The Liberal government was supported by 29
Labour PartyMPs. Chancellor
David Lloyd George crafted the
People's Budget and introduced a great deal of social legislation,[3] such as old age pensions and unemployment insurance for a significant part of the working population. For many working people, for whom in old age the threat of the
workhouse was very real, these represented a very significant change. Equally groundbreaking was the
Parliament Act 1911 which:
Removed the law-making veto from the
House of Lords thus rendering it constitutionally most expedient to run any future government from the
House of Commons
Enshrined into law the previous convention, which the Lords had broken in 1909, that the Lords may not reject
Money Bills
Cut the length of Parliaments from seven years to five
Many of the members of Asquith's cabinet, however, opposed the social measures promulgated by leading figures such as Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George. This resistance was arguably a reflection of the extent to which many Liberals still adhered to the Party's Gladstonian, classical liberal tradition in spite of the growth of the "New Liberalism". Morley was opposed to both old-age pensions and the provisions of the Trade Boards Act of 1909, while Runciman was against the eight-hour day for miners and compensation for workers. Burns, Bryce, Loreburn, and W.S. Robson were opposed to land reform, insurance, and the feeding of schoolchildren,[4] while several cabinet members[5] (such as Crewe,[6] Fitzmaurice,[7] Harcourt,[8] and McKenna[9]) were critical of Lloyd George's progressive "People's Budget." Nevertheless, according to Neil Smith, the majority of the members of the Edwardian Liberal Cabinets were supportive of social reform and social progress.[10] As noted by one study,
They (the Liberal Cabinet members) sought to respond to the discontent of the electorate by using the existing structure of government to correct the ills of society through innovative legislation. Two-thirds of the Liberal candidates, including Edwin Montagu, had pledged support for such measures during the campaign. While their support was often expressed in general terms, their intent was clear: Social and economic reform must be the first order of the new government.[11]
October 1908 –
Lord Crewe succeeds
Lord Ripon as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords, while remaining also Colonial Secretary.
June 1909 –
Herbert Samuel succeeds Lord FitzMaurice at the Duchy of Lancaster.
February 1910 –
Winston Churchill succeeds Herbert Gladstone as Home Secretary.
Sydney Buxton succeeds Churchill at the Board of Trade.
Herbert Samuel succeeds Buxton as Postmaster-General.
Joseph Pease succeeds Samuel as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
November 1910 –
Lord Beauchamp succeeds
Lewis Vernon Harcourt as First Commissioner of Public Works.
Lord Morley of Blackburn succeeds Beauchamp as Lord President.
Lord Crewe succeeds Morley as India Secretary, remaining also Lord Privy Seal. Lewis Harcourt succeeds Crewe as Colonial Secretary.
March 1914 –
Asquith temporarily succeeds
Jack Seely as Secretary for War.
August 1914 –
Lord Beauchamp succeeds
Lord Morley as Lord President. Lord Emmott succeeds Beauchamp as First Commissioner of Public Works.
Walter Runciman succeeds
John Burns as President of the Board of Trade.
Lord Lucas succeeds Runciman at the Board of Agriculture.
Lord Kitchener succeeds Asquith as Secretary for War.
^A. K. Russell, Liberal landslide : the general election of 1906 (1973).
^Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. Ed. Margaret Macmillan. New York: Library of America, 2008. p. 66.
^John Grigg, Lloyd George: The People's Champion, 1902–1911 (1978)
^Tanner, Duncan (1990). "Ideas and politics, 1906-1914". Political Change and the Labour Party 1900-1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 48.
ISBN0521329817.
^Jenkins, Roy. Churchill: A Biography. New York: MacMillan, 2001. p. 123.
^
abcEnglefield, Dermot; Seaton, Janet; White, Isobel (1995). Facts About the British Prime Ministers. Mansell Publishing Limited. p. 412.
ISBN978-0-7201-2306-7.
Blewett, Neal. Peers, the Parties and the People: General Elections of 1910 (1972).
Brooks, David. The Age of Upheaval: Edwardian Politics, 1899-1914 (1995)
Butler, David and Gareth Butler. Twentieth Century British Political Facts, 1900–2000. (St. Martin's, 2000)
Cross, Colin. The Liberals in Power, 1905-1914 (1963)
online
Daglish, N. D. "A 'difficult and somewhat thankless task': politics, religion and the Education Bill of 1908." Journal of educational administration and history 31.1 (1999): 19–35.
Gilbert, Bentley Brinkerhoff. "David Lloyd George: Land, The Budget, and Social Reform." American Historical Review 81.5 (1976): 1058–1066.
Gilbert, Bentley B. "David Lloyd George: the reform of British landholding and the budget of 1914." Historical Journal 21.1 (1978): 117–141.
Grigg, John. Lloyd George: The People's Champion, 1902–1911 (1978). biography
Halévy, Elie. History of the English People, 1905-1914 (1934), 686pp. a major political history
Hay, James Roy. Origins of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, 1906–14 (1975) 78pp
online
Jenkins, Roy. Asquith: portrait of a man and an era (1964)
Quinault, Roland. "Asquith's Liberalism." History 77.249 (1992): 33–49.
Russell, A. K. Liberal landslide : the general election of 1906 (1973).
Searle, G. R. A New England?: peace and war, 1886–1918 (Oxford UP, 2004), wide-ranging scholarly survey, 952 pp.