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Higher History - WHY the liberal reforms were introduced

Does anyone have any notes or an essay on this British history topic?
WHY were the liberal reforms introduced?

I am freaking out about history and I really don't get this one!

Thanks!

Reply 1

Pedrobear

Booth & Rowntree's reports exposing the extent of Britain's poverty to the educated public, who were previously largely unaware of how bad it was.

Basically the living conditions of the poorer people in Britain were awful, malnutrition and disease were widespread and so when the Liberal government came into power in 1906 they sought to make a difference (remember Lloyd George was an influential figure in the new government, and he was personally committed to "ordinary" people).

Children and the elderly were in a particularly bad state -- look at who the reforms were aimed at and you'll get a decent indication of where to look for the source of the problems (and therefore the reasons for reform).

This is only off the top of my head, but that's the gist of it. Hopefully someone else can be more detailed...

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

Emissionspectra

I just typed out a nice long essay for you and my computer logged off so here we go again: Seebohm Rowntree and Charles Booth hlped to get rid of the Victorian mindset it was the poors fault they were in their position. Booth published 17 volumes of life and labour of Londons poor from 1889-1903, and Rowntree carried out his own research in york. They found that 30% of people could be classed as poor and 10% as 'very poor' not meeting the minimum to live on, this shocked many people. Furthermore they showed that it wasn't always the poors fault and there were contributory factors: lack of education, sickness, low wwages etc.
The Boer war also brought reforms to the forefront of political affairs. Towards the end (1902) it was found that 1/3 of all troops were physically unfit and malnourished and hence reforms were introduced as there was a fear that the army wouldnt be able to maintain Britans status as a great power if her soilders were unfit, the national efficey campaign that arose as a result of the Boer war helepd to further compensate this by campaigning for etter diet and medical care for the next generation (reforms aimed at children, 1906 education act (provision of free school meals)).
You could also say that Liberal reforms gave the Liberal party something to be united about once more and helped to resuce them from the issues that had been dividing them such as Home rule for ireland. Also reforms were a way for the Liberals to saty in power as this was one of the reasons that the Conservatives lost the 1906 general election, and the Liberals frequently exploited this so if they didn't impliment reforms then the electorate may not vite for them and they would lose the election. Leading on from this is the pressure of the Labour party, the Lib-Lab pact of 1903 and the fact that Labour were allied with the Liberals meant that the Liberals were pressured into introducing reforms eg free school meals and medical inspection of 1906 and 1907 repectivly.
Finally you could say that under 'New Liberalism' reforms were to be expected as it stressed the freedom from things such as sickness, and that only from 1908 onwards were reforms really introduced, as Bannerman (up to 1908 was a traditonal Liberal) so didn't really introduce many reforms.
Could also say Llod George and Churchill played a role
, Lloyd George was friends with rowntree and so may have felt inspired also he went to Germany to check out there system, so it was likely he was going to intorduce reforms anyway, churchill was president of Board of trade from 1908-10 and so he also had a role to play in the reforms to help workers (Labour exhancges 1909, and Trade boards of 1909).
To conclude you could say reforms were introduced for a variety of reasons, but the most important reason was so the Liberals could stay in power, and that the work os Researchers like rowntree and booth highlighted the fact chnage was needed so therefore made it essential that the Liberals did this to saty in power. (Of course this is only my opinion).

Hope this helped :smile:

Higher History - WHY the liberal reforms were introduced

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