The Growth of the Labour Party and the Decline of the Liberal Party
At the end of World War One in November 1918 the Labour Party emerged as a strong political Party. Prior to this it was the Liberal Party that was expected to be the main opposition to the Conservatives, with Labour as a party who used the popularity of the Liberals to become noticed. However, it soon became apparent that the Liberals were a weak and flagging party who were unable to unite as one to make decisions. It is evident that the First World War may have been an important factor in the growth of Labour and the decline of the Liberals.
It seems that the decline of the Liberals began with several problems that can be traced back to pre-war times. Between 1910 and 1914 there was a series of crises over the House of Lords, women's suffrage, industrial unrest, and Irish Home Rule, which all had a damaging effect on the Liberals. The party, it seemed were 'unable to cope with and adapt to pre-war politics'.
There was increasing conflict between the House of Lords and the House of Commons between 1909 and 1911. The Conservatives used their in-built majority in the House of Lords to prevent bills being passed to become acts, such as education and licensing bills which were put forward. This also included Irish Home Rule. The Liberals vowed to push for Irish Home Rule in parliament, in return for the support of the Irish Nationalists in General Elections. In 1910 two General Elections resulted in the Liberals still being in office, but only just. It was then the Parliament Act was put forward. This would take away the Lords veto. In 1911 the Parliament Act was passed. Finally Bills (including Home Rule) could be passed. However, the Lo...
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...bour party. However in 1914 many people saw Labour as a radical group on the Left Wing of the Liberals rather than a separate party.
In conclusion, the War was a major factor in the decline of the Liberal Party. However, it is not necessarily true that the War helped in the growth of the Labour Party. It may be due to the decline of the Liberals that Labour became more popular. Labour were able to maintain their level of popularity, where as the Liberals were not. As Labour was more in touch with the working class they would in time take over from the Liberals. Whether the War helped with this take over is debatable. The attempt by the Liberals to reform themselves as a social democratic party shows how they tried to change, but were quite unsuccessful. The War just helped to 'reveal a party that was unable to cope with and adapt to pre-war politics'.
Do you agree that the failure of the 1886 Home Rule Bill was due to ‘tactical mistakes’ made by Gladstone?
It must be considered when viewing the achievements of Labour that in 1924, the Labour government was not in a position to push ahead with radical policies, as a minority in the house of commons a Conservative vote and abstinence of a liberal support would have brought the government down. A heavy reliance on the liberals existed in the first labour government which some argue restricted them heavily, policies such as nationalisation and disarmament had no chance of being implemented. Also due to its reliance on the Liberals its relationship with trade unions was damaged as they felt they were not being represented as well as promised. To labour this was a large problem as trade unions provided most of their funds, however to be too sympathetic to the unions would make it difficult to project an image of their party as genuinely national. Labour theorised that a gradual series of changes would be more beneficial to their aims, and using their rise to power in 24 as foundation stone to prove their capability in government, their socialist views were still present, however were a realistic take on Labours ability to bring change to Britain, which was at this point vastly limited.
This essay will address whether New Labour contained policies with which it wished to pursue, or was solely developed in order to win elections. It is important to realise whether a political party that held office for approximately 13 years only possessed the goal of winning elections, or promoted policies which it wished to pursue. If a party that held no substance was governing for 13 years, it would be unfair to the people. New Labour was designed to win elections, but still contained policies which it wished to pursue. To adequately defend this thesis, one must look at the re-branding steps taken by New Labour and the new policies the party was going to pursue. Through analysis, it will be shown that New Labour promoted policies in regards
In order to look at how the liberal consensus went from a high point in 1965 to a low in 1968, I think that it is first important to look at the state of the liberal consensus in 1965. Doing so will provide us with a starting point from which to measure the fracturing and also set up a framework f...
Tavits, Margit. "Party Systems in the Making: The Emergence and Success of New Parties in New Democracies." British Journal of Political Science 38.1 (2008): 113-33. JSTOR. Web. 26 May 2014.
- They believed that they were surrounded by well-organized enemies (other political parties) they felt defensive about Liberalism, nationalism and popular sovereignty
...ts had a liberal mindset by viewing the capitalistic society with mistrust as they held great power among the nation.
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beginning, before the war and before Hitler took power, they felt as if Liberalism was not doing
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Was it because of his part in the decline of the Liberal party? Or was
Germany's defeat in World War One created political, economic and social instability in the Weimar Republic and led to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) or Nazi party.
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It is well known that the British political system is one of the oldest political systems in the world. Obviously, it was formed within the time. The United Kingdom of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the constitutional monarchy, providing stability, continuity and national focus. The monarch is the head of state, but only Parliament has the right to create and undertake the legislation. The basis of the United Kingdom’s political system is a parliamentary democracy. Therefore, people think the role of the Queen as worthless and mainly unnecessarily demanding for funding, but is it like that?