talks with the opposition on the matter of the crisis but this truce only lasted
until November. Asquith, after much resistance, finally gained the guarantees needed from the King to flood the
Lords with Liberals, giving him the confidence to call an election. Asquith ensured that the main issue of the election
was the Lords; it became an election of class warfare. The people were growing tired of the Lord's seemingly
arrogant rejection of helping measures to the people and rejected them once again in this election.

The Parliament Act 1911

Asquith had hidden his "guarantee", only threatening as a possibility to the lords. Only when this prospect became
more clear did some Unionist lords and Bishops decide that it was time to surrender or face a house flooded with
Liberal peers. The act passed on its third reading in the Lords and it sealed the death of their political power. Their
veto was removed and they were finally restricted to a mere check and balance instead of a powerful political force.
Subsequently, tories mounted a "Balfour must go" campaign and replaced him with Bonar Law after the Parliament
Act; Bonar Law's businessman status represented a shift away from the Landed Class for the Conservatives.

National Insurance Act 1911

The radicals knew that unemployment was the leading cause of poverty and thus introduced this Act. It made both
workers and employment to make daily copayments which would be given to workers in times of unemployment. It
was designed to keep workers, in Beveridge's terms, "between good and bad times". 15 weeks unemployment pay
was given at 7 a week when workers came upon hard times. Criticism came from the left as it wasn't a form of
"radical" welfare insurance as it wasn't levied by taxes, nor was it far reaching enough. However, Trade boards and
unions were put in charge, perhaps as a sign of comrpimised; the programme was a complete sucsess.

Ulster Unrest 1912

After Asquith proposed his Home Rule Bill to Parliament, Ulster Unionists were feuled by secterian anger and signed
the Ulster Covenant quarter of a million strong saying that they would give their life to oppose Home Rule. One man
even signed in his own blood. Bonar Law came out in strong support, viewing the Unionists marching in columns.

The Ulster Volunteer Force is Established 1913

Aided in creation by Edward Carson, the creation of the UVF saw a limit of 100,000 men to be placed under the
control Leutendent General George Richardson. The force was to be used to defend at all costs against the
imposition of home rule. Lead by the Ulster Unionist Council, they prepared to form a pro-British provisional
government in the case that Home Rule was implemented. Eventually, 20,000 guns and 3 million rounds of
ammunition were imported to the force by the German government in order to create instability in the region as a
pretense to WW1. However, they were damaged when the war broke out as most of the volunteers signed on to the
army to defend the British Empire, their true cause.

The Irish National Volunteers is Established 1913

Following the establishment of the UVF, this paramilitary group was created as a resoponse in order to ensure that
Home Rule was fully implemented. Allthough Redmond was initially sceptical of the organisiation, he sought to lead it
once he saw that they had a great deal of power. He was eventually allowed to negotiate on behalf of the
organisation which created a division in the membership between radicals in the Irish Republican Brotherhood, such
as Percey Pearce, and Redmondites. Following the outbreak of war, Redmond called upon the militia to sign up to
the New British Army in the interest of Ireland but this caused a split, leaving the force with relatively few members.

Emily Davidson's Death 1913

At the national Derby, she threw herself in front of the King's horse, dying in the process. It could be argued that her
death was accidental but either way it gave the Suffragettes a Martyr. Their papers portrayed her as an angel who
had died nobly for the cause. Her death brought widespread coverage and public support to her movement.

The Cat and Mouse Act 1913

This enabled the home secretary to release any prisoner that had began hunger striking, allowing him to the re arrest
them once they had regained their health. This was done to avoid headlines in papers that would look unfavourable
to the supposedly "liberal" government. However, the suffragettes still created propaganda portraying the "Liberal
Cat" maiming a woman.

The Government of Ireland Act 1914

After the overwhelmingly unionist house of Lords had been crippled, Irish Nationalists knew that their chance of home
rule was finally available. This legislation was set to enforce the 1912 Home Rule act but was eventually postponed
until the War had finished.

The Defence of the Realm Act 1914

Introduced 4 days after the commencement of WW1, the Act bought in a range of authoritarian mechanisms to
contain strengthen Britain internally against Germany. Anti war activists such as John Maclean were imprisoned
under the law, containing opposition to the war efforts. It also bought in a bureu of censorship which halted the
horrors of the frontline from getting back in letters to British people. Pub hours were limited, alcahol was watered
down and people couldn't buy binoculars or kites. It can be argued that this was the final nail in the coffin for the
traditional Liberal ideals of idividual freedom.
The Munitions of War Act 1916
Bought in to quell industrial unrest during the war, the Act suspended the right to strike and placed heavy restrictions
on wages for workers and profits for business. While the TUC supported the act as it bought many mines and
industries of production into public ownership, radical socialists such as those at Clydeside created resistance;
Clydeside through the establishment of the Clyde Worker's Committe. The leader of the Committee, Willie Gallacher
was arrested under Dora for civil unrest. While many trade unionists were patriots and did either fight or work for
Britain, strikes occurred immediately after the act's introcution in Red Clydeside and a sign of resistance against
imperialist war.

The Military Service Act 1916

When it became clear that numbers in the army were too low, this act was introduced to boost Britain's military
strength. The act caused opposition from Liberals, Labour and the Irish Nationalists; Liberal home secretary Sir John
Simon resigned over the issue. The act lead to further unrest in catholic Ireland with increased support for Sinn Fein.

National Government 1916 - 1922

Realising that national unity was needed after Liberals were blamed for failures in combat like Gallipoli, Asquith
fromed a national government with Tories to strengthen government and Labour to appease angry trade unionsists.
Athur Henderson was given the post of paymaster General, Bonar Law was made secretary of state for colonies.
This proved to be a huge succsess Lloyd George's public support coupled with Asquith's general unpopularity
puched Asquith and his liberal supporters into the opposition, giving LG the role of PM.

The Easter Rising 1916

Organised by the Republican brotherhood, an insurection was launched in Dublin while the majority of unionist
fighters were busy fighting in the war. Other groups such as James Connolly's Citizen's Army, Percey Pearce's Irish
volunteers and the women's group Camann na mBan were also involved. They took key positions in Dublic, such as
the post station before procliaming independence from Britain. The conflict lasted 5 days and was ended by a British
seige of the city; revolutionary leaders, such as Connolly were captured and executed in Kilmainham Gaol which
created huge Republican support amongst the general public for independence, so much so that Sinn Fein won a
huge majority in Ireland in the first Irish elections.

The Representation of the People Act 1918

Extended the franchise to women over 30 who were registered property qualifiers could now vote and were
extraordinarily patriotic, favoring coalition candidates. All men over 21 could now vote also but turnout was low
amongst them due to the disillusion that came after WW1.

The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918

Allowed women to stand for election. Constance Markievics, a Sinn Fein candidate, was elected to Parliament but
refused to take her seat as an abstentionist.

The Coupon Election 1918

After the sucsess of the wartime coalition and Lloyd George's widespreak adoration, the conservatives and national
Liberals formed a coalaition. The leaders of each party endorsed their respective candidates in every consituency,
effectively splitting the Liberal party. Asquith himself lost his seat. Labour also made extraordinary gains to almost 60
seats in Paliament.