Tom Barnes
BRITISH POLITICS
AND
GOVERNMENT
Tom Barnes FHS Revision Notes
Tutor: Michael Hart
Tuesday 25 May 2021
Acknowledgements:
Rob Harris
,Tom Barnes
Britain in 1900 compared to 1945
BRITAIN IN 1900
- Britain was a self-confident nation – as the first to industrialise, Britain had the highest proportion of
its workforce which could be characterised as the manual working class (up to 80%).
- On the back of industry came trade, and from that, the largest merchant navy in the world.
- This was defended by the largest military navy in the world.
- London was the financial centre of the world.
- Government was still very small
o Most people did not move away from their birth towns. The majority of people never visited
London. People’s experiences were local rather than national.
o The railways were the only reliable means of transport.
Religion in 1900
- Britain, except for Ireland, was Protestant. The influence of the CofE was pervasive – senior bishops
sat in the Lords.
- The Church was the second biggest landowner in England.
- The Church was the second most important educator of children after the board of education.
- The church’s position was challenged by non-conformists – Baptists, Methodists etc, as well as
Catholicism and Judaism (driven by immigration).
- The CofE was a big supporter of the Conservatives (the CofE is just the Conservative party at prayer –
Disraeli)
o The nonconformist religions were strongly Liberal, and one the Liberals collapsed, the votes
went to Labour.
o Harold Wilson – the Labour party owes more to methodism than to Marx.
Regions in 1900
- As opposed to in Germany, industrialism remained regional, and so did unionism.
o Local areas had different prices, rents, some even time zones.
- There was no national consciousness – people read local rather than national newspapers.
- The further from London, the more localistic.
Class in 1900
- The term ‘classes’ was more an economic descriptor (the productive classes) rather than a politically
charged term.
- Unions were formed for industrial purposes not political ones – class antagonism was not yet
prevalent.
o Talking of the ‘working classes’ implied respect for their economic importance.
Electoral system in 1900
- The party was dominated by the Tories and Liberals, with the Irish Nationalists also present.
- Britain was not yet a democracy in the modern sense of the word
o To vote one had to be a male with a property interest (own a house or pay enough rent) –
people could have multiple votes
- In 1918, all men were given the vote, and women with a small property interest. In 1928 this is
equalised to universal suffrage
- Until 1911 members of parliament were not paid – they needed a private income.
,Tom Barnes
- Standing for election was prohibitively expensive too – the candidate had to pay for the electoral
process, returning officers, electoral register etc.
- The electoral system was heterogenous up and down the country.
BRITAIN IN 1945
- Britain was poorer and less self- confident - the empire was smaller
- In domestic politics, class was the dominant battleground – region less important.
- Britain was a centralised state and would remain so.
- Britain had won the war, but at massive cost – 1,150,000 British soldiers and civilians died in the wars.
- Britain was insolvent, owing masses of money to the US with absolutely no means to pay – the fruits
of Victorian prosperity and empire were gone.
- Britain was by this point only a medium sized power, though it took a long time for British politicians
to acknowledge this.
- The survival of the British system through this turmoil came rise to a prevalent small-C conservatism
that Britain knew how to govern itself without help – this survives right through to the modern day.
- The party system was still a 2 party one, but labour had replaced the liberals. This was buttressed by
an unchanged electoral system – the Conservatives were the only party of the right in Europe to
survive both world wars.
- Labour triumphed in 1945 and introduced new assumptions about the appropriate role of the state
which would survive until Thatcher.
Class
- This was now the main division in society. Britain became acutely class conscious in the 1920s, partly
due to mass unemployment, and partly due to the more aggressive approach taken by industry in its
struggle against organised labour.
- In societal terms, class emerged as an aggressive dividing point.
o In WW1, the wealthy began to pay more tax, and continued to pay even more – the
Conservative position became that the middle classes were paying for the dole for the
working class, and that they did not deserve it
- Capital had become divided into finance (the City) and productive capital (industry)
o Finance supported the Conservatives, while productive capital supported the Liberals, but
once the Liberals declined, capital united behind the Conservatives.
- The tabloid press became aggressively Conservative.
- Class was never adequate to explain voting patterns
o The Conservatives played for about 1/3 of working class support (otherwise they would never
have won)
o The Cons retained the support of the non-unionised working class
These people often had social aspirations such as buying a house, aspirations which
the Cons seemed better placed to answer than Labour.
Region
- Britain now a centralised state – the distinctiveness of the regions declined, as did their economic
vitality.
- Labour abandoned the policy of self-government for the regions – it did not become an issue again
until the 1970s
- The issues associated with the Liberals disappeared with the party – land reform, home rule etc
- The issue which it was replaced with was national welfare, the idea of assistance from cradle to grave.
- The newspaper press was strongly partisan (Conservative except the Manchester Guardian) and
heavily London based.
- The BBC was set up, and broadcast London metropolitan news to the rest of the country with the aim
of improving viewers with highbrow talks and CofE content.
- The trade unions were now based in London even though the vast majority of members lived nowhere
near.
, Tom Barnes
- The headquarters of national institutions, the NHS, even the national coal industry, were based in
London.
- Yet when Labour won in 1945 it was not a party of London, but rather a party of industrial Wales,
Scotland and the North. (Cons very much London based).
Religion
- The Anglican church deeply permeated British institutions.
- There is a bit of legislation from 1944 which makes mandatory a daily act of worship in schools, never
repealed.
- Religious observation collapsed.
- WW1 shook people’s religious beliefs – the problem of evil got them
- In the inter-war years, the church had little to say about unemployment and fascism
- In 1945 the same was true – little to say about reconstruction.
- In 1945 Labour talked of a new Jerusalem.
