Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 Jon Lawrence Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-47034-6 - Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 Jon Lawrence Frontmatter More information

Speaking for the people asks us to think again about the role of party in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century popular politics. By focusing critical attention on the problematic nature of politicians' claims to represent others, it challenges conventional ideas about both the rise of class politics and the triumph of party between I867 and I9I4. Popular Toryism, the problems of Liberal unity and the growth of Labour are all examined from fresh perspectives. The book emphasises the strongly gendered nature of party politics before the First World War, and sug• gests that historians have greatly underestimated the continuing impor• tance of the 'politics of place'. Most importantly, however, Speaking for the people argues that we must break away from teleological notions such as the 'modernisation' of politics, the taming of the 'popular', or the rise of class. Only then will we understand the shifting currents of popular politics. The book as a whole represents a major challenge to the ways in which historians and political scientists have studied the interaction between party politics and popular political cultures.

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-47034-6 - Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 Jon Lawrence Frontmatter More information

Speaking for the people

Speaking for the people Party, language and popular politics in England, 1867-1914

Jon Lawrence University of Liverpool

UCAMBRIDGE :> UNIVERSITY PRESS

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First published 1998 First paperback edition 2002

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library 0f Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Lawrence, Jon. Speaking for the people: party, language, and popular politics in England, 1867-1914/ Jon Lawrence. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 47034 X 1. Great Britain – Politics and government –1837–1901. 2. English language – Political aspects – Great Britain. 3. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1901–1936. 4. Political parties – Great Britain – History. 5. Popular culture – Great Britain – History. 6. Political oratory – Great Britain. I. Title. DA560.L29 1998 324’.0941’09034-dc21 97-30166 CIP

isbn 978-0-521-47034-6 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-89366-4 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter.

To Ronald John Lawrence born Bristol, 14 November 1926 and Doreen May Lawrence born Bristol, 8 May 1927

Contents

List offigures and tables page X Acknowledgements Xl Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 1

Part I Rethinking popular politics

1 From the rise of 'demos' to the 'rise of class' II

2 Working-class homogeneity reconsidered 26 3 Relocating popular politics 41

Part II A local study: WolverhaInpton, c. 1860-1914

4 Liberal hegemony and its critics 73 5 Popular Toryism and the origins of Labour politics 99 6 Labour and the working class, 1890-1914 128

Part III Party gaInes, 1885-1914 7 Popular politics and the limitations of party 163 8 The fall and rise of popular Liberalism, 1886-I906 194 9 Labour roots, Labour voices, Labour myths Conclusion

Bibliography 268 Index 276

Figures

Figure 4.1 The three-tier structure of the 1871 Wolverhampton page Liberal Association. 89 Figure 6.1 Average Labour vote at Wolverhampton municipal elections, 1896-1914 (by ward). 130 Figure 6.2 The distribution of pre-war Labour addresses (by ward). 131 Figure 6.3 Wolverhampton districts used in the analysis of sampled 1881 census enumerators' returns. 133

Tables Table 4.1 Winning party and percentage majority at Wolverhampton Parliamentary elections, 1885-1910. 75 Table 6.1 The distribution of the Wolverhampton 1881 census sample and proportion of male manual workers by district. 135 Table 6.2 An analysis of employment patterns among Wolverhampton male workers, by district (1881). 136 Table 6.3 Mixed manual/non-manual households by district, Wolverhampton 1881. 138 Table 9.1 The proportion of Labour and Liberal-Labour MPs born locally, and living locally, in 1906. 23 2 Table 9.2 'Demographic stability' and the incidence oflabour candidacies before the First World War. 244 Table 9.3 The changing strength of Conservatism in the English regions (percentage of contests won). 246 Table 9.4 The impact of Labour and socialist candidacies on partisanship in three-party contests in England, 1900-1914. 248

Acknowledgements

This book has been a long time in the making. When I began working on English popular politics Margaret Thatcher had only just won her second term, John Major was a nobody (no change there), and Tony Blair was little more than a child. Almost a decade and a half later I would like to take this opportunity to thank friends and colleagues who have helped me to think through the problems addressed in this book. Particular mention must go to Steve Tolliday, Alastair Reid, Martin Daunton and Pat Thane for the generous way they encouraged and supported me at times during the 1980s when my confidence was so low that teacher training (or even the City) seemed preferable to a jobless future in academia. Like most historians of my generation I have enjoyed a variety of institutional homes over the past decade: King's College, Cambridge, the Institute of Historical Research, the Cambridge History Faculty, East London Polytechnic (as was), University College London, and since October 1993 the History Department at Liverpool. At each I have found a pleasant, supportive environment in which to undertake my research. No less importantly, during these years of semi-nomadism I have learned much from arguing through my obsessions and my hunches with fellow historians. It is this, rather than dry days in dusty archives, which makes history fun for me - so thanks again to Sally Alexander, Eugenio Biagini, Peter Claus, Krista Cowman, David Feldman, Steve Fielding, Jon Fulcher, Ewen Green, Adrian Gregory, David Jarvis, Paul Johnson, Patrick Joyce, Ross McKibbin, Jon Parry, Jean-Louis Robert, Mike Savage, John Shaw, Nick Stargardt, Duncan Tanner, Deborah Thorn, Amanda Vickery and Jay Winter. Since I would hate anyone to send me a whole manuscript to read (publishers offering decent fees excepted), I have resisted the temptation of boosting 'Parcel Farce' profits by posting Speaking for the people to every corner of the globe for feedback. I am, however, very grateful to John Belchem, Andy Davies, James Vernon and Andy Wood for taking the time to read and comment upon individual chapters. Two people have read substantial chunks of the text and deserve special mention. Miles Taylor,

xii Acknowledgements

always the sharpest (and therefore the most useful) of critics, read the whole of Part III, helping me greatly to tighten up its arguments. Jane Elliott, no less stern a critic, has read most chapters while they were still hot from the printer, and her influence on Speaking for the people has been profound. Finally, I must thank Gareth Stedman Jones, my supervisor in the 1980s, and always an inspiring influence. Many institutions and their staff have been kind enough to help facili• tate the research for this volume, and I am pleased to be able to record my sincere thanks to them. Special thanks must go to the hard-worked staff of Wolverhampton Reference Library, who must have grown sick of the sight of me during the mid-1980s, and to Liz Rees in particular, then borough archivist at Wolverhampton, who was always both helpful and informative. The staff of Cambridge University Library have always dis• played a similar faultless professionalism, and I must thank them for making the UL such a pleasant place to work. I must also thank the archivists and staff of the following institutions for allowing me to consult manuscript material in their possession: the British Library of Political and Economic Science, Bristol University Library (Special Collections), the British Library Manuscript Reading Room, the Bishopsgate Institute, and the Club and Institute Union, and the staff at the many other libraries where I have worked over the past fourteen years including the Sydney Jones Library (Liverpool), Birmingham Reference Library, Birmingham University Library, the John Rylands Library (Manchester University), the British Newspaper Library (Colindale), the Senate House Library (London), Manchester Central Library, and the Modern Records Centre (Warwick). I would also like to acknowledge the financial support I have received while undertaking my research. Particular mention must go to the British Academy, for granting me a state studentship in the 1980s, and then a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at University College London during 1992-93, and to Jay Winter for understanding that a 'research assistant' should not be a research slave. I would also like to acknowledge Liverpool University's Research Development Fund for funding the analyses of urban election results referred to in Chapter 8. Finally, I would like to thank Richard Fisher for his faith in the project and his patience in seeing it through to completion. Liverpool July 1997

Abbreviations

ASE Amalgamated Society of Engineers BL British Library BLPES British Library of Political and Economic Science CCSR Centre for Census and Survey Research CIU Club and Institute Union CUL Cambridge University Library GWR Great Western Railway ILP Independent Labour Party LCC London County Council LRC Labour Representation Committee NAC National Administrative Council (ILP) NEC National Executive Committee (Labour) NUBSO National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives NUC National Union of Clerks PLP Parliamentary Labour Party RCA Railway Clerks Association SDF Social Democratic Federation SDP Social Democratic Party TUC Trades Union Congress WRL Wolverhampton Reference Library

xiii