British Depth Study 1906-1918
Liberal reform -why?

Background

  

Some views from the time
Lloyd George and his liberal government of 1906 have been considered as the founders of the welfare state. What do we mean by the welfare state? Well before this time a persons income, health, education and old age care was considered to be problems for the individual. The state was not considered responsible for much of this sort of thing (perhaps care for the really poor and very ill).

When reformers (people who want change), like Rowntree went around and saw the level of poverty, poor housing, illiteracy etc. they demanded that the state do something about it.

It may seem to be just good practice and common sense that we care for people in hospitals etc. but at this time it was not. Many rich people argued helping the poor would encourage laziness ( if you were paid to do nothing then you would become idle). They were also concerned that such policies would raise taxes and give too much say to government about how people ran their lives.

The turning point was the First World War. When young men rushed to join up the very basic medical showed many people unfit, malnourished and suffering the effects of poor housing. Conservatives, who generally were on the side that was against the welfare state began to agree with the need to do something about the problem.

 

Was the Liberal government as crucial as it has been made out to be?

In many ways yes. There can be little doubt of their commitment. However, there is much evidence to show that many changes would have happened anyway. As this unit continues we will look at this issue.

 Here are some pictures from the era that shows welfare issues were important to the two parties (remember there was no Labour party at this time).

The cartoon above shows how only small assistance was greatly needed and met with critical comments from the conservatives.

This conservative poster shows the liberal leader Lloyd George's policy close to robbery.

 

By the mid 20s the conservatives had taken the welfare state as their own!