The Success of the Liberals from 1906-1914 in Dealing with Domestic Problems

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The Success of the Liberals from 1906-1914 in Dealing with Domestic Problems The liberals winning the 1906 landslide election certainly signified a dramatic change for the working class people of Britain, as compared with the traditional ‘lassiez Faire’ and ‘self help’ policies that Conservative leaders such as Gladstone advocated, the Liberals symbolised ‘freedom’ for the people. However, despite this image, in order to assess the success of the party’s dealing with their problems, the real impact on ordinary ‘domestic’ life needs to be taken into consideration. Indeed, the Liberal’s dealings had essentially unprecedented effects and made a dramatic difference to general political views and some citizens’ lives. Their revolutionary reforms and their handling of The House of Lords could be considered as their greatest successes as in the long-term, their actions helped improve welfare and gave working class interests more of an opportunity of passing through Parliament. However, the Liberals were very slow and inefficient in their dealings with the suffragettes and industrial militancy as these issues were simply not a priority for them. Although their actions could be viewed as quite radical for the time, ultimately, their main concern seemed to be the Constitutional Crisis, which was successful in improving democracy but considering the party advocated the need to ‘free’ the people, the Liberals could have done more to address the causes of industrial unrest and ensured that more people were covered by the social reforms. The major concerns the Liberals had to deal with at this time included anxiety over poverty, a rise in i... ... middle of paper ... ... difficulties faced by the Liberals during this period, the party did make some dramatic change that certainly transformed the political and social situation. On the whole, although some Acts were restrictive, the reforms passed offered almost instantaneous benefits compared with the lack of government intervention when the Liberals first came to power. Although many workers weren’t interested in the Parliament Act, it was advantageous the working class in the long-term as it meant more reforms helping them could be passed. However, the Liberals seem less successful with their dealings of the Suffragettes and Industrial Militancy and given the relatively large amount of time and effort spent on the Constitutional Crisis, more could have been done to directly help working-class citizens involved with these issues.

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