The Effect of the First World War on the Decline of the Liberal Party

The Effect of the First World War on the Decline of the Liberal Party

The Liberal Party won the 1906 election by a landslide victory and

accomplished much to improve the living and working conditions within

England. Shortly after the First World War had passed the Liberal

Party’s support declined greatly, but why? Dangerfield believed that

the state of the Liberal Party was that they were doomed to fail prior

to the outbreak of war in 1914. Despite the Liberal Party's many

remarkable achievements since their landslide victory in 1906, they

were also plagued with many problems. For instance the: Constitutional

Crisis; challenges from the Labour Party; increasing communist ideas;

Trade Unions; Ireland and the Suffragette movement. These were all

problems the Liberal Party had to face and combined meant national

support for the Liberal was severely hindered. Dangerfield argues that

it was not the war years that caused the failure of the Liberal

Government but that the damage was caused long before 1914. He argues

that before the outbreak of war they were already deceased. Yet there

are many criticisms that are aimed at Dangerfield and his ideas, many

believe he overlooked the achievements of the Liberals, the impact of

New Liberalism and he made many other misjudgements that make his

assessment of the pre war era for the Liberals inaccurate.

Numerous bills the Liberals put forward were rejected by the House of

Lords, which were dominated by Conservatives who used the House of

Lords as a second strand of opposition to the Liberals. It was in

April 1909 with the rejection of the controversial 'People's Budget'

the situation reached its mos...

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...le to achieve many successes. The Liberals

did not have an easy time in government, but fought their battles

valiantly, introducing social reform on the way. Election results also

suggest that the Liberal Government were not heading for failure but

proceeding to continue strongly. I therefore contradict Dangerfield's

theory that the Liberal government were doomed to failure prior to

World War 1, suggesting that they were still a strong government. It

would be easy to make assumptions looking back in hindsight as

Dangerfield did, however I would argue that upon entering World War 1

the Liberal Party still appeared to be strong. Unfortunately the

nature of the pre war years seem to accentuate the problems and cast a

shadow over the achievements, Dangerfield is a clear critique of

Liberal England and what it has to offer.