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Liberal Party's Victory in the 1906 General Election
In the 1906 general election, the Liberal party dramatically increased
their number of seats from 184, in 1900 to 400. In contrast, the
Conservative party, who had dominated British politics in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries lost nearly half their seats
in 1906, decreasing from 402 to 157. A combination of Liberal
strengths and Conservative weaknesses, as well as other circumstances
at this time meant that this sudden change occurred.
The Conservative party introduced two new acts just before this
General Election which greatly decreased their popularity. The
Education Act of 1902 was an attempt by the conservatives to improve
national efficiency: Britain must improve the health and well-being of
the nation if it was to remain a leading world power. The act
abolished school boards, which meant that taxpayers funded primary
school education. Although this was a successful policy, (attendance
at school increased from 94,000 in 1905 to 200,000 by 1914) it angered
non-conformists who were outraged that their taxes were being used to
fund church schools. In fact, the Act was branded ‘Rome on Rates’, as
the Catholic Church was benefiting from taxes being paid by
anti-Catholic citizens: Balfour soon had to control a revolt as 7000
people refused to pay their taxes. This rebellion shows just how
unpopular this act was and significantly reduced the amount of support
for the Conservatives. The Non-Conformists were also outraged by the
Licensing Act of 1904, which aimed to reduce the number of public
houses in areas where they were not needed. However, the gover...
... middle of paper ...
...al party which led to them
gaining a land-slide victory in 1906. However, other strengths of the
Liberal party, such as campaigning against the Licensing and Education
Acts were only evident because the Conservatives had made the mistake
of introducing these reforms in the first place. Other Conservative
weaknesses such as poor leadership and the split over Tariff reform
placed the party at a major disadvantage so the Liberals appeared more
attractive, when compared. Overall, although the Liberals did unite
together for a number of policies and took part in the Lib-Lab pact to
gain support, it seems the Conservative weaknesses played a more
important role in the landslide victory as its mistakes gave something
to unite the Liberals and the contrast in organisation within the
parties made the Liberals more appealing.
Bush, Michael. ‘Up for the Commonwealth’: the significance of tax grievances in the English rebellions of 1536, English Historical Review 106 (1991).
Conservative Dominance in British Politics Between 1885 and 1902 During this period in history, it is clear to say that the conservatives dominated British politics. However, is it due to conservative strengths or liberal weaknesses? Although the weakness and the divisions within the liberal party helped the conservative cause, the latter party were dominant due to their unrivalled strength in politics. There were many reasons for these strengths, but it is safe to say that this was the main factor for supremacy in politics in the later 1800's.
The 1900 election gave the Conservatives 402 seats to the Liberals 183 seats continuing the Conservative dominance, in the last twenty years the Liberals had only seen three years in government. The 1906 election result gave the Conservatives only 157 seats, former Conservative Prime Minister, Balfour, lost his Manchester seat. The Liberals won 401 seats; these included 24 Lib-Lab MPs; the Liberals would also have the support of 29 Labour members and 82 Irish Nationalists. This was an excellent result which gave the new Government a majority of 356. Although the Conservatives were overwhelmingly defeated, their proportion of the votes did not go down compared to the election in 1900.
for the split in 1931. It was also not easy for the labour party when
Tom Gatenby To what extent did the Conservatives lose the election rather than the Liberals win the election? “The election of 1906 was a significant watershed in the political history of Britain” Kenneth Owen Fox The election of 1906 was a landside victory for the Liberal Party. This is due to many factors, it could been influenced by the manifesto of the Liberal Party, or perhaps even more strongly the failure of the Conservative Party to unify on such reforms as the Tariff Reform. The lack of a strong unified Conservative government clearly had a large effect upon the outcome of the 1906 election, to what extent this is true will be explained in the essay.
The Lib-Lab pact served both Parties well, it allowed Liberals and Labour to get candidates into Parliament and did not separate anti-Conservative votes. In the 1906 election it was much clearer what the Liberals stood for, and perhaps England felt that at that particular time she was ready for a change, but without the constant blunders of Balfour's Government thought of change may have never entered any Englishman's consciousness.
The colonists all shared a common disdain for taxation but did not share a common religious experience. As a result Britain attempted to use this religious diversity against the colonists, Foner writes, “The Intolerable Acts united the colonies in opposition to what was widely seen as a direct threat to their political freedom. At the same time, Parliament passed the Quebec
During the rule of King Charles I, the Parliament had limited powers, and were not entitled to govern independently as a Parliament should. This is shown through King Charles’ power to veto their decisions, and his dissolving of the Parliament three times between 1625-1629. Consequently, the Parliament became frustrated with their minute role, and responded in attempt to control the King’s power, to maintain their control. This is clearly depicted in their refusal to grant tax raising and revenue for Charles’ increased expenditure, including the abolishment of the ‘ship tax’ which had been previously collected illegally. Following on from this was the enactment of legislation through the Petition of Right in 1928, after MP’s had been called back by Charles in his third parliament. The Petition of Right demanded that Charles could not imprison anyone without being found guilty in a court of law, that no tax could be implemented without Parliamentary consent, and soldiers could not be billeted against their will. Furthermore, the Parliament also abolished the Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber, disallowing for Charles to continue the arbitrary punishment of opposers to his reforms. The Parliament’s pressure on Charles through these reforms was largely driven by
There were substantial amount of people who despised the actions undertaken by the British government
To begin with, this era was more a victory for liberalism through many aspects one being politics. The first change progressives wanted in politics was the "initiative were voters could initiate laws instead of waiting for legislatures to do it. Another was the "referendum" were voters could vote proposed bills into law, once again taking power away from the legislatures and giving it to the people. Others included the recall, where voters could remove elected officials from power, the secret or "Australian Ballot" which allowed for more privacy when voting thus encouraging a more true vote and less intimidation at the polls. Also, Roosevelt, who at the beginning of his presidency may have been classified as conservatist, moved more towards progressivism as he pursued his "three C's ", (Control of corporations, Consumer protection, and Co...
This proved to the working class something needed to be done about the government or there would be constant revolts.
The suffragettes, after years of fighting, were being taken seriously as a threat and a subversive group, treated as criminals even when abstaining from violence; the anxiety surrounding their actions and their increasing treatment as criminals is evident in the very presence of a police report concerning a non-violent public meeting. This anxiety was not undue: from 1908 the suffragettes had been breaking windows and attacking public property; from November 1911, there had been attacks on private property, including that of David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.
The 1944 Act abolished the Board of Education replacing it with a central authority with its own Ministry of Education. The independence of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) was therefore under the control and direction of the Minister, as "the central government decided national policy while LEAs were to provide the schools" (Gosden, 1983:3). As a result of these changes, "there was more unity and standardisation in the national education service" (Dunford and Sharp, 1990:18). Changes in local administration were also made in the 1944 Act, and as a result, all secondary schools were required to have governing bodies a...
Salisbury's leadership skills. His skills were also evident and beneficial in the Redistribution of Seats bill as it weakened the Whig element of the Liberals, and seeing as the Whigs joined the Conservatives when the Liberals split, strengthened the Conservatives. Another aspect of this redistribution act which showed Salisbury's strengths and leadership qualities was how it would mean the Conservatives would gain the support of the Middle Class. This shows Liberals weakness and the Conservatives strengths leading to the party's dominance. It can be argued therefore that the source is correct in saying that the reason the Conservatives were so dominant in British politics is because of Conservative strengths i.
During the late 19th and early 20th century both the Populist Party and Progressive movement wanted to preserve some things, while also addressing the need for reform. Although many of the ideas and goals of these “Third parties” were initially not legislated and considered far-fetched, many of these ideas later became fundamental laws throughout American history. The Populists and Progressives were both grass roots movements, and addressed the needs of the poor and powerless, for the Populists it was farmers and for the Progressives it was urban lower and middle class workers. These two movements attempted to bring the powerless peoples issues to national politics. The Populists and Progressives wanted to preserve some American ideals of the past, such as a sense of community and the ability for farmers and workers to live happily without economic strains. Populists were more oriented to the plight of the farmer while the Progressives included women's rights, and protection of the consumer and labor.