Transcript 5. Assess the Liberal Reforms

Issue 5 – Assessment of the
Liberal reforms
How successful were they?
Past paper questions
• 2012: To what extent did the Liberal reforms of
1906 to 1914 make a significant improvement to
the lives of the British people?
• 2011: “The Liberals failed to deal with the real
problems facing the British people.” How valid is
this view of the Liberals’ social reforms from 1906
to 1914?
• 2010: How successfully did the Liberal Reforms of
1906−1914 deal with the problem of poverty in
Britain in the early 1900s?
YOUNG
ELDERLY
SICK
UNEMPLOYED
How did the
Liberals help
each of these
vulnerable
groups?
YESU
Did they do
enough?
Assessment question
• Instead of looking at causation, this
question judges how effective or
ineffective the reforms were.
• So your approach to this style of question
should be to take each groups in turn and
identify what they did (KU points) and
evaluate/judge how far they achieved
their aim. You must be balanced and
include any limitations of the acts.
• By your conclusion, you should answer the
question.
CONTEXT
• Liberal reforms= landmark social change,
acceptance that national state intervention is
required.
• Liberals – landslide victory based on free
trade NOT welfare reforms
• 1906-14 – widespread reforms to address the
needs of the ‘deserving poor’: YOUNG,
ELDERLY, SICK AND UNEMPLOYED.
• Identified that causes of poverty – ill health,
too old to work, unemployment needed to be
tackled therefore made reforms to solve
these problems.
• LAID THE FOUNDATIONS FOR A WELFARE
STATE
LINE OF ARGUMENT
• Did they significantly improve lives?
• How much did they resolve the problems
of poverty?
GROUP
& AIM
YOUNG –
children are
deserving
poor. Poverty
is not their
fault.
NAME OF
REFORM
WHAT THEY
DID
(KU)
SUCCESS
(ARGUMENT)
FAILURE
(ARGUMENT)
YOUNG - KU
“Feed the stomach,
then the mind”
Margaret McMillan
Young are poor through no fault of their own.
Government must nurture this future
generation.
What did they do?
1906 Free School Meals
1907 Medical Inspections Act
1908 Children Act (‘Children’s Charter’)
KU
• School meals 1906 – School meals given
from 3 million in 1906 to 9 million in
1910 to 14million in 1914. But by 1912
half of local authorities did not provide
meals.
• Medical Inspections 1907 - Detected a
great deal of medical problems e.g. in
Glasgow, 30% of children were found to
be “verminous”.
• Children’s Act, 1908 – Note 2 new rules
to protect children from neglect.
YOUNG – ARGUMENT –
How effective?
• School meals - Rose to 14
million by 1914.
• During school holidays,
health and growth
declined therefore proving
that school meals were
essential to improving
health and thus securing a
better economic future
for children.
• Inspections - Checked
height, weight, teeth, eyes
and identified a range of
problems such as rickets.
• Charter - Some children’s
lives did improve.
• Meals - Law not compulsory so
by 1912, only half of the local
authorities had a school meal
provision in place
• Medical Inspections Identified the problem but
medical treatment not
provided until 1912.
• Charter - Slow to pass new
laws which means help was
limited to a small number.
• Limited success in restricting
alcohol and smoking from
children.
Old Age Pensions Act 1908
David Lloyd George, Budget
speech (1909)
“This is a war Budget. It is for
raising money to wage implacable
warfare against poverty and
squalidness. I cannot help hoping
and believing that before this
generation has passed away, we
shall have advanced a great step
towards that good time, when
poverty, and the wretchedness
and human degradation which
always follows in its camp, will be
as remote to the people of this
country as the wolves which
once infested its forests.”
ELDERLY – KU
• Identified by Rowntree survey as unavoidable stage of
poverty cycle.
• Britain lagged behind Germany, Denmark and New
Zealand who had all introduced pension in 1880-90s.
• Pension provided elderly over the age of 70 between 1s
(5p) and 5s (25p) a week if annual income was between
£21 and £31. Married couples given 7s 6p (37p)
ELDERLY - ARGUMENT
• Great success as
650,000 applicants. By
1914 there were
970,000.
• Elderly very grateful –
gave post office
workers flowers and
praised ‘Lord George’!
• Kept elderly away from
the workhouse.
• Pension was 2s (10p)
short of the minimum
amount needed
established by Rowntree
(35p).
• Many pensioners had no
birth certificate
therefore no proof they
were over 70.
• Many stopped working
at 50.
• Few actually lived til 70
– life expectancy in
industrial towns was mid
40s!
SICK
Illness was a major cause of poverty in a
time when there was no NHS. Illness
meant lost wages. Lloyd George emulated
Germany’s national insurance scheme.
SICK KU
• NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT 1911
PART 2– contributory scheme where
employee paid 4p a week towards
scheme, employer paid 3p and
government paid 2p. SO – a sick person
could get 9p from an outlay of 4p.
• When sick – 10s (50p) a week for first
13 weeks and then 5s (25p) a week for
the following 13 weeks.
ARGUMENT
• Part 2 - It did provide
some help to sick
workers.
• Part 2 - Only the
individual received
medical help, not the
family.
• Treatment by dentists
and opticians not
included
• Contributions meant a
‘wage cut’ so ironically
would have
exacerbated poverty!
• Did not help long term
sick.
UNEMPLOYED KU
• NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT 1911 PART
1 – tackled problem of those who worked in
industries that had frequent short-term
contracts e.g. shipbuilding, construction,
mechanical engineering.
• Insurance booklet stamp – 5p (2 ½p from
employer), government gives 2p.
• Resulted in 7s (35p) a week for 15 weeks
while unemployed. Carried out at Labour
exchange.
• Labour exchanges also established.
ARGUMENT
• Part 1 – Prevented
immediate poverty if
unemployed.
• 15 weeks was adequate
time to find
employment.
• It was self-financing – it
only worked as long as
5% were unemployed,
after WWI it could not
cope with long term
unemployment.
• It only applied to 7
industries.
• Only 2.25 million
helped.
OTHER REFORMS - EMPLOYED
• Read p66-67 – Briefly note the more
positive achievements of other reforms.
• Read on to the assessment of the
Liberal reforms and identify some
conclusive sentences/overall statements
about the reforms.
HISTORIOGRAPHY
The Liberal reforms added up to;
“A significant shift away from minimum government in the laissez-faire tradition.”
D. Morrison
“The working classes were not wholeheartedly in favour of the efforts made on their
behalf by the Liberals.”
E. Morrison
They viewed “the insurance schemes as little more than middle class interference.”
T. Monaghan
“Asquith’s administration laid the foundations of the Welfare State by taking
responsibility for the most vulnerable groups in society and financing means to help
them.”
L. Petheram
Other historians disagree
“They argue that the Liberal reforms were very limited in scope and failed to deal
with such important welfare issues as education and housing.”
D. Morrison
“Lloyd George and Churchill saw their reforms as first steps, which were brought to
a halt by the Great War.”
T. Monaghan
CONCLUSION
• Marked a dramatic shift away from
laissez-faire.
• Never intended to be a welfare state
• A helping hand to ease the problem not
an ultimate solution
• Based around the idea that support was
given for those to help themselves out
of poverty.
• Housing issue not tackled.
Possible conclusion
In conclusion, it can be argued the Liberals did improve
the lives of the British people to a degree. While some peoples’
lives were not improved due to insufficient legislation, it has to
be recognised the Liberals did make significant changes to many
lives in a challenging period when poverty was a gigantic problem.
On one hand, the Liberals reforms improved the health,
education and future of many of their young. Furthermore, many
elderly, sick and unemployed were also relieved of the stress of
poverty and misery of the workhouse when they received the
new benefits. On the other hand, the Liberals were limited in
provision and restrained by cost and did not attempt to improve
housing. However, it must be taken into account that they never
did promise a solution to all problems faced, they still wanted
people to strive for betterment as Churchill said: “We have not
pretended to carry the toiler on to dry land, what we have done
is to strap a lifebelt around him.”