Many Liberal Democrats quote wisdom from the Liberals. In the Introduction of the Orange Book Paul Marshall reflects on the Liberals. When we refer to the Liberal Party and the 19th Century there seems to be a feeling of 'the good times'. But I'm not convinced that's the whole truth.
I'm sure you all know how the Liberals formed, they came about from the Whigs and Radicals.
The Gladstonian era is known for Classic Liberalism. It saw the Liberals (who were reformists) wanting to decrease the powers of the monarchy and church of England and increase reform in voting. None of which the conservatives wanted. However of course this reform was still extremely slow taking another century until there was proper voting rights. Gladstone did some good stuff, he made land reform in Ireland (stopping land oppression), disbanded the Anglican Church in Ireland and he brought about democracy in Ireland as well as increasing voter rights. However he didn't oppose imperialism and supported the British invasion of Egypt. Gladstone stood up against Disraeli's pro-Ottoman stance (a bit like Brown's pro-Saudi stance) and won an election on that. He stood up for Irish Home Rule, but many Liberal Unionist turned against him. The Liberals stood up for free trade when the Conservatives wanted protectionism. A certain level of wisdom can be drawn up from it. But the Liberals didn't have any big social policies in the 19th Century. Poverty was severe, conditions were horrific. People were mistreated and over worked in factories for little pay. The inequalities were sickly. The Classic Liberalism of the 19th Century lacked Social Liberalism.
Change did start to come in the 19th Century. The Boer War split the party between pro-Imperialists and pro-Boers. David Lloyd George rose as a pro-Boer. The Liberals pushed through legislation in the Liberal Reforms. Lloyd George was Chancellor under the People's Budget. Finally new Liberalism or Social Liberalism had been founded, but it had taken far too long.
It was the Liberals who actually took us into WW1. WW1 was caused by states lack of relations. In the process to war the alliances between countries made it clear what the World was stepping into. The Liberals didn't do anything about it. So millions died in the horrors of WW1. It could have been avoided with appropriate diplomacy. You could argue they didn't know what they were going into. But World leaders at that time thought they would win and didn't realise what horrors would happen.
In the 1918 General Election Lloyd George promised he would make Germany pay and the Liberals won their last term in power. At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 Lloyd George knew that a stronger Germany would be better for the whole European Economy, so he didn't want heavy reparations on Germany. He did want the navy decreased to keep Britain as ruler of the waves however. But promising to make Germany pay was at the back of his head. He allowed one of the worst peace settlements ever to be signed, the Treaty of Versailles. The reparations crippled an already weakened German economy, economic crisis Hyperinflation (1924) and the Depression in Germany (1929-1933)followed leaving people starving and with horrific conditions. Land and colonies were stripped away from Germany cutting off German people and encouraging nationalism. Germany was aloud only a small army so it was weak to the French. The Treaty of Versailles is one of the greatest shames on the Liberal Party.
We can be proud of the Free Trade, democratic reforms and eventually social reforms.
However we should remember that the reforms took ages until made. We must remember WW1 and we must remember the Treaty of Versailles.
Labour tried to wipe out the Liberals, they hung on until the 60s when there was revival.
What I think is important for us to remember though is that the Liberals didn't just simply change their name to the Liberal Democrats, we must remember the role of the Social Democratic Party.
So yes we can quote wisdom from the Liberal Party, there are some great quotes out there:
"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear." William Gladstone
"This, Mr. Emmot, is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness" Lloyd George 1909.
However I don't think we should hold the Liberal Party in such high esteem reflecting on 'the good times'. Yes the Liberal Party did great things, things the conservatives would have stopped and made Britain a worse place. However the Liberal Party had many failures and many mistakes.
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Why do we hold the old Liberal Party in such high esteem?
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6 comments:
you should never forget your roots, yes the Liberal party was great and yes it had its downfalls, that is common knowledge. What do you suggest? Nu-Labour style spin to cover up our history and try and erase the past, or a Liberal approach of trying to prevent our past errors from occurring again?
No I suggest aknowledging the wrongdoing of the Liberal Party and accepting we are not the Liberal Party we are the Liberal Democrats.
For a compelling look at the Treaty of Versailles and ITS impact through today's world, DO have a look at my fascinating new book, "A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today" [www.ashatteredpeace.com] just published by Wiley and available at Amazon.com or most bookstores !
Best,
David A. Andelman
david@ashatteredpeace.com
Alasdair I think as you read more deeply into the history of Liberalism you will find there is a lot of social liberalism there as well.
Factory Reform, Abolition of Slavery, Poor Law Reform etc are amongst a number of social reforms brought about by the Whigs and Liberals of the 19th Century.
You also have to consider thebase they were starting from.
The of course moved into Old Age Pensions, Welfare State etc at the start of the 20th Century again introduced by the Liberals.
Of course there is more of a Liberal history for our party to grasp the good lesson of than the Social Democrat history but both do have their place.
Blimey I was expecting you to get a torrent of abuse for claiming the Liberals last won an election in 1918. Most analysts would not claim the Lloyd-George led but Tory dominated 'Coupon Coalition' was the successor of the pre-war Liberal Party.
It is right not to judge the policies of the C19th against the conditions of today so you shouldnt read too much into policies that dont match up against today's manifesto (although I never tire of reminding Tories that it was their party which backed the last army insurrection against a democratically elected government - the Curragh Mutiny).
Broadly, the politics of most of the C19th was essentially a contest between the interests of land and the interests of capital since the classes representing these interests were the only ones with the vote. As the electorate expanded it was an open question whether newly enfranchised labour would be better off with land owners who were inclined towards protection or employers who were inclined towards free-trade and cheap bread (a number of significant reforms, including some mentioned by Stephen Glenn here, were actually championed by Tories).
Social reformers won the battle within the Liberal Party which led to a decade or more of co-operation with the Labour Party until the Liberals smashed themselves to pieces over war and the egos of Lloyd George and Asquith. The Liberals became more radical as more of the aristocratic elements that sustained it in the C19th drifted off to the Tories as the Liberals adopted social reform (and more particularly the taxes that went with it).
The moral of the tale - politics is very much a reflection of the conditions of the time. But our history and our Great Men (sadly they usually were men) give us the touch-stones against which we measure our principles and policies. Otherwise we would all end up in one big party arguing over minor details of the same policies.
ed - I think they had to be men, women couldn't be in Parliament at the time, but lets not forget Shirley!
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