Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914)
March 19 Edwardian Crises
I. Missed opportunities
1886 Home Rule bill
Joseph Chamberlain
Liberal Unionists
Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914)
II. Seventeen years of Conservative rule
(1886-1892; 1895-1905)
A. Ireland
-"kill home rule with kindness"
-Wyndham Act of 1903
B. empire
-Chamberlain and imperial tariffs
C. Tory democracy
-Disraeli
-Salisbury (PM, 1885, 1886-92, 1895-1902)
-Balfour (PM, 1902-1905)
| 1888 | County Council Act of 1888 (transformed local govt) |
| 1891 | Education Act (made all education free) |
| 1902 | Education Act of 1902 (established a public system of secondary schools) |
| 1903 | Workmen's Compensation Act (made employers liable for injuries to workers on the job) |
III. The Liberals' chance (1906-1914)
New Liberalism
David Lloyd George
Liberal-Labor alliance of 1903
Election of 1906
| Liberals | Labour | Conservatives/ Liberal Unionists | Irish |
| 401 | 29 | 157 | 83 |
Henry Campbell-Bannerman (PM, 1906-08)
H. H. Asquith (PM, 1908-14)
| 1906 | Workmen’s Compensation Act (expands earlier legislation) and the Trade Disputes Bill (nullifies the Taff Vale Decision on 1901 which had required a workers’ union to pay damages to the Taff Vale Railway Co. for losses incurred during a strike) free school meals |
| 1907 | school medical service |
| 1908 | Old Age Pensions Act (pensions to people over 70) miners given an 8-hour workday |
| 1909 | Labor Exchanges Act (to reduce unemployment); Trade Boards Act (fixed wages in industries where there was little trade union strength) |
| 1910 | People’s Budget (shifts more of the tax burden onto the wealthy) |
| 1911 | Parliament Act trims the power of the Lords payment of salaries to MPs instituted National Insurance Act (provides limited compulsory health insurance and unemployment compensation) |
| 1913 | Minimum Wage Law |
IV. Simultaneous crises
A. parliamentary crisis
-Lloyd George (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and the People's Budget
--raised inheritance taxes on estates
--increased the rate of graduation on income taxes
--added a super-tax on the highest incomes
--imposed taxes on land values
-1910 election
-Parliament Act of 1911
B. crisis in industrial relations
1912 40 million working days lost due to strikes
1913 4 million members of trade unions
C. women's suffrage crisis [BBC site]
D. Irish crisis
