The 1906 Election

The results of the Election in a nutshell…
1. The Liberals won with 377 seats, winning 48.9% of the Great British vote, beating the Conservatives (157 seats, 43.42%), the Irish Parliarment (82 seats 0.63%), and Labour (29 seats, 4.85%).
2. This was known as the “biggest landslide election” in British history as the Liberals outlasted the Conservatives after a running Tory victory, and also by a large result.
3. The Liberals at the time were led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who managed to pull together what is still regarded today as a government of exceptional quality and outstanding ability.
So, how did the Liberals win?
1. Balfour’s (Conservative) flaws and mistakes. The Conservatives were also seen to be tired from the social relating issues that Balfour was struggling with.
2. Campbell-Bannerman successfully managing to lead and develop the Liberal party, - he entered the election with an impressive cabinet line up.
3. Campbell-Bannerman succeeded in working on new reforms to appeal to wide masses of British people – mainly focussing on the issues evolving around the Empire and the citizens of Britain. Henry Campbell-Bannerman was considered by.
4. Anthony Wood: “Few Cabinets have been so outstanding as the one that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was able to form on Balfour’s resignation”
Campbell-Bannerman’s successes
1. Campbell-Bannerman achieved many successes as an individual and also as a party as his reforms, opportunities and pledges won masses of support over the Conservatives.
2. Campbell-Bannerman successfully called for an election for January and successfully began a campaign in the earnest of Christmas. This campaign would pledge for free trade, cheap bread and also using the party’s policy revolving around Lassiez – Faire’ which was a popular action taken by the British public.
  1. These actions taken by Campbell-Bannerman did prove him popular and gained more votes from the British public, which eventually overpowered the Conservatives.
3. Historian Wilson recalled Campbell Bannerman’s speech on Liberal values: “We believe in free trade because we believe in the capacity of our countrymen.” This speech gained a lot of support as many of the working class as well as the “countrymen” were also included in the Free Trade support.
4. It was still the custom for elections to be held over a number of days and, in this case, the election was spread over three weeks. The early results would be known before some people had cast their vote, which was largely for the Liberals.
Balfour’s mistakes in his government - 1902
1. Education Act of 1902
  1. Balfour’s Education Act can be regarded as a considerable achievement in terms of what it did achieve, which was bringing about State responsibility for secondary education, which gave a greater structure and sustainability to the education system.
    1. Abolish the old school boards which were set up as part of the Forester’s Education Act in 1870 (Gladstone) and instead the responsibility for the financing and running of secondary schools transferred to the 140 newly created Local Education Authorities (LEA’s), run by the county and county borough councils.
      1. This created more anger and tension over the Nonconformists, who believed Church schools were being advantaged by the bill as the fact that working- and lower-middle class families could now benefit from an education beyond primary level, for a small weekly fee, which did not impress the masses that opposed the measure.
2. Boer War 1899-1902
  1. The British forces played a sinister and unforgiving role in the Boer War during the ‘Scorched Earth’ campaign, where they burnt all farmhouses and farms down, which all women, children and some men (who were unfit for service) were put in these camps.
    1. The camps were responsible for the deaths of 4 177 women, 22 074 children under sixteen and 1 676 men. This startled British citizens at home who saw and heard this from Emily Hobhouse who saw the conditions of (mostly) the women and children, she reported it back to the British citizens and started campaigns against the Conservatives
  2. Not every soldier managed to enlist due to health issues
    1. The worst case was in Manchester as 11,000 enlisted for the army, however, 8000 citizens were turned down due to them being unfit. This became a problem as the Working Class were then turned to for being enlisted into the army as the citizens that tried were not healthy enough.
3. ‘Chinese Slavery’ and British values
  1. The Chinese were put in single sex camps - went against middle class values (who Tories were trying to gain support of) due to homosexuality ideology that went on around the camps
  2. Jobs were being taken from the British by the Chinese - decrease in democracy and British working values
4. Trade Unions
  1. Unhappy about Taff Vale case against them - Balfour however ignored their requests
    1. Decrease in support from TU's and working class, instead they turn to Liberals
5. Conservative division over Tariff Reform
  1. Balfour was defeated against Chamberlain and his New Liberalists over the Tariff reforms. Balfour lost popularity from the party and the people over this
6. Balfour was born to a wealthy aristocratic family, which meant he was "detached" from the working class people
Evaluation on Balfour's actions
1. Balfour was seen to be in a tight corner and is believed by historians that he was not to take the full blame for the divisions in his party. If he had chose to ignore the issues of education and tariff reform, he could perhaps have held on for longer. He might have been accused for inaction as addressing both of these areas were overdue.
2. Alfred Gollin: “Balfour proved incapable either of restoring unity or indeed of developing a policy; the Conservatives, including Balfour, suffered total defeat in the election of 1906.”

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