Liberal welfare reforms and Related Topics

Liberal Party (UK)

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One of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Conservative Party, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Liberal politicians David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill enacted the 1909 People's Budget which specifically aimed at the redistribution of wealth.

Liberal poster c. 1905–1910, clockwise from the left: Joseph Chamberlain (satirised as an unmarried mother leaving her baby at a Foundling hospital) abandons his commitment to old age pensions; Chancellor Austen Chamberlain threatens duties on consumer items which had been removed by Gladstone (in the picture on the wall); Chinese indentured labour in South Africa; John Bull contemplates his vote; and Joseph Chamberlain and Arthur Balfour (who favoured retaliatory tariffs) wearing top hats. The heading "ratepayers money for sectarian schools" refers to the Education Act 1902.

Cartoonist John Bernard Partridge depicts Lloyd George as a giant with a cudgel labelled "Budget" in reference to his People's Budget while "a plutocrat" cowers beneath the table, Punch 28 April 1909. The caption, not shown, reads "Fee Fi Fo Phat, I smell the blood of a plutocrat. Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread,"

$Share of the vote received by Conservatives (blue), Whigs/Liberals/Liberal Democrats (orange), Labour (red) and others (grey) in general elections since 1832 shows that following success as the successor to the Whig party, the party's share of the popular vote plummeted after the First World War as it lost votes to the new Labour party and fractured into groups such as the National and Coalition Liberals$

A crowd waits outside Leeds Town Hall to see them elect a Liberal Party candidate during the 1880 general elections.

Leeds and County Liberal Club blue plaque

Under prime ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905–1908) and H. H. Asquith (1908–1916), the Liberal Party passed reforms that created a basic welfare state.

David Lloyd George

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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922.

Lloyd George and Winston Churchill in 1907

Portrait of Chancellor Lloyd George by Christopher Williams (1911)

Lloyd George, Edward Grey, Herbert Kitchener, Nikola Pašić, Antonio Salandra, Alexander Izvolsky, Aristide Briand, Joseph Joffre at a conference of the Allied Powers on 27–28 March 1916 in Paris

Snowed under
St. Bernard Pup (to his Master). "This situation appeals to my hereditary instincts. Shall I come to the rescue?"
[Before leaving Switzerland Mr. Lloyd George purchased a St. Bernard pup.]
Cartoon from Punch 15 September 1920

Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George and Vittorio Orlando at Paris

"The Big Four" made all the major decisions at the Paris Peace Conference (from left to right, Lloyd George, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson of the U.S.)

Lloyd George with Japanese Prince Hirohito, 1921

Portrait of David Lloyd George by Hal Hurst, 1915

Lloyd George statue at Caernarfon Castle (1921), in recognition of his service as local MP and prime minister

Vera Weizmann, Chaim Weizmann, Herbert Samuel, Lloyd George, Ethel Snowden, and Philip Snowden

Grave of David Lloyd George, Llanystumdwy

Lloyd George with his daughter Megan in 1911

To fund extensive welfare reforms he proposed taxes on land ownership and high incomes in the "People's Budget" (1909), which the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected.

The Roaring Lion, a portrait by Yousuf Karsh at the Canadian Parliament, December 1941

Winston Churchill

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British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955.

Jennie Spencer Churchill with her two sons, Jack (left) and Winston (right) in 1889.

Churchill in the military dress uniform of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars at Aldershot in 1895.

Churchill in 1900 around the time of his first election to Parliament.

Churchill in 1904 when he "crossed the floor".

Churchill and German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a military manoeuvre near Breslau, Silesia, in 1906.

Churchill and his fiancée Clementine Hozier shortly before their marriage in 1908.

Churchill (second left) photographed at the Siege of Sidney Street.

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill's London residency was Admiralty House (music room pictured).

Churchill commanding the 6th Battalion, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1916. His second-in-command, Archibald Sinclair, is seated on the left.

Churchill meets female workers at Georgetown's filling works near Glasgow in October 1918.

Churchill as Secretary of State for the Colonies during his visit to Mandatory Palestine, Tel Aviv, 1921.

Churchill with children Randolph and Diana in 1923.

Churchill on Budget Day with his wife Clementine and children Sarah and Randolph, 15 April 1929.

Churchill meeting with film star Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles in 1929.

Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, the chief proponent of appeasement.

Churchill takes aim with a Sten sub-machine gun in June 1941. The man in the pin-striped suit and fedora to the right is his bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson.

Churchill walks through the ruins of Coventry Cathedral with J A Moseley, M H Haigh, A R Grindlay and others, 1941.

Churchill and Roosevelt seated on the quarterdeck of for a Sunday service during the Atlantic Conference, 10 August 1941

Huge portraits of Churchill and Stalin, Brisbane, Australia, 31 October 1941

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the Tehran Conference in 1943.

Churchill in the Roman amphitheatre of ancient Carthage to address 3,000 British and American troops, June 1943

Churchill is greeted by a crowd in Québec City, Canada, 1943

Churchill's crossing of the Rhine river in Germany, during Operation Plunder on 25 March 1945.

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945.

The destruction of Dresden, February 1945.

Churchill waving the Victory sign to the crowd in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the nation that the war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945. Ernest Bevin stands to his right.

Churchill at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945.

Churchill with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, 10 February 1953.

Churchill with Anthony Eden, Dean Acheson and Harry Truman, 5 January 1952.

Churchill's grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon.

Allies (1995) by Lawrence Holofcener, a sculptural group depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Churchill in New Bond Street, London.

The statue of Churchill (1973) by Ivor Roberts-Jones in Parliament Square, London

The British Empire at its territorial peak in 1921.

He has also been praised for his role in the Liberal welfare reforms.

Henry Campbell-Bannerman

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British statesman and Liberal politician.

Campbell-Bannerman caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1899

Punch cartoon dated 19 February, 1908, making fun of the relationship between House of Commons (Henry Campbell-Bannerman) and House of Lords (Lord Lansdowne).

Statue of Campbell-Bannerman in Stirling

Henry Campbell-Bannerman by Paul Raphael Montford

Blue plaque at 6 Grosvenor Place, London

Under Campbell-Bannerman's successor, H. H. Asquith, many far-reaching reforms were implemented, but Campbell-Bannerman himself had, in 1906, received a deputation from representatives of 25 women's suffragist groups (representing 1,000 women) though he said that his cabinet would object to this change.

H. H. Asquith

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British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916.

Asquith (left) with his sister Emily and elder brother William, c. 1857

Asquith, caricatured by Spy, in Vanity Fair, 1891

Margot Asquith at about the time of her marriage

Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal leader from 1899

Asquith as Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons

This 1909 Punch cartoon suggests the Liberals were delighted when the Lords forced an election. Back row: Haldane, Churchill with arms up, being hugged by his ally Lloyd George. Asquith standing at right. Bottom row: McKenna, Lord Crewe (with moustache), Augustine Birrell leaning back

Asquith caricatured in Vanity Fair, 1910

Punch 1911 cartoon shows Asquith and Lloyd George preparing coronets for 500 new peers

Samuel Begg's depiction of the passing of the Parliament Bill in the House of Lords, 1911

Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force march through Belfast, 1914

Asquith visits the front during the Battle of the Somme, 1916

Asquith's great-granddaughter, the actress Helena Bonham Carter

Blue plaque, 20 Cavendish Square, London

He played a major role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation and a reduction of the power of the House of Lords.

Social liberalism

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Political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses a social market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, whose New Deal domestic policies defined American liberalism for the middle third of the 20th century

David Lloyd George, who became closely associated with this new liberalism and vigorously supported expanding social welfare

British leaflet from the Liberal Party expressing support for the National Health Insurance Act of 1911 and the legislation provided benefits to sick and unemployed workers, marking a major milestone in the development of social welfare

These initiatives became known as the Liberal welfare reforms.

1906 United Kingdom general election

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Held from 12 January to 8 February 1906.

Example of a Liberal poster during the election

Results of London (and the Croydon county borough double-seat) and the seven W. and N. divisions, seats, of administrative Middlesex

The Liberals' landslide victory of 125 seats over all other parties led to the passing of social legislation known as the Liberal reforms.

David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill

People's Budget

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The 1909/1910 People's Budget was a proposal of the Liberal government that introduced unprecedented taxes on the lands and incomes of Britain's wealthy to fund new social welfare programmes.

Although many deterrent workhouses developed in the period after the New Poor Law, some had already been built under the existing system. This workhouse in Nantwich, Cheshire, dates from 1780.

English Poor Laws

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The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598.

The Poor Laws in the aftermath of the Black Death (pictured), when labour was in short supply, were concerned with making the able-bodied work. (also see: Sturdy beggar)

The Old Poor Law or Elizabethan Poor Law is sometimes referred to as the "43rd Elizabeth" as it was passed in the 43rd year that Elizabeth I (pictured) reigned as Queen.

Advertisement for builders to build a new Workhouse in north Wales, 1829

Nassau William Senior argued for greater centralization of the Poor Law system.

Infighting between Edwin Chadwick and other Poor Law Commissioners was one reason for an overhaul of Poor Law administration.

David Lloyd George, architect of the Liberal welfare reforms which were implemented outside of the Poor Law system and paved the way for the eventual abolition of the Poor Law.

Punch criticized the New Poor Law's workhouses for splitting mothers and their infant children.

The Poor Law system fell into decline at the beginning of the 20th century owing to factors such as the introduction of the Liberal welfare reforms and the availability of other sources of assistance from friendly societies and trade unions, as well as piecemeal reforms which bypassed the Poor Law system.

National Insurance Act 1911

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The National Insurance Act 1911 created National Insurance, originally a system of health insurance for industrial workers in Great Britain based on contributions from employers, the government, and the workers themselves.

The Doctor by Luke Fildes used in a 1911 Punch cartoon commenting on the effects of the act.

It formed part of the wider social welfare reforms of the Liberal Governments of 1906–1915, led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith.

A report on Liberal welfare reforms

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