Do you agree that the failure of the 1886 Home Rule Bill was due to ‘tactical mistakes’ made by Gladstone?
The failure of the home rule bill in 1886 was due, to a large extent, to the tactical mistakes made by gladstone, such as the failure to unite his party and his underestimation of conservative opposition towards the bill. However, it could also be argued that other factors, such as the sectarian nature of Irish society and subsequent opposition in Ulster also played a major role in the failure of the Home Rule Bill and thus inevitable regardless of Gladstone’s actions.
It could be argued that Gladstone’s failure to unite his party, during a time when their ultimate support and confidence in his leadership was crucial, was a significant tactical error that contributed heavily towards the failure of the 1886 Home Rule Bill. The results of the 1885 general election were to have a significant impact on the political landscape of Britain; despite winning the most seats, the Liberals did not have an overall majority.As Parnell and the Irish Parliamentry Party (IPP) held the balance...
Martin Pugh, in his evaluation of women’s suffrage, focuses his narrative on the Victorian Suffragists, especially from the 1870s to 1890s, arguing- unlike many other historians- that their contribution to the securing of votes for women was instrumental. Presented through 10 essays, focusing on specific topics related to the Suffragist movement, Pugh provides an in depth analysis of both the tactics and political climate the Victorian Women’s Suffrage movement faced. Organised in roughly chronological order, the prose is fluent with constant reference to central ideas featuring in each text, consolidating Pugh’s point.
This essay will address whether New Labour contained policies with which it wished to pursue, or was solely developed in order to win elections. It is important to realise whether a political party that held office for approximately 13 years only possessed the goal of winning elections, or promoted policies which it wished to pursue. If a party that held no substance was governing for 13 years, it would be unfair to the people. New Labour was designed to win elections, but still contained policies which it wished to pursue. To adequately defend this thesis, one must look at the re-branding steps taken by New Labour and the new policies the party was going to pursue. Through analysis, it will be shown that New Labour promoted policies in regards
The Liberal victory in General Election of 1906 has gone down in History for being one of the biggest landslides in modern UK politics, but it can be argued that it was more of a Conservative loss than a Liberal gain.
In the 1906 election, the number of seats won by Liberals increased from 184 to 377, in contrast the numbers of seats lost by the Conservatives went from 402 seats won in 1900 to 157 seats lost in the 1906 election, this represented the lowest number of seats held by a Conservative government since 1832. This dramatic reversal of constituencies held, is due to a number of reasons. An argument is that, due to some poor decisions made by the Conservative governments, they in fact contributed largely to the landslide result in the 1906 election. ‘They were in effect the architects to the own downfall.’
The Death of Lord Liverpool as the Most Important Reason for the Collapse of the Tory Ministries
That the Rump Parliament had absolutely no achievements at all to its name is a strong statement. As a governing body setup by the remnants of Pride's Purge, the MP's that remained were all wanted there originally, indeed by the very man that would eventually dissolve them -- Oliver Cromwell. So something had certainly led Cromwell to become increasingly disillusioned with the Parliament he in sense created. This essay will examine these reasons and just what achievements the Rump succeeded in.
The ‘Great’ Reform Act of 1832 was considered as a failure and a betrayal for the Chartist movement. The Chartist movement demanded their six points from the people’s charter to be accepted by the government, some of which were supposed to have been passed in the 1832 Reform Act. These included, ‘vote by ballot’, ‘universal suffrage’ and ‘no property qualifications’. However, none of these were implemented in the 1832 Reform Act and rather the working class people saw the Act as if it was ultimately designed to exclude them from participating in the government and had dashed their hope of a parliament that would truly represent them. The introduction of uniform of ten pounds’ franchise in the boroughs excluded the vast
Larkin, ‘Debunking the idea of Parliamentary Sovereignty: The Controlling Factor of Legality in the British Constitution’ (2008) OJLS 709 2, p 61.
But in 1910 things changed and the election led to the Irish. nationals holding the balance of power, this meant Liberals were only. able to reduce the Lords power with the support of the Irish. Nationalists but in return the Liberals had to bring home rule. bill back to light.
...his made it hardly noticeable upon first glance by the public. It is only with hindsight which we are able to see how much the division has changed since 1901. To some it might seem only slight, but to the politicians who experienced these changes first hand they were, for the states, a loss of power, and for the Commonwealth a victory of power.
That the Conservative party in the late nineteenth century became associated with empire and the so-called New Imperialism is accepted by all. When, how far and why this occurred, however, is extremely contentious, dividing both contemporaries and subsequent historians. Historiography on the subject was, and still is divided, largely around differing interpretations of Disraeli and his impact on the Conservative party. To some, Disraeli’s rhetoric and vision, if not his actions, are identified with the development of empire as a central theme of the Conservative party. Others, criticizing the ‘legend of Disraeli’ place this change later, often arguing that it is the second Salisbury administration that displays a new and distinctive Conservative attitude towards empire. This essay will offer an analysis of these conflicting arguments in an attempt to determine firstly when, and subsequently how far and why, the Conservatives became the party of empire.
On one hand, political constitutionalists argue that parliamentary sovereignty is the underlying principle in the British constitution as power and law making are bo...
England has produced some of the most well-known men of history. One of these men, William Gladstone, was a leading figure in England’s most influential century. The “Grand Old Man” served in Parliament for sixty years, holding positions such as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister multiple times each. One of several ways Gladstone influenced Victorian England was economically and financially through his support in repealing the Corn laws in 1846, his successful budgets as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and through his first term as Prime Minister.
George Dangerfield’s thesis challenged the then current theory that the Liberal Party was alive and well until the First World War imposed intolerable strains upon it. His view was that not only the Liberal Party but the very idea of Liberalism itself was cracking under the strain of internal crises even before 1914. Historians have argued about the validity of the 'Dangerfield thesis' and the consensus now is that he overstated his case and that both the Liberal Party and the internal cohesion of the nation were in better shape than he allows for by the time war intervened in 1914. But however much one might differ from his interpretation, there is no denying the force of his prose.
Defining New Liberalism can be quite tricky. Some historians have preferred to privilege some aspects to comply with their vision of what it should be, rather than understanding the context and the classical Liberalist ideology they may have wanted to part with. The Home Rule Bill issue that resulted in Gladstone’s resignation was catastrophic for the party which lost a leader along with its unity of thinking. In this uncertainty a new current of thoughts had to emerge for the Liberal party not to sink into oblivion. It was to be a modern party, better-fitting to the new century and the social questions it had raised. Many theories have been made on how to define this alleged New Liberalism, trying to oppose one another. But to have an