The Fall of the Lloyd George Coalition - Case Study Example

What are the most plausible among the possible explanations for the fall of the Lloyd George coalition Lloyd George left an impact on Great Britain.However, eventually his coalition fell. There is much debate over why exactly the coalition fell apart, and historians often argue between the possibilities of several different reasons. Many of these reasons are not entirely plausible, however there are several plausible reasons that the Lloyd George coalition fell apart. David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister or England from 1916 to 1922, was a man of many accomplishments. He was one of the greatest reformation chancellors in Britain. He gained notoriety as a radical early in his political career and went on to create laws that would shape the future course of British history. So, why did the Lloyd George Coalition fall The answer to this can ironically be found within his greatest triumphs. In the beginning of Lloyd George's career, he was a Liberal. It was a time when the Welsh were trying to regain national identity and confidence. He became a council member on the Caernarfon County Council in 1890. This was a seat he held for fifty-five years. He was a very active campaigner and supporter of land reform. Also, he was the youngest member of the House of Commons as a Liberal. In 1908, he was promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer by Henry Asquith, the new prime minister. He was a very high profile politician, strongly opposing the Boer War. Even before becoming Prime Minister, George was innovatively creating ways to give support to Europe. He oversaw the Merchant Shipping Act of 1906, the Patient Act of 1907, and the Port of London Authority in 1908. He then became chancellor for the Asquith administration. In 1909, he created the 'People's Budget.' In 1911, he introduced Great Britain's National Health Insurance Program and made his famous speech. His speech warned Germany that they would not stand for intrusion in international affairs. He then became the first Minister of Munitions in 1915, further paving his way to becoming Prime Minister. In December of 1916, David Lloyd George replaced his former boss H. H. Asquith to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Social Imperialist, Lord Milner, supported George and had a vision of 'domestic harmony.' He proved to be a valuable wartime leader. He was often called "The man who won the war." Upon winning the war, in 1918, the coalition was formed between the conservatives and part of the Liberal party. They took a huge majority in the elections that year. However, there were some differences in opinion regarding the leadership within Liberal party and as Chris Cook argues, the conservatives wanted to see the Liberal party remain split between the followers of Lloyd George and the followers of Herbert Henry Asquith (the former prime minister.) 2 The conservatives readily carried on with the coalition after the war, since they had not won an election on their own in over a decade. They took the election with 70 percent of the votes. Noted, this was the 'coupon election' and the first election that allowed women over 30 to vote. The conservatives later decided that George owed his win to them and that they could take it back from him at any time. This left Lloyd George, in idea at least, without a party officially supporting him. George was a well-respected wartime leader, but the devastation from the war could prove to be the primary factor that cost him his position as prime minister. After all, he was the one to promise, "A land fit for heroes." After the war, Great Britain was left in a pitiful state of despair and heading towards a depression. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died and over a million soldiers were left unable to work. Now Britain had to pay millions in war pension on top of the debt they had accumulated due to the war. This great economic decline was too big of a feat to overcome even for the 'Welsh Wizard.' Britain over invested in staple industries due to the war. This caused a boom in the economy and prices escalated out of control. This, in turn, resulted in massive unemployment, from 300,000 to 700,000 people left without jobs. By mid-year 1921, unemployment was over 2 million people strong. This devastation served as a turning point in Lloyd George's political career. The coalition began a bold social reform programme. A.P.J. Taylor evaluated the positive developments like education reforms. These reforms included raising the school leaving age, school building programs, raising teachers' wages, the initiation of evening classes, and old age pension benefits.3 The Minister of Health, Christopher Addison developed a housing programme that produced over 100,000 new houses by July 1921. Unemployment insurance was expanded, making it possible for 12 million more people to gain coverage. There were now extra payments for those whose coverage had expired. Despite this effort, George had no choice but to initiate spending cuts. With the oncoming depression, the government just could not spend as much. George appointed conservative Sir Eric Geddes. He cut departmental spending by 15 percent in 1921 and by 12 more percent the following year. Addison resigned the following year and grants for housing stopped. Lloyd George's reputation spiraled downward and never recovered. He made too many promises that were near impossible to keep, especially with conservatives pressuring him to end the reconstruction. More problems developed with a mass of 4,000 strikes in Britain with 147 million working days lost. Another unfortunate factor was the communist revolution. By decision of trade union leaders, tanks were led into George Square. Trade unionists were often going on strike to get pay raises due to the inflation caused by the war. The end of the war meant a continuation of prewar industrial discord. There was also contention in the coalmines due to peacetime overloading. Lloyd George tried his best to head off coalminer strikes by appointing a royal commission in 1919. Pay deductions were initiated and those who did not take the cut were locked out of employment. Another contributing factor to the decline of his career was the Anglo-Irish War. The Anglo-Irish War ended in December of 1921 with a settlement that resulted in Irish anarchy. The Irish conflict was heightened during the war, and this did not help the situation in Britain any. The government did not handle the aftermath of the Easter rebellion as they should and Sinn Fein won the 1918 election. The conservatives felt that they had a full grown rebellion on their hands. George had to send troops in to please the conservatives. The Labour Party however was not happy about this action. They did not believe in fighting fire with fire. His reputation with the electorate was now damaged beyond any repair. Now the Tories disliked him even more than they did already, and dispute arose when trying to decide if Ireland would become a dominion or a republic. The result was a civil war in the summer of 1922. Lloyd George's settlement did not seem to settle anything after all. Tory backbenchers were angry and ready for George to step down. By this time, he was likely to fall anyway. In 1918, Britain had the largest empire the world had ever seen. It would be impossible for any one man to try to control the post war external affairs. Lloyd George could not be held personally responsible for shootings in India or uprisings in Mesopothemia resulting in thousands of deaths. He is however, responsible for the Versailles settlement. For this settlement everyone has always criticized him. The 1920 treaty of Sevres with Turkey was another unpopular treaty. However, it was an important treaty because it led to the Chanak incident. Perhaps Lloyd George's greatest mistake concerning foreign policy is the Chanak incident of 1922. He urged General Harrington to stand firm against the Turks despite lack of support from France or Italy. The Tories felt he was instigating war. Several military leaders, who supported the Lloyd George coalition government during the war period, did not like the war policies of Lloyd George. They watched the developments closely, and destabilized the coalition. In 1922, they pressurized the coalition to step down. This was another consequence of World War 1 that worked against the George coalition. The Turks were forced to give up land in the Middle East and parts of Europe, including Symiria. George was blamed accordingly for this as well. Following this, a financial scandal surfaced exposing George's whole regimen. The July 1922 Honours List was very controversial and George was accused of selling knighthoods and peerages. Others were accused of evading taxes and trading with the enemy. King George V considered this list to be a dishonor to the crown and to the House of Lords. This issue greatly harmed his credibility. This is perhaps the only issue that does not fall directly back to the war. This was no surprise to those around him. He had long had a noted reputation of compromising his morals when it came to financial and sexual issues. He planned to use this money for future elections. After all, he was no longer a vote winner. No one expected the coalition to last much longer. Rumours spread that the Prime Minister was going to hold a snap election. By this time, many associations were ready to leave the coalition. The Conservatives and the Independent Liberal Party also shifted towards Asquith by the end of 1922 Chamberlain at the Carlton Club held a meeting on October 19, 1922. He proceeded to lecture them on the importance of standing by their leader. They ignored his efforts. The Coalition was rejected 187 to 87 votes. This was the end for Lloyd George and his Coalition. The previous day, conservative Reginald Clarry, won the by-election. Coalition supporters were worried that this would split the vote and allow a socialist to win. They were wrong. There were many unfortunate events during David Lloyd George's reign as Prime Minister that factor into his downfall. The war was the cause of most of these. Britain fell on hard times inevitably after the war. The hardship, the death of the soldiers, the massive unemployment was all very unfortunate. His reputation was tarnished by scandals and his activity in international affairs. He was very successful in many aspects especially before the war, with his campaigning and his reign as Minister of Munitions and in the House of Commons, however none of these made up for his later mistakes that eventually caused the downfall of his coalition. Bibliography Arthur Marwick. (1975). Review of "The Fall of Lloyd George: The Political Crisis of 1922" by Michael Kinnear. The American Historical Review, Vol. 80, No. 3 P: 648-649. C. L. Mowat. (1963). Review of "Armed Forces in Peacetime: Britain, 1918-1940, A Case Study" by Robin Higham. The American Historical Review, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Oct. 1963), P: 117-119. Robert Eccleshall and S. Graham. Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministers. London: New York Routledge, 2002. Hugh W. Stephens. (1982). Party Realignment in Britain, 1900-1925: A Preliminary Analysis. Social Science History, Vol. 6, No. 1, P: 35-66. Lentin, A. (2001). David Lloyd George and the Lost Peace. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 Read More