The Liberal Social Welfare Reforms

Attitudes towards poverty 1 - Victorians
1. people
  1. self help by Samuel Smiles
2. If people were in poverty / poor they we classes as
  1. bad christians
  2. wasting money on gambling, prostitution and / or alcohol
  3. ignorant and lazy
  4. wasted money rather than saving
3. Government
  1. Laissez faire
  2. old liberals
    1. Henry Campbell
    2. Bannerman - prime minister
4. law
  1. poor law
    1. indoor relief
      1. poor/ work house
    2. outdoor relief
      1. in your own home
    3. provision was very meagre (very little)
      1. they wanted to make sure you were sufficiently poor to merit aid (to get help)
      2. to deter people
        stigma of applying
National Security
1. Boer War showed Britain could scarcely protect her empire after 3 years of war against farmers
  1. In some places 2/3 of recruits were unfit or malnorished
2. Without the Boer war unearthing the horrors of poverty that industrialized non - interventionist state had created, it would have been highly unlikely that reform would have played such an important role
3. There was great concern for the security of Britain against her European neighbours
National Efficiency
1. government worried because British workforce was unfit and malnorished
2. Countries such as Germany, America and Japan were over taking Britain economically, industrially and militarily
Political Concerns
1. Internally
  1. New Liberalism
    1. Winston Churchill and David Lloyd-George advocated state intervention
      1. influenced by social reforms in Germany and New Zealand
    2. believed that taxes should be raised
2. Externallly
  1. Rise of Labour Party
    1. Harness working class votes
  2. Conservatives
    1. threatened introduction of social reform
    2. steal votes from Liberals
  3. Socialists
    1. intellectual groups like the Fabien Society and those helping the poor argued, loudly for government intervention
Social Investigations
1. Charles Booth
  1. book published "life and labour of the people in London"
  2. poverty line
  3. 30% of all people in poverty
  4. poverty in London
2. Seebohm Rowntree
  1. 27%
  2. showed poverty was widespread
  3. primary poverty - used to describe those whose earnings were so low they could not survive on them alone
  4. 1/3 of people living in town in poverty
  5. York
  6. secondary poverty - used to describe those whose earnings were enough to live on but who spend money in a wasteful way
  7. cycle of poverty
3. Royal Commision
4. Olivia Malvery
  1. worked undercover investigating the life and conditions of the poor
    1. especially women and children
political pragmatism

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The Liberal Social Welfare Reforms

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