The transformation of British public politics after the First World War

Past and Present

Volumn 190, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 185-216

  Lawrence, Jon ^a  

^a EMMANUEL COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 33748300904     PISSN: 00312746     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pastj/gtj002     Document Type: Article

References (236)

1. Joseph S. Meisel, Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of Gladstone (New York, 2001), 227-8.
2. See also H. C. G. Matthew, 'Rhetoric and Politics in Britain, 1860-1950', in P. J. Waller (ed.), Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain: Essays Presented to A. F. Thampson (Brighton, 1987)
3. H. C. G. Matthew, Gladstone, 1875-1898 (Oxford, 1995), 48, 51.
4. James Vernon, Politics and the People: A Study in English Political Culture, c.1815-1867 (Cambridge, 1993).
5. See also Frank O'Gorman, 'Campaign Rituals and Ceremonies: The Social Meaning of Elections in England, 1780-1860', Past and Present, no. 135 (May 1992)
6. K. T. Hoppen, 'Grammars of Electoral Violence in Nineteenth-Century England and Ireland', Eng. Hist. Rev., cix (1994).
7. Jon Lawrence, Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 (Cambridge, 1998), 58-61, 183-93
8. Jon Lawrence, 'The Decline of Popular Politics?', Parliamentary Hist., xiii (1994), 333-7
9. Jon Lawrence, 'Contesting the Male Polity: The Suffragettes and the Politics of Disruption in Edwardian Britain', in Amanda Vickery (ed.), Women, Privilege and Power: British Politics, 1750 to the Present (Stanford, 2001).
10. See, for example, David Butler, British General Elections since 1945 (Oxford, 1989), 1-3, 93-8
11. Dennis Kavanagh, 'United Kingdom', in David Butler and Austin Ranney (eds.), Electioneering: A Comparative Study of Continuity and Change (Oxford, 1992), 70.
12. John Garrard, 'Urban Elites, 1850-1914: The Rule and Decline of a New Squirearchy?', Albion, xxvii (1995).
13. J. Seymour Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 2nd edn (London, 1909), 23, 45-6, 50, 60
14. Liberal Agent, July 1909, 35; Jan. 1912, 140; Apr. 1912, 218-20.
15. Report of the Departmental Committee on the Duties of the Police with Respect to the Preservation of Order at Public Meetings, vol. ii, Minutes of Evidence, Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.), 1909 (Cd. 4674), xxxvi, qq. 572-3, 588-9, 1174, at pp. 22, 23, 38.
16. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 33-4
17. Conservative Agents' Jl, Oct. 1923, 222
18. David Williams, Keeping the Peace: The Police and Public Order (London, 1967), passim.
19. See Liberal Agent, July 1911 (editorial); Jan. 1912, 140
20. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 32-5.
21. O'Gorman, 'Campaign Rituals and Ceremonies', passim;
22. Hoppen, 'Grammars of Electoral Violence', 605-10.
23. Peter Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971), ch. 9.
24. Michael Rush, The Role of the Member of Parliament since 1868: From Gentlemen to Players (Oxford, 2001), 96-108.
25. For practical politics, see Lawrence, Speaking for the People, 184-6, 223-4
26. James Thompson, '"Pictorial Lies"? Posters and Politics in Britain, c.1880-1914' (unpubd paper)
27. for intellectual debates about 'the masses', 'irrationality' and progress, see Graham Wallas, Human Nature in Politics (London, 1908)
28. Graham Wallas, The Great Society: A Psychological Analysis (New York, 1914)
29. L. T. Hobhouse, Democracy and Reaction, 2nd edn (London, 1908).
30. A. L. Lowell, The Government of England, 2 vols. (London, 1908), ii, 65.
31. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, 130, 143.
32. Lawrence, 'Contesting the Male Polity'.
33. Parliamentary Debates, 4th ser., cxcviii (1908), cols. 2169 (17 Dec.), 2335-8 (19 Dec.)
34. A Bill to Prevent Disturbance of Public Meetings, P.P., 1908 (Bill 401), iv [8 Edw. 7];
35. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 22-3.
36. See Report of the Departmental Committee on the Duties of the Police with Respect to the Preservation of Order at Public Meetings, vol. i, Report and Appendices, P.P., 1909 (Cd. 4673), xxxvi, 13, 15-16
37. ibid., vol. ii, Minutes of Evidence, passim;
38. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 23.
39. Liberal Agent, Apr. 1910, 180.
40. Thompson, '"Pictorial Lies"?'
41. Manchester Liberal Federation, Executive Committee Minutes, 1909-1918, 3 Feb. 1910 (Central Office Election Report): Manchester Archives, M283/1/ 3/3. For the national picture down to 1906,
42. see the excellent discussion in Kathryn Rix, 'The Party Agent and English Electoral Culture, 1880-1906' (Univ. of Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, 2001), 274-91.
43. William Woodings, The Conduct and Management of Parliamentary Elections: A Practical Manual, 4th edn (London, 1900), 113-15
44. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 28, 64, 94.
45. See Liberal Agent, Jan. 1912, 161 (South Somerset), 164 (North Herts.); July 1912, 29 (NW Norfolk); Oct. 1914, 115 (Manchester); Apr. 1915, 214 (Oldham).
46. See also North-West Manchester Liberal Association Minutes, 9 Oct. 1911: Manchester Archives, M283/4/1/1.
47. Liberal Agent, Apr. 1910, 179-82
48. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 25.
49. Liberal Agent, Oct. 1898, 49; Jan. 1912, 161; Apr. 1912, 220
50. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 16-24.
51. Liberal Agent, Jan. 1915, 144
52. Lloyd, Elections and How to Fight Them, 16-19.
53. For an extended discussion of wartime developments in a comparative context, see Jon Lawrence, 'Public Space/Political Space', in Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert (eds.), Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919, ii, Aspects of Cultural History, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
54. See also Brock Millman, Managing Domestic Dissent in First World War Britain (London, 2000), chs. 3-5.
55. See Times, 10 Jan. 1916; 9, 11 and 17 Mar. 1916; 16 and 18 Oct. 1917; 3 and 5 Nov. 1917
56. Herald, 10 Feb. 1917.
57. C. F. G. Masterman, 'The General Election and After', Contemporary Rev., cxv (1919), 123-4
58. Alfred Hopkinson, 'The General Election', ibid., 131-8.
59. Liberal Agent, Jan. 1919, 18.
60. Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Public Opinion in War and Peace (Cambridge, Mass., 1923), 253-62.
61. J. Ramsay MacDonald, Parliament and Democracy (London, 1920), 3-4.
62. See also Liberal Agent, Apr. 1924, 26.
63. Liberal Agent, Jan. 1919, 15. For examples of politicians who did still embark on lengthy speaking tours,
64. see Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget (London, 1953), 178, 188
65. L. S. Amery, My Political Life, ii, War and Peace, 1914-1929 (London, 1953), 244, 285, 296, 501.
66. Conservative Agents' Jl, Dec. 1919, 1
67. Real Old Tory Politics: The Political Diaries of Sir Robert Sanders, Lord Bayford, 1910-1935, ed. John Ramsden (London, 1984), 131 (26 Dec. 1919).
68. Lord Snell, Men, Movements and Myself (London, 1936), 205
69. [Woolwich] Pioneer and Labour Jl, 18 and 25 Feb. 1921; 4 Mar. 1921.
70. Westminster Gazette, 26 Feb. 1921
71. Times, 1 Mar. 1921
72. John Bull, 5 Mar. 1921.
73. See Jon Lawrence, 'Labour: The Myths It Has Lived By', in Duncan Tanner, Pat Thane and Nick Tiratsoo (eds.), Labour's First Century (Cambridge, 2000).
74. Labour Organiser, Apr. 1921, 14.
75. Times, 5, 6 and 7 Dec. 1923
76. [London] Evening Standard, 5 and 6 Dec. 1923
77. Scotsman, 3 Dec. 1923.
78. Times, 23 Oct. 1924
79. Glasgow Herald, 24 Oct. 1924
80. Westminster Gazette, 29 Oct. 1924.
81. See also Parliament and Politics in the Age of Baldwin and MacDonald: The Headlam Diaries, 1923-1935, ed. Stuart Ball (London, 1992), 45-6 (28 Oct. 1924), predicting that disruption of his meetings at Barnard Castle would do 'more good than harm'.
82. Conservative Agents' Jl, Oct. 1923, 222, 225.
83. See Westminster Gazette, 24 Oct. 1924
84. Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct. 1924
85. [London] Evening Standard, 23 and 24 Oct. 1924.
86. See also Morning Post, 23 Oct. 1924.
87. Daily Express, 24 Oct. 1924.
88. [London] Evening Standard, 24 Oct. 1924
89. Daily News, 25 Oct. 1924
90. Daily Telegraph, 22 and 23 Oct. 1924.
91. See also Times, 23 Oct. 1924
92. Daily News, 23 Oct. 1924.
93. Daily Telegraph, 25 Oct. 1924.
94. On Lambeth North, see [London] Evening Standard, 23 Oct. 1924
95. Daily Herald, 25 Oct. 1924
96. Daily News, 25 Oct. 1924
97. on other cases of fascist involvement, see Daily Herald, 20 Oct. 1924 (Hammersmith); 25 Oct. 1924 (Tunbridge Wells)
98. Scotsman, 24 Oct. 1924 (Tottenham). On Fascist-Conservative relations,
99. see David Baker, 'The Extreme Right in the 1920s: Fascism in a Cold Climate, or "Conservatism with Knobs on"?', in Mike Cronin (ed.), The Failure of British Fascism: The Far Right and the Fight for Political Recognition (Basingstoke, 1996)
100. G. C. Webber, 'Intolerance and Discretion: Conservatives and British Fascism, 1918-1926', in Tony Kushner and Kenneth Lunn (eds.), Traditions of Intolerance: Historical Perspectives on Fascism and Race Discourse in Britain (Manchester, 1989).
101. The Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters: The Correspondence of Sir Austen Chamberlain with his Sisters Hilda and Ida, 1916-1937, ed. Robert C. Self (Camden Soc., 5th ser., v, Cambridge, 1995), 201 (to Ida, 18 Nov. 1922)
102. Conservative Agents' Jl, Feb. 1925, 40-1.
103. See also [London] Evening Standard, 23 Oct. 1924.
104. Conservative Agents' Jl, Oct. 1923, 221-5.
105. See also Daily News, 23 Oct. 1924.
106. Labour Organiser, Apr. 1921, 14.
107. Erith Observer, 31 Oct. 1924
108. Times, 27 Oct. 1924.
109. Times, 23 Oct. 1924.
110. Daily Herald, 18, 23, 24, 25 and 29 Oct. 1924.
111. See also Westminster Gazette, 25 Oct. 1924.
112. Labour Organiser, May 1929, 85.
113. Michael Dawson, 'Liberalism in Devon and Cornwall, 1910-1931: "The Old-Time Religion"', Hist. Jl, xxxviii (1995)
114. South Wales Weekly Argus, 8 Dec. 1923
115. Westminster Gazette, 29 Oct. 1924. Data on opposition at election meetings comes from the Economic and Social Research Council project, 'Electing John Bull: The Changing Face of British Elections, 1895-1935' (ESRC RES-000-22-0345).
116. For examples of urban disorder, see Woolwich Herald, 30 Nov. 1923
117. Scotsman, 3 Dec. 1923
118. Glasgow Herald, 22 and 24 Oct. 1924
119. Erith Observer, 31 Oct. 1924
120. The Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters, ii, The Reform Years, 1921-27, ed. Robert Self (Aldershot, 2000), 246 (to Hilda, 20 Sept. 1924), 252 (to Ida, 11 Oct. 1924) (Birmingham)
121. Harold Macmillan, Winds of Change, 1914-1939 (London, 1966), 154-5, 280 (Stockton).
122. See also [Wednesbury] Midland Advertiser, 18 and 25 May 1929, for a clear case of connivance.
123. Woolwich Herald, 14 Dec. 1923.
124. See Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct. 1924 (reporting on J. H. Thomas)
125. Labour Organiser, Oct. 1922, 18; Dec. 1922, 2; Nov. 1923, 8.
126. Labour Gazette, Jan. 1919, 4.
127. See also Michael Dawson, 'Money and the Real Impact of the Fourth Reform Act', Hist. Jl, xxxv (1992).
128. Liberal Agent, July 1918, 18-20.
129. See also Labour Organiser, July 1924, 11
130. Conservative Agents' Jl, Sept. 1920, 15.
131. Conservative Agents' Jl, Apr. 1923, 83.
132. See also ibid., Nov. 1919, 1; Sept. 1920, 15; Nov. 1920, 17
133. Liberal Agent, Jan. 1920, 27, 30; Jan. 1924, 13-14.
134. Conservative Agents' Jl, Dec. 1920, 16.
135. Liberal Agent, July 1924, 26
136. Labour Organiser, Mar. 1921, 16
137. Conservative Agents' Jl, Feb. 1923, 35.
138. Miles Taylor, 'Interests, Parties and the State: The Urban Electorate in England, c.1820-72', in Jon Lawrence and Miles Taylor (eds.), Party, State and Society: Electoral Behaviour in Britain since 1820 (Aldershot, 1997)
139. F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts, 1832-1987, 5th edn (Aldershot, 1989), 66-7.
140. Labour Organiser, Apr. 1921, 14
141. Labour Party, Conduct of Elections: A Practical Guide to the Organisation and Management of Parliamentary and Local Elections (London, 1931), 3.
142. For examples of Labour's revivalist-style rallies, see Mary Agnes Hamilton, Remembering my Good Friends (London, 1944), 110 (Snowden)
143. Herald, 7 Dec. 1918, where Ethel Snowden's words at an Albert Hall rally are said to restore the voice of a dumb, shell-shocked soldier.
144. Labour Organiser, Mar. 1922, 23.
145. See also ibid., July 1924, 11; Apr. 1925, 69.
146. Liberal Agent, Jan. 1920, 32 (Hull Central and Leyton West); Apr. 1920, 45.
147. Conservative Agents' Jl, Feb. 1923, 34; Apr. 1923, 70.
148. Ibid., June 1927, 157
149. Labour Party, Conduct of Elections, 32-3
150. Labour Organiser, June 1929, 106
151. J. Ramsay Muir, How Britain Is Governed: A Critical Analysis of Modern Developments in the British System of Government (New York, 1932), 314
152. J. R. Clynes, Memoirs, 2 vols. (London, 1937), i, 144. Though, for a contrary claim,
153. see Frank Gray, The Confessions of a Candidate (London, 1925), 85.
154. Dawson, 'Money and the Real Impact of the Fourth Reform Act', 375-7
155. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, British Political Finance, 1830-1980 (Washington DC, 1981), 27 (table 5).
156. Labour Organiser, Oct. 1922, 18; Jan. 1924, 1; Apr. 1924, 18.
157. See Liberal Agent, Apr. 1922, 91
158. Conservative Agents' Jl, Feb. 1923, 34-7; Dec. 1927, 338-9.
159. On the 'flood of political oratory' in the 1920s and the advantages bestowed by amplification, see Muir, How Britain Is Governed, 313-14
160. Liberal Agent, Nov. 1928, 157; May 1929, 20
161. Conservative Agents' Jl, June 1927, 157-8
162. Times, 21 Oct. 1924.
163. Liberal Agent, Apr. 1924, 26. On the centrality of masculinity to pre-war British politics,
164. see Jon Lawrence, 'Class and Gender in the Making of Urban Toryism, 1880-1914', Eng. Hist. Rev., cviii (1993).
165. On the 1920s, see David Jarvis, 'Mrs. Maggs and Betty: The Conservative Appeal to Women Voters in the 1920s', Twentieth Century Brit. Hist., v (1994)
166. David Jarvis, 'British Conservatism and Class Politics in the 1920s', Eng. Hist. Rev., cxi (1996).
167. For instance, Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters, ed. Self, 100 (to Ida, 8 Dec. 1918).
168. See Arthur Henderson, 'The Outlook for Labour', Contemporary Rev., cxiii (1918), 122
169. Liberal Agent, Jan. 1919, 14-18
170. Labour Organiser, Apr. 1922, 20-1
171. Conservative Agents' Jl, Sept. 1919, 7.
172. See also Martin Pugh, Women and the Women's Movement in Britain, 1914-1959 (Basingstoke, 1992), 61-71, 101-53.
173. Scotsman, 3 Dec. 1923
174. Times, 6 Dec. 1923. Labour subsequently argued that the whole affair had been manufactured by the right-wing press:
175. see Daily Herald, 23 Oct. 1924.
176. Times, 7 Dec. 1923
177. [London] Evening News, 6 Dec. 1923.
178. See also [London] Evening Standard, 5 Dec. 1923
179. Woolwich Herald, 30 Nov. and 7 Dec. 1923.
180. For examples, see Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters, ed. Self, ii, 246 (to Hilda, 20 Sept. 1924)
181. Woolwich Herald, 30 Nov. 1923; 7 Dec. 1923 (Deptford)
182. Daily News, 23 Oct. 1924 (Maryport)
183. Daiy Telegraph, 24 Oct. 1924 (Maldon)
184. Westminster Gazette, 28 Oct. 1924 (Glasgow)
185. [Wednesbury] Midland Advertiser, 25 May 1929.
186. Conservative Agents' Jl, Feb. 1925, 41. For examples of youth disorder,
187. see Scotsman, 3 Dec. 1923
188. Daily Express, 24 Oct. 1924
189. Glasgow Herald, 22 Oct. 1924 (St Rollox)
190. Daily Telegraph, 23 Oct. 1924 (Hackney)
191. Westminster Gazette, 25 Oct. 1924 (Bassetlaw).
192. W. G. Runciman, A Treatise on Social Theory, iii, Applied Social Theory (Cambridge, 1997), pp. xv, 61-2, 89-90, 154-5, 206-9.
193. [London] Evening Standard, 27 Oct. 1924.
194. Daily News, 24 Oct. 1924
195. Times, 21 Oct. 1924 (emphasis added).
196. Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters, ed. Self, ii, 248 (to Ida, 27 Sept. 1924), 250 (to Hilda, 5 Oct. 1924), 251 (to Ida, 11 Oct. 1924).
197. For a fuller discussion of these themes, see Jon Lawrence, 'Forging a Peaceable Kingdom: War, Violence and the Fear of Brutalization in Post First World War Britain', Jl Mod. Hist., lxxv (2003).
198. J. R. MacDonald, Parliament and Revolution (1919), in Ramsay MacDonald's Political Writings, ed. Bernard Barker (London, 1972), esp. 222.
199. See also Labour Party, The White Terror in Hungary (London, 1920).
200. See Lawrence, Speaking for the People, 261-3
201. Lawrence, 'Labour: Myths'. See also J. R. MacDonald, Socialism and Government, 2 vols. (London, 1909), i, p. xxviii; ii, 130-2
202. MacDonald, Parliament and Democracy, 4-5, 64-5, 67
203. Emrys Hughes, Keir Hardie's Speeches and Writings from 1888 to 1915, 3rd edn (Glasgow, 1928), 122
204. Arthur Henderson, 'The Industrial Unrest: A New Policy Required', Contemporary Rev., cxv (1919), 365
205. Labour Organiser, Dec. 1922, 2; June 1924, 13-14.
206. Philip Williamson, Stanley Baldwin: Conservative Leadership and National Values (Cambridge, 1999), esp. 145-50.
207. See also Jarvis, 'British Conservatism and Class Politics'.
208. Austen Chamberlain Diary Letters, ed. Self, 207 (to Ida, 21 Nov. 1922).
209. C. F. G. Masterman, The Condition of England (1909), ed. and intro. J. T. Boulton (London, 1960), 99. Masterman was lamenting that such demonstrations were considered 'stale and outworn' by those seeking to manipulate the crowd through mass psychology.
210. See Charles Townshend, Making the Peace: Public Order and Public Security in Modern Britain (Oxford, 1993), 81-2.
211. On Conservative evocations of the 'privatized' public, see Ross McKibbin, 'Class and Conventional Wisdom: The Conservative Party and the "Public" in Inter-War Britain', in his The Ideologies of Class: Social Relations in Britain, 1880-1950 (Oxford, 1990). This language was not exclusive to Conservatism:
212. see MacDonald on 'crowd opinion' in his Parliament and Democracy, 5, 68-70.
213. For instance, Daily Telegraph, 22 and 27 Oct. 1924 (Reading and South Nottingham)
214. Westminster Gazette, 28 Oct. 1924 (North Camberwell).
215. Derbyshire Times, 25 Oct. 1924
216. Daily Telegraph, 24 and 27 Oct. 1924
217. Times, 24 Oct. 1924
218. Westminster Gazette, 24 and 28 Oct. 1924.
219. D. A. Hamer, The Politics of Electoral Pressure: A Study in the History of Victorian Reform Agitations (Hassocks, 1977), 210-15, 269;
220. Brian Harrison, Separate Spheres: The Opposition to Women's Suffrage in Britain (London, 1978), 156-8.
221. Martin Ceadel, 'The First British Referendum: The Peace Ballot, 1934-5', Eng. Hist. Rev., xcv (1980).
222. Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speaks Out, 1937-87: A Social History as Seen Through Gallup Data (Basingstoke, 1989), ch. 1
223. Robert Worcester, British Opinion Polling: A Guide to the History and Methodology of Political Opinion Polling (Oxford, 1991), 3-6.
224. Harold Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, ed. Nigel Nicolson, 3 vols. (New York, 1966-8), i, 221-3 (Letters to Vita Sackville-West, 1 and 7 Nov. 1935).
225. Jon Lawrence, 'Fascist Violence and the Politics of Public Order in Inter-War Britain: The Olympia Debate Revisited', Hist. Research, lxxvi (2003).
226. William T. Morgan, 'The British General Election of 1935', South Atlantic Quart., xxxvii (1938), esp. 122-3
227. Parliament and Politics in the Age of Baldwin and MacDonald, ed. Ball, 344-7 (28, 29, 31 Oct. 1935; 12 Nov. 1935)
228. R. B. McCallum and Alison Readman, The British General Election of 1945 (Oxford, 1947), 152-3
229. H. G. Nicholas, The British General Election of 1950 (London, 1951), 1-18
230. S. B. Chrimes (ed.), The General Election in Glasgow, February 1950 (Glasgow, 1950), 83, 99;
231. R. S. Milne and H. C. Mackenzie, Straight Fight: A Study of Voting Behaviour in the Constituency of Bristol North East at the General Election of 1951 (London, 1954), 141.
232. Harold Macmillan, Tides of Fortune, 1945-1955 (London, 1969), 31, 312.
233. See also Parliament and Politics in the Age of Churchill and Attlee: The Headlam Diaries, 1935-1951, ed. Stuart Ball (Camden Soc., 5th ser., xiv, Cambridge, 1999), 464 (21 and 22 June 1945) (Newcastle North).
234. The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton, 1918-40 and 1945-60, ed. Ben Pimlott (London, 1986), 356 (July 1945)
235. Herbert Morrison, An Autobiography (London, 1960), 236
236. Millie Toole, Our Old Man: A Biographical Portrait of Joseph Toole by his Daughter (London, 1948), 89-90.