1906: ‘BLISSFUL DAWN’?

Lecture on the 1906 election and the government that followed; by Kenneth O. Morgan.

A hundred years ago to the very day, the crofters and fishermen of Orkney and Shetland made their way through the darkness to cast their votes in the general election. The Kenneth O. pread out over four Unionist Cabinet survived constituency had not Morgan, who weeks, the excite- – Akers-Douglas, Arnold-For- delivered the ment began on 11 ster and Austen Chamberlain. elected a Conservative lecture reprinted here, hosted by January with two To the Liberals’ 401 should be since the general the Corporation of Liberals elected for added the 29 members of the the City of London SIpswich (‘Ipswich leads the way’ newly-formed Labour Party and election of 1835 so (together with the read the placards). A sequence of 83 Irish Nationalists, so the effec- Liberal Democrat Unionist (i.e. Conservative) dis- tive normal government major- it was no surprise and Labour History Groups), asters followed thereafter. The ity was over 350. The Tories lost when 79 per cent of Guildhall, 7 ‘Portillo moment’, the South- 245 seats and ended up with only the voters cast their February 2006. gate of 1906, came very early 157. It is impossible to assess the with the defeat on 13 January swing with any precision – there vote for the Liberal, in North Manchester of Arthur were 114 uncontested seats, and Balfour, only five weeks previ- there had been 245 in the previ- J. C. Wason. What was ously the Prime Minister; he had ous election, the ‘khaki’ election totally astonishing was to find sanctuary in that citadel held during the South African of unregenerate Conservatism, War in October 1900. Where that he was (according the City of London. In fact, the there is a comparable result, the to my calculations!) Liberals captured all eight seats swing seems to have been around in Manchester, including Win- 12 per cent, greater than those of the 401st Liberal MP ston Churchill, a recent convert, 1945 or 1997. Peter Snow, thou returned. in North West Manchester. Only shouldst have been living at that three members of the former hour!

32 Journal of Liberal History 51 Summer 2006 1906: ‘BLISSFUL DAWN’?

Contemporaries noted that cork dancing on a torrent which but to do a deal. The outcome something really dramatic was he cannot control … It is an echo benefited both sides, financially happening. Many of them of the same movement which has and politically, and created the focused, as would have been natu- produced massacres in St. Peters- pre-war Progressive Alliance. ral in 1906, on religion. The 1906 burg and riots in Vienna … .’ A The background to the elec- election, with over 200 noncon- few days later, on 12 February tion was one of deep national formists returned to parliament, 1906, there followed what was anxiety. The dismal war in South was the greatest triumph of the clearly the most important out- Africa in 1899–1902 proved to chapels over the Church of Eng- come of the general election. The be, as Kipling famously wrote, land since the time of Cromwell. Parliamentary Labour Party was ‘no end of a lesson’. It dem- Great chapels like Whitefield’s formed. Its twenty-nine MPs con- onstrated diplomatic isolation Tabernacle on the Tottenham sisted very largely of trade union- overseas, growing poverty, class Court Road became in effect ists, many of Lib-Lab views, but division and inequality in the cit- Liberal committee rooms, with also included important socialists ies at home. The gospel of Empire charismatic organisers like like Ramsay MacDonald, Philip was irretrievably tarnished by Whitefield’s Congregationalist Snowden, Fred Jowett and Keir the deaths of at least 28,000 Boer minister, Silvester Horne (father Hardie, the member for Merthyr women and children in Brit- of a famous radio comedian). For Boroughs who had brought the ish concentration camps on the the chapels, it was not so much an Labour alliance into being six In the Rand. The memorial plaques of election as an epiphany. There was years earlier. Hardie was elected hundreds of tiny children, perish- much talk of Children of Israel chairman by fifteen votes to four- longer ing under the age of five, on the and the Promised Land, with teen. In January 1909, after a vote walls of a former concentration particular reference to church amongst the Miners’ Federation, term, much camp near Pretoria, which I saw schools and ‘Rome on the rates’. the twenty-nine were joined by the more in 2000, are a permanent stain Religion had a particular impact a further fourteen miners’ MPs, on the name of Britain. Henry in nonconformist Wales, where elected in 1906 as ‘Lib-Labs’. significant Campbell-Bannerman described the much publicised ‘revolt’ of It has been rightly pointed these camps as ‘methods of barba- the county councils, led by Lloyd out that the advent of Labour aspect was rism’ – three words that changed George, against the 1902 Educa- was hugely assisted by the secret the politics of a generation. There tion Act, was reinforced by the election pact or ‘entente’ with that the is an interesting parallel with the huge religious revival of 1904–5, the Liberals in 1903 under which general Progressive reform movement ‘y diwygiad mawr’ in Welsh, a Labour had a free run against in the United States at this time. media-conscious event of mes- the Unionists in around thirty election There, too, after an imperialist sianic intensity. In Wales, the seats. It was a pact much helped war with Spain in Cuba in 1898 Unionists, like a famous Brit- by the existence of two-member marked and the cruel suppression of ish entry in the Eurovision song seats where Labour could run in ‘insurgency’ in the revolt in the contest, scored nul points. double harness with a Liberal, the first Philippines, Americans turned But the nonconformists were as MacDonald did in Leices- great direct inwards from the vainglorious to be disappointed clients of the ter, Snowden in Blackburn and imperialism of a ‘splendid little Liberal victory. In the longer Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil. But impact of war’ to political corruption and term, much the more significant too much has been made, in my social injustice at home. The great aspect was that the general elec- view, of excessive Liberal gener- the work- American ‘muckraking’ journal- tion marked the first great direct osity. With the growing strength ists and writers, like Lincoln Stef- impact of the working class in of Labour in 1903, with Arthur ing class fens, Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard British politics. Balfour saw the Henderson winning Barnard in British Baker or Upton Sinclair, paral- Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Castle against a Liberal, the Lib- leled the British journalism of Campbell-Bannerman, as ‘a mere eral whips had not much choice politics. exposure at the same period.

Journal of Liberal History 51 Summer 2006 33 1906: ‘blissful dawn’?

The brash façade of Edward- The victors of House of Lords as ‘five hundred it was conducted in the special ian baroque barely concealed this 1906: Campbell- ordinary men chosen at random circumstances of wartime.) Of anxiety. It was a time of explosive Bannerman, from amongst the unemployed’. course, there are clear differences. Asquith, Lloyd cultural and intellectual energy George, Hardie. There were highly personalised In 1997 Tony Blair emphasised that went far beyond the nation- attacks on Joseph Chamberlain personal leadership and the cult of alist confines of Elgar’s pomp and and ‘sleaze’ linked to the arms the ‘new’. His first major speech circumstance. Edwardian litera- deals of the South African War as party leader in 1994 used the ture was galvanised by social pro- – ‘While the Empire expands, the word ‘new’ thirty-seven times. test – especially with problems of Chamberlains contract’. There In 1906, by contrast, the Liberals the city and the status of women. were rhetorical attacks on ‘Rand- campaigned as a team, and took H. G. Wells is an outstanding lords’ and ‘Landlords’, and on the up distinctly Old Liberal themes example here in novels such as ‘small loaf’ that would result from – free trade, Little-Englandism, Tono Bungay, The New Machiavelli Tariff Reform. It was claimed the rights of nonconformity, the and Ann Veronica. Shaw, Galswor- that the Tories would drive us ‘“unholy trinity” of the bishop, thy and many others also illus- back to the Hungry Forties. the brewer and the squire’. trate the social concerns of the Most discreditable of all was the Again in 1997 the forty-four- Edwardians. It was also a heyday racism – the Liberals’ campaign year-old Tony Blair emphasised of the ‘higher journalism’ in the against ‘Chinese Slavery’ (inden- that he and his country were great weekly and fortnightly tured non-union Chinese work- ‘young’ (a theme now picked reviews and the national press. ers on the Rand) made much up by the forty-year-old David The ‘two Hobs’, Hobson and use of Oriental stereotypes. It Cameron). In 1906 the Prime Hobhouse, are the great exhibit chimed with trade-union fears of Minister, Campbell-Bannerman, here. J. A, Hobson, later to join capitalist bosses bringing in non- was sixty-nine and spent several the Labour Party but at the time unionised ‘free’ blackleg labour at weeks, if not months, of the year a leading New Liberal ideologue home and the role of freebooting taking the waters in the agree- much admired by Lenin, helped employers like the appalling Lord able German spa of Marienbad. to detach the idea of collectivism Penrhyn in his slate quarries in In fact, ‘C.B.’ was at first a force- and an empowering state from Caernarfonshire. ful and decisive leader. He led the tarnished creed of empire. So the election campaign his cabinet from the left of cen- L. T. Hobhouse, for many years a was not a model of moral recti- tre and with much confidence leader writer on C. P. Scott’s Man- tude. But it was also a great and – ‘if the tail is wagging the dog, chester Guardian, was a pioneer momentous event to which the party is the dog and I am the of modern sociology. It was the the historian should respond. It tail’. He crushed Balfour at the high noon for the political pub- embodied what Karl Marx called outset in debate in 1906 with his lic intellectual and man of letters. the sense of historic necessity. It is memorable rebuke, ‘Enough of Literary giants like John Morley, right that we should celebrate it this foolery’. He pushed for early James Bryce and Augustine Bir- tonight. Perhaps we shall celebrate self-government in South Africa rell were actually in the Liberal it again shortly when the statue of (in fact, a highly disadvantageous cabinet. The 401 Liberals MPs Lloyd George is placed next to move as far as the blacks of Cape included eminent authors like that of Winston Churchill in Par- Colony and Natal were con- Hilaire Belloc and A. E. W. Mason liament Square. Just as Churchill’s cerned, as Hardie and the Labour of Four Feathers fame, and the dis- statue was once targeted by anti- Party pointed out). He endorsed tinguished historian, G. P. Gooch, capitalist demonstrators, it is nice the Labour Party’s view on trade member for Bath. to think that Lloyd George’s may union reform, rather than the At the same time, we should be at some time by the pheasant- opinion of his own Attorney- not overdo the high-minded elit- shooting branches of the Coun- General. The result was the 1906 iism of the Liberal victory. There tryside Alliance. Trade Disputes Act, the so-called was also much low-level populism Are there similarities between Magna Carta of labour, guaran- in the Liberal campaign, long the election victories of 1906 and teeing them financial immunity before Lloyd George laid into the of 1997? (I set 1945 aside since from damages in industrial action

34 Journal of Liberal History 51 Summer 2006 1906: ‘blissful dawn’? and which, after being reinforced the great religious revival and also a convert to Anglicanism, Lloyd by Michael Foot at the employ- perhaps by the ever famous rugby George was a Campbellite Bap- ment department in 1974–5, victory over the New Zealand tist, an outsider in religion as in survived largely intact until the All Blacks at the Arms Park on 16 politics. There was also a much regime of Mrs Thatcher. December 1905, which evoked greater political gulf between But there were also clear simi- fanciful comparison with the them than between Blair and larities between 1906 and 1997. Welsh bowmen at Agincourt. Brown today, with Asquith the First, in each election there was Thirdly, both the Liberals and Liberal Imperialist in 1900 and a background of Conservative New Labour won three elec- Lloyd George the ‘pro-Boer’. division and decline. In the 1990s tions, the Liberals also winning But what a tremendous part- it was all about Europe. In 1906 both elections in 1910, though nership they were, and over so it was about Empire. The moral far more narrowly. They stayed in long a period! It is a great error to impetus of Empire was severely office as a single-party govern- read back the split between them diminished, as Kipling himself ment for nearly ten years, until the in 1916–18 to the pre-war years. pointed out. ‘Methods of bar- first wartime coalition emerged Lloyd George and Asquith were barism’, a phrase suggested to in May 1915. Both the Liberals in not Bevan and Gaitskell, still less Campbell-Bannerman by that 1906 and Labour in 1997 estab- Cain and Abel. Their great qualities wonderful woman, Emily Hob- lished not just a government but were complementary – Asquith house, who documented the a hegemony. judicious and clear-headed, Lloyd evils of the concentration camps And finally, both governments George charismatic and vision- in South Africa, created a new were dominated by two men. ary. Asquith foreshadowed his mood of revulsion, though it was Today it is Tony Blair and Gor- government’s reform programme the methods of the war rather don Brown. Then it was Her- while Chancellor with his budget than its ostensible purposes that bert Asquith and David Lloyd of 1907 and its new taxation of generated most criticism, unlike George. There were other big unearned incomes, and he also Iraq in 2003. In addition, Joseph figures in the 1906 government, introduced old age pensions, Chamberlain in 1903 destabi- of course: Sir Edward Grey, the which Lloyd George carried on lised his party with his crusade Foreign Secretary, R. B. Haldane, to the statute book. His famous for protective tariffs and impe- Secretary for War, John Morley, words, ‘wait and see’, implied a rial preference. In response, free Secretary for India. There were threat to his opponents, not a sym- trade, the gospel of Cobden and also one or two makeweights bol of indolence. In April 1908, Bright and Gladstone, embraced like ‘Lulu’ Harcourt and John when Campbell-Bannerman left the whole range of Liberal (and Burns. But Asquith and Lloyd office to die, and Asquith became Labour) values – cheap food and George were the giants. They Prime Minister and Lloyd George raw materials for consumers, full were certainly not socially or his Chancellor, the pace and tone employment for workers, a vision educationally on the same wave- of public life changed dramati- of world prosperity and peace. length. It was a contrast between cally. Asquith went along with all Secondly, in both 1906 and a wealthy product of City of Lloyd George’s radical reforms. 1997 there was a uniform swing London School and Balliol Col- They worked together in bril- all over the country. There was a lege, Oxford, and a relatively liant combination over the 1909 big swing to the Liberals in Lan- poor product of the shoemaker’s People’s Budget and the 1911 Par- cashire, which had been since the home in Llanystdumwy who liament Act which permanently 1870s a stronghold of Protestant never went to university and left clipped the powers of the Lords. Toryism. Even in Chamber- school at fourteen. This contrast is There was no serious political gulf lainite Birmingham, where all reflected in Roy Jenkins’s suitably Both the between them until the coming of the seats were just about held by patrician biography of Asquith, military conscription in the win- the Unionists, there was a 12 per the work of another Balliol man, Liberals in ter of 1915–16. The key moment cent swing. Fifteen of the twenty- of course. Asquith did not greatly came with the Marconi scan- two Unionist-held seats in Lon- like either Lloyd George himself 1906 and dal in 1912, when Lloyd George don were captured. Rural seats or the Welsh in general – ‘I would (along with Rufus Isaacs, shortly in England, hardly ever, or never, sooner go to hell than to Wales’ Labour to become Lord Chief Justice) Liberal before, were won. Celtic he once observed. L.G. would in 1997 was seen to have bought shares pluralism was much exploited. sometimes make derisive com- from a wireless telegraphy com- There were big Unionist losses in ment on Asquith’s addiction to established pany in contract with the Brit- Scotland, the one area to swing to brandy and women, though he ish government. Lloyd George, the government in the khaki elec- also spoke often with affection of not just who actually lost money on the tion of 1900. In Wales, there was a his old leader. As someone once Marconi shares transaction, could clean sweep, with the Conserva- said to me about another power- a govern- well have gone with ignominy. tives losing every seat, as in 1997 ful partnership, Jim Callaghan and ment but a But Asquith backed him up to and 2001. The Liberal cause here, Michael Foot, ‘they were not best the hilt. He fought Marconi hard as we have noted, was boosted by buddies’ personally. Asquith was hegemony. on totally partisan lines. Asquith

Journal of Liberal History 51 Summer 2006 35 1906: ‘blissful dawn’? wanted to remain Prime Minister, But in all other domestic areas, ­government finance, funding old he despised the Tories, he recog- the 1906 Liberals pressed on age pensions and the expensive nised Lloyd George as his greatest with the greater radicalism. They construction of Dreadnought asset, and he played to win. The had said very little about social battleships. But he also sought a Liberals, with their Labour and reform in the general election. new platform for social welfare in Irish allies, took a tough partisan But under Asquith’s regime from the long term. approach throughout (none more 1908 there was far more momen- He aimed boldly to seize the so than Lloyd George’s close ally, tum. Indeed, Asquith’s third term, initiative from the tariff reform- Winston Churchill) and Lloyd from December 1910, was actu- ers. On welfare, the Tories said that George survived, eventually to ally the most radical and effective ‘the foreigner will pay’ through supplant Asquith himself. Nor since it saw, among other things, tariffs being levied, an idea which were Lloyd George’s sexual pec- the passage of both the Parliament Churchill effectively ridiculed. cadillos a political problem; in any Act and the National Insurance Lloyd George, and his radical case, Asquith, with his remarkably Act in 1911. This radical impetus journalist friends, replied that ‘the frank disclosures to Lady Venetia was almost wholly due to David rich will pay’, echoing the egali- Stanley, was hardly less vulnerable Lloyd George. He had little to say tarian argument of Leo Chiozza on that ground himself. Tabloid on social matters in 1906 and the Money’s Riches and Poverty (1905). revelations belonged to a later age. Labour leader reasonably observed There was, therefore, a commit- There was one great difference that he had ‘no settled opinions’ ment to redistribution through the between the two governments of on them at the time. He told the taxation system, unusual, almost 1906 and 1997. Gordon Brown Welsh National Liberal Federation unique, in our history. Its new has said: ‘We are at our best when then that the workers were quite direct taxes, not the land taxes, we are boldest’. In fact, on most as much interested in church dis- were the most important feature of issues, the government of 1906 establishment and temperance and his 1909 People’s Budget. He and was much the bolder, almost reck- land reform as they were in social Churchill, with other colleagues, lessly so. Setting Iraq on one side, reform. But by the summer of pressed on with labour exchanges the Blair government has clearly 1908 there was a mighty change, for the labour market, trade boards been the bolder on overall consti- and he transformed the public for ‘sweated’ trades, a minimum tutional policy, with Lord Irvine’s agenda. He had until the end of wage for miners and others, and influence of central importance. There was 1910 a tremendous ally in Winston policies for children in relation to Both governments had to grapple one great Churchill, almost his disciple and health and nutrition. with the problem of the House a humane and reforming Home Above all there was his epoch- of Lords. Asquith in 1911 lim- difference Secretary with a keen interest in making National Insurance Act ited the powers of the Lords over such unfashionable topics as prison of 1911, a comprehensive system delaying or blocking government between reform and the treatment of juve- of health insurance and a prepara- measures, but ignored its com- niles. But most of Asquith’s gov- tory system of unemployment position. (Lloyd George actually the two ernment – McKenna, Runciman, insurance. It aroused controversy feared a remodelled House of govern- Simon, Harcourt, various peers – – Labour members like Hardie Lords dominated by the reaction- were pretty much of a dead loss on and Lansbury did not endorse its ary ‘glorified grocers’ of Liberal- ments of social welfare. Lloyd George stood contributory method and called ism.) Tony Blair’s government alone as a unique link between the it a poll tax. But it offered a new has done the reverse. Overall, 1906 and Old Liberalism of civic equality vision of social policy, indeed of Labour since 1997 has had a far and the New Liberalism of social social citizenship, and it was the more sweeping programme of 1997 … reform. He alone recognised the launch pad of Attlee’s welfare reform, especially over Scottish on most need for more radical momentum state forty years later. and Welsh devolution. In 1906 and the ways in which this might This was a distinguished, if devolution was not significantly issues, the be achieved. angry and often confused, phase on the agenda: though a Scottish The turning point was his visit of policy-making. Of course, spin- home rule bill did make sluggish govern- to Germany in August 1908 to doctors and media figures were in progress, the main emphasis was look at Bismarckian welfare pro- Downing Street in 1911 as they on working through an expanded ment of grammes (a great episode, to be were in 1997 – Lloyd George, Scottish Office. In Wales, the 1906 was contrasted with his catastrophic with his close links with editors main theme was disestablishment later visit to Germany in 1936 to and journalists in Fleet Street, of the Church of England, but much the see Hitler at Berchtesgaden). In was the most media-conscious (unlike Ireland in 1869) disestab- the autumn and winter of 1908– figure of his time. But there were lishment was an alternative to bolder, 09 he discussed a planned strategy also great intellectuals and plan- home rule, not a precursor to it. with Churchill and C. F. G. Mas- ners like Seebohm Rowntree, the Welsh and Scottish national senti- almost terman, author of The Condition Webbs and William Beveridge, a ment focused on greater equality recklessly of England. There was an imme- key man in the agenda for social within the Empire, not exclusion diate need to deal with a finan- policy in 1908 as he was to be so from it, as was the case in Ireland. so. cial shortfall – a crisis in local memorably in 1945.

36 Journal of Liberal History 51 Summer 2006 1906: ‘blissful dawn’? There was something else ally the child of Edwardian pro- There was were serious losses to the Con- underlying Edwardian progres- gressivism. With Addison, Lloyd servatives, or Ratepayers, in local sivism and Lloyd George’s poli- George worked on areas left out plenty of government such as the seri- cies – fear of Labour. After all, the in earlier social reform measures ous loss of the London County Liberals were capitalists, for all – education, including technical energy Council by the Progressives in their humanity. They were backed education, housing reform, the 1907. Arguments for traditional by coal-owners and ship-own- rural poor, and extending health within the free trade would be harder to ers and textile magnates. They centres in a way that might have government sustain as the economy changed feared the long violent strikes of anticipated Nye Bevan’s National and relied less on exporting sta- 1910–12 with the use of military Health Service. He told Addison down to the ple industries like coal, textiles and the loss of life in places like they should dream dreams, though and shipbuilding. Nonconform- Tonypandy and Llanelli. There base them on existing realities. The late spring ity, even to a degree in Wales, was was an underlying fear of the government’s ninth year in power now something of a fading force. growth of trade union power was one of its most creative. of 1914. More generally, Liberals, cham- anyway, violent or not. This was George Dangerfield’s famous Lloyd pions of the free market, could a great worry for the Labour book, The Strange Death of Liberal not ultimately accommodate the Party too. Keir Hardie himself, England, has seen this government George’s politics of class. always on the left, urged that they as fundamentally doomed. Cer- But these things hadn’t hap- should use the state, not destroy it. tainly it was brought to a shud- 1914 pened yet. The Tories under Even so, accommodating Labour, dering halt by the advent of war. Bonar Law might have been through protecting the unions’ Dangerfield, however, highlights budget, favourites to win a 1915 general political levy, the payment of domestic issues – the campaign with its election, but they still had their MPs, a miners’ minimum wage of the suffragettes for votes for troubles over food taxes and Irish and other measures, was a contin- women, the great labour ‘unrest’, rating of home rule. The Liberals’ elec- uing priority for the Liberal gov- the crisis over Ireland. His book toral pact with Labour was still in ernment. Lloyd George declared is brilliantly written and highly site values being and there were even sug- that if they did not continue to entertaining. But very few his- gestions that Ramsay MacDonald promote an advanced social pro- torians pay much heed to its and higher might enter a Liberal govern- gramme, they would play into the argument now. The suffragettes direct ment. There was still a mood of hands of the socialists of the ILP. were surely declining in political prosperity and peace. The econ- At any rate, there was plenty impact in 1914 through their own taxes, was omy looked robust with 1913 a of energy within the government divisions, even if things would particularly strong year for coal down to the late spring of 1914. change fundamentally later on. the most and record exports from Cardiff Lloyd George’s 1914 budget, with The industrial relations troubles and Newcastle. There had been its rating of site values and higher seemed even more a problem radical and no war. The 1906 Liberal gov- direct taxes, was the most radical for the Labour Party, commit- redistribu- ernment had not invaded other and redistributive of the lot. It ran ted as it was to constitutional- countries. Lloyd George was still into severe procedural difficulties ism, and were anyhow petering tive of the their greatest asset, still dominat- in the Commons which dented out in 1914. Irish home rule was ing political life. his reputation as a minister, but undoubtedly intractable, perhaps lot. At the Mansion House on 17 it still emerged as a bold, redis- insoluble, an abiding commit- July 1914, two and a half weeks tributive measure which focused ment for Lloyd George thereafter, after the assassination at Sara- on the unearned income and the until he achieved the longest-last- jevo, he spoke of the world scene residual estates of the rich, idle ing settlement there in the Irish with guarded optimism: ‘the sky and otherwise. He continued to Free State treaty worked out with has never seemed more relatively work with radicals like Master- Sinn Fein in December 1921. blue’. Eighteen days later, Britain man, C. R. Buxton and C. P. Scott, In the long term, in my view, engaged in a world war, following editor of the Manchester Guard- Edwardian Liberalism was likely the invasion of Belgium. Progres- ian. Seebohm Rowntree was his to decline. The electorate was sive Liberal England suddenly col- great intellectual policy adviser. going to expand, bringing many lapsed for ever. The Liberals were An important political ally was Dr more poorer voters on to the to be a supreme casualty of total Christopher Addison, a famous register along with all women, war. No longer would they be a university medical professor in and this might well have disad- party of power. It would never be earlier life, along with Addison’s vantaged the Liberals fatally. They glad, confident morning again. fellow East End MP, William were already struggling politically. Wedgwood Benn, father of Tony Their tally of seats had fallen from Lord Kenneth Morgan has been one of Benn, of course. Both later joined 401 to 272 by the end of 1910 and Britain’s leading modern historians for the Labour Party. If one considers by-elections had reduced it fur- over thirty years, and is known espe- Isaac Foot alongside Wedgwood ther since then. No one much cially for his writing on Welsh history, Benn, it may indeed be seen how suggested PR then – usually the Lloyd Geroge and the Labour Party; the modern Labour left was liter- demand of losing parties. There he was made a life peer in 2000.

Journal of Liberal History 51 Summer 2006 37