Founding the Welfare State Many Nineteenth- Century Liberals Had

Founding the welfare state least accountability) it became Fringe meeting, 14 September 2008, with Ian Packer and possible for Liberals to imagine Joe Harris; Chair: Lady Jane Bonham Carter it as a liberating influence. Lib- eral thinkers, most famously L. Report by Graham Lippiatt T. Hobhouse and J. A. Hobson, started to promote the ‘New Liberalism’, with social reform hundred years ago, in accrue more credit for the pol- added to the list of traditional 1908, the Liberal govern- icy than he was entitled to. Liberal demands, like democ- A ment of Herbert Henry Dr Ian Packer of Lincoln racy, religious equality and Asquith introduced the Old Age University (author of Liberal Irish home rule. They painstak- Pensions Bill. This was just the Government and Politics, 1905–15) ingly demonstrated that social beginning of a comprehensive delivered a broad overview of reform was merely an extension Liberal programme of social the social welfare legislation of existing Liberal precepts, reform including national insur- enacted by Asquith’s govern- entirely compatible with Liberal ance, minimum wages, labour ment between 1908 and 1914, ideas and language. Moreover exchanges and compulsory and its significance in the Liberals were starting to think school meals, amongst much administration’s programme. about ways in which rising else. Was this programme evi- Social reform as an agenda for government expenditure might dence that nineteenth-century central government was the be paid for. Their determina- notions of the minimal state outcome of the breakdown of tion to preserve free trade ruled had finally been abandoned, the mid-Victorian idea of the out the Tory solution of taxes or was it an attempt to counter minimal state, embodied in the on imports. This left the party the challenge of the emerging concepts of low taxation and with no option but to defend Labour movement? the least possible government increases in direct taxation, Lady Jane Bonham Carter interference in society and the especially on the very wealthy, introduced the meeting with economy. In the 1880s and 1890s as the fairest way to raise rev- a plea for the role of Prime the dominance of this idea was enue – a policy first seen in Sir Minister H. H. Asquith (her increasingly challenged as it William Harcourt’s budget of great-grandfather) to be given became clear that the minimal 1894, which consolidated and its proper recognition by his- state could not solve a wide graduated death duties. tory. The Old Age Pensions range of problems, including However, while increased Act of 1908 had become linked an economy that was falling direct taxes might provide the in the popular mind with the behind major international Many means to pay for social reform, work and personality of David competitors, the spiralling cost the abstract arguments of think- Lloyd George; it was enacted of national defence and the per- nineteenth- ers like Hobhouse and Hob- soon after Lloyd George became sistence of poverty in what was, century son did not commit a Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer comparatively, a very wealthy government to any particular and has been widely seen as society. Tories turned to impe- Liberals had course of action and did not a prelude to the other social rialism and taxes on imports determine the form or timing reforms heralded in and paid to promote economic growth. been hostile of legislation in 1905–14. In fact for by Lloyd George’s People’s The Labour and socialist move- there were three distinct waves Budget of 1909. Indeed, a col- ments argued for measures like to the state of Cabinet initiatives on social loquial term for being in receipt the eight-hour day as solutions because they reform in this period, the first of the pension was ‘being on to unemployment and poverty. of which was largely a response the Lloyd George’. As Bonham The trend towards collectivism saw it as to the political agenda that had Carter reminded the meeting, was reflected in many areas of built up in the previous decade however, it was Asquith who, thought, including sociology, controlled of Tory government. Its centre- as Chancellor in 1906–08, had philosophy and theology, so piece was undoubtedly the Old been the driving force behind it was unsurprising that it also by a nar- Age Pensions Act of 1908. There the championing of pensions by became a feature of Liberalism. row clique had been discussion around the the Liberal government and it Many nineteenth-century feasibility of a scheme of state was Asquith who, although by Liberals had been hostile to who acted pensions since the 1870s, but, now Prime Minister, piloted the state because they saw it as ironically, pensions had become the 1908 budget, in which pen- controlled by a narrow clique in their own a front-rank political issue only sions were introduced, through who acted in their own and not when Joseph Chamberlain had the House of Commons. Lloyd the wider public interest. But as and not the taken them up during the 1895 George handled the separate the extension of the franchise wider public general election on behalf of the legislation on pensions later in brought the state increasingly Tories; and the Liberal govern- 1908 and, as a result, began to under popular control (or at interest. ment’s pensions legislation was 40 Journal of Liberal History 61 Winter 2008–09 REPORTS at least partly a rebuff to the What was legislation was more limited: it Churchill. The key to their ideas Tories for not introducing pen- was either non-controversial, was National Insurance. Lloyd sions during their term of office. crucial about like the provision of school George’s experience of piloting Pensions, though, were prob- the Pensions meals, which had passed the the pensions legislation through ably not a response to Liberals’ Commons in 1905 in the last the Commons had convinced fears about the appearance of Act was its year of the Unionist govern- him that social reform made the the Labour Party, which won 29 ment; or it was the result of party popular and stimulated his seats in 1906. Labour fought that introduction pressure group activity such as interest in schemes to provide election largely in alliance with the extended 1906 Workmen’s sickness benefits for widows and the Liberals and the party was of impor- Compensation Act, a concession orphans. Lloyd George was also already in favour of pensions, tant new to lobbying from the TUC, the convinced that future schemes an idea endorsed by 59 per cent maximum eight-hour day for could not be financed out of of Liberal candidates in 1906. principles in miners in 1908, prized by the general taxation alone. National Asquith had promoted the idea coal miners’ unions, then still a Insurance was devised by the of pensions well before Labour welfare leg- powerful force within the Lib- Welshman and his eclectic group won two by-elections from the eral Party, and the Trade Boards of advisers as a way of spread- Liberals in 1907 at Jarrow and islation, prin- Act of 1909, which set mini- ing the cost between the state, Colne Valley, so fear of Labour ciples the mum wages in four areas of, employers and employees. Under does not seem to have been a mainly female, home-working, what became the National Insur- significant factor in the genesis Liberals were which was the outcome of vig- ance Act of 1911 everyone in of pensions. What was crucial orous lobbying by the National work earning under £160 pa about the Pensions Act was its to develop Anti-Sweating League. This was compulsorily enrolled in a introduction of important new certainly did not amount to state scheme, in which they paid principles in welfare legislation, further – a coordinated programme, 4d a week, their employers 3d a principles the Liberals were to particularly though it did establish some week and the state 2d a week, in develop further – particularly important, if limited, prec- return for the right to sickness the idea that welfare provision the idea that edents – especially in the case benefit. This ingenious scheme should be separated from the of the Trade Boards Act, which made use of the insurance prin- Poor Law and given to recipi- welfare pro- created Britain’s first modern ciple that was already familiar ents as a right, rather than the regulation of wages. to millions of people and of the humiliating and grudging relief vision should At the elections of January expertise of existing friendly given to paupers. be separated and December 1910, pensions societies who would administer It was the perceived popular- were the only social policy hav- it. In some ways, Lloyd George ity of pensions and the advan- from the ing a prominent role, being was just extending and subsidis- tage they gave in the battle with mentioned by 75 per cent of ing existing forms of insurance the Tories that allowed Liberals Poor Law Liberal candidates in their provision. But to be successful it to regard themselves as a party election addresses. But even had to be compulsory, making particularly associated with and given to they were outstripped by other it a massive advance in the state’s social reform. This process was recipients issues. In January 1910 the fate role in welfare provision; and, as hastened once pensions became of the House of Lords, free trade with pensions, it rested on rights entwined with Lloyd George’s as a right, and the 1909 Budget were all and entitlements to relief. People ‘People’s Budget’ of 1909 and mentioned more often than received benefits on the grounds the constitutional struggle rather than pensions by Liberal candidates; that they were part of, and had between the Lords and Com- in December 1910 these issues contributed to, an insurance mons which followed when the the humili- were joined by defence and scheme.

Load more