new opportunities in leisure and mass
entertainment
Negatives
Failure of Stapled Industries - Gold Standard, Over
investment bad industrial relations, Wall Street Crash
Mass casualties
Awkward demographic problems
demobalisation of men and absorbing them
back into peacetime economy
crippled by war debts
wartime to peacetime
international trade disrupted
unemployment remained high
Post War Coalition - Opposition to the new post war coalition was weak
Liberals - 28 seats Sinn Fein - 73 seats but refused to participate in
westminster politics and set up their own parliament - Dail
No choice - With Liberals split and Labour refusing to join the coalition
Lloyd-George had to turn to the Conservatives Conservative still stood by LG as
'the man who won the war' as they felt they would benefit from an alliance with him
Scare of Communism - Conservatives respected LGs leadership skills,
imagination and drive and believed that his work with social reforms
would prevent the spread of communism to Britain
Lloyd-George's Failures
Chanak Affair - Didn't consult the cabinet over the
Turkish crisis Included dominions without consulting them
which lead to the Independance of Canada
Home Rule
Sent the 'black and tans' which was brutal and
inhumane Liberals and Labour Parties were appauled
by their methods of dealing with the situation
Conservative blamed them him
for the breaking up of Ireland
First Solution - Unionist rule in Ulster, Autonomy in Southern
Ireland Council of Ireland to encourage cooperation between the
two areas Ulster had it's own parliament - rejected by Sin Fein
Second Solution - Ireland a self-governing domain of the British
Empire - Convinced Sinn Fein - Ulster was so small and unviable it
would soon join the rest of Ireland in becoming independant
Civil war caused by divide in Sinn Fein Ended when
Michael Collins was murded Partition confirmed
Honours Scandal - Accused of
selling peerages to finance his
own political party
Out of his control
Coalition - Lloyd-George ran a coalition with a
Conservative majority, Conservatives could
easily withdraw their support
Ireland - Final Solution had been
handled well Finally came to an
agreement with the Irish in 1923 - made
the best compromise he could
IRA - Sinn Fein took over INP British rule
challenged by the rising of the IRA and Dail
Led to Anglo-Irish War
Treaty of Versailles - 2 conflicting parties
as well as two other national
representatives to please made the best
compromise
Geddes Cuts - spending cut of £86million in education
and public health Lloyd George managed to reduce this
to £64 million however working class people felt that the
promise of 'a land fit for heroes' had been betrayed
Competition from rising industrial powers
such Japan, Germany and the United
States
War Aftermaths - demobalising 5 million
men dislocation of trade and industry
Social Reforms
Addison's Housing Act 1919
200,000 good quality council
houses built for working class
Fishers Education Act
Raised school leaving age to
14 Part-time education up to 18
Old Aged Pensions Act
Extended and War widow
pensions introduced
National Insurance Act
extended unemployment benefits to cover a
further 8 million workers earning less than the
average wage