Lloyd George’s next reform was the 1911 National Insurance Act. This gave the working classes the first contributionary system of insurance against illness and unemployment. All wage earners between sixteen and seventy had to join and would contribute 4d per week and the employer added 3d per week and the State added 2d a week. In return the employee would receive free medical assistance including medicine been given and those who contributed would be guaranteed 7s per week fifteen weeks in any one year, when unemployed. Lloyd George was seen as a socialist and was heavily influenced by Fabian Society pamphlets on social reform by Beatrice Webb, Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw. When in opposition, Lloyd George had been a supporter of women’s rights and upset members of the NUWSS and the WSPU, by doing little to aid them. This in turn led to many activists leaving the Liberal Party. In July 1912, Christabel Pankhurst decided to organize a secret arson campaign. Lloyd George was one of their targets and they successfully burnt down a house that was being built for him.
At the end of July 1914 the British Government had realized that they were on the brink of war with Germany. Four senior members of the British Government were fully opposed to England being involved in any European War. They were Lloyd George, Charles Trevely, John Burns and John Morley. Herbert Asquith, Prime minister, was informed and the three of the four government members had resigned as planned. The only member who did not resign of the four members was Lloyd George because Herbert Asquith had persuaded him not to. The progressive wing of the Liberal Party was quite disappointed with Lloyd George’s decision not to oppose the country’s involvement in the First World War. It soon emerged that Lloyd George would become one of the main figures in the government who was willing to escalate the war in an effort to bring a quick victory over Germany. At the beginning of World War I, Lloyd George, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, secured Britain's credit and placed the country in a financial position strong enough to endure the war.
When, in 1915, the war appeared to be going badly and the government asked Lloyd George to become Minister of Munitions. The coalition government was very impressed with Lloyd George’s abilities as a war minister and began to question Asquith’s leadership of the country during the crisis. In December 1916, David Lloyd George agreed to collaborate with the conservatives in the cabinet to remove Herbert Asquith. Lloyd George, who in 1916 upset some radicals by not opposing conscription in 1916, was now in overall charge of the war effort. However, Lloyd George was having difficulty controlling the tactics used by his generals on the Western front but he had more success with the Navy when he persuaded them to use the convoy system to ensure adequate imports of food and military supplies. Lloyd George then received a lot of credit for Britain’s eventual victory over the Triple Alliance.
Lloyd George’s decision to join the Conservatives in removing Herbert Asquith in 1916 split the Liberal Party. In the 1918 General election, many Liberals supported candidates who remained loyal to Asquith. Despite this, Lloyd George’s coalition group won 459 seats and had a large majority of the Labour Party and members of the Liberal Party that supported Asquith. In 1918, in East Fife, Herbert Asquith had lost his seat to William Wedgewood Benn who led the groups that were opposed to Lloyd George’s government. John Benn, who was also opposed to Lloyd George, gave the new group the name, Wee Frees, after a small group of Free Church of Scotland members who refused to accept the union of their church with the United Presbyterian Church. During the 1918 General elections campaign, Lloyd George promised comprehensive reforms o all with education, housing, health and transport. However, he was now a prisoner of the Conservative Party who had no desire to introduce these reforms. Lloyd George endured three years of frustration before the Conservative members of his cabinet ousted him from power. For the next twenty years, David Lloyd George continued to campaign for progressive causes without a political party to support him, he was never to hold power again. During the 1920’s Lloyd George produced several reports on how Britain could be improved.
Lloyd George attended the Paris Peace Conference and had great success yet while this was occurring there was economic shock back home in England. Lloyd returned home to a civilian life. While in 1920 in Ireland there are plans on an Irish Free State due to the violence there. After the armistice, he participated in the peace conference and helped frame the Treaty of Versailles. In 1920 he introduced the Home Rule Bill for Ireland; largely through his efforts the Irish State was established. The Conservatives withdrew from his coalition government in 1922 in protest against Irish home rule and support by Britain of Greece against Turkey; Lloyd George resigned, and a general election was called in which the Conservatives were elected to power. Lloyd George was reelected to Parliament from his borough and was leader of the opposition until 1931. He was made an earl shortly before his death on March 26, 1945.
What skills did you learn?
1. How to use Windows 98 + Microsoft Word.
2. How to find information in the local + school library and on the Internet.
3. How to write an historic essay on L.C. standards
Horrocks, S. (1998), David Lloyd George, University of Wales Press, UK.
Rintala, M. (1995), Lloyd George and Churchill : How Friendship changed politics, Madison Books Inc.,UK
Packer, I. (1999), Lloyd George (British History in perspective), St. Martins Press.
Shearman, D. (1989), David Lloyd George, Chelsea House, US.
O’Conaill, S. (1996), David Lloyd George and the partitioning of Ireland, North Eastern Educ. & Lib. Board, Ire