30 July 1909

Lloyd George’s Limehouse speech

At a meeting organised by the Budget League at the Edinburgh Castle in Limehouse Lloyd George delivers one of the most famous speeches of his career, ‘When the Prime Minister and I knock at the door of these great landlords and say to them: ‘Here you know these poor fellows who have been digging up royalties at the risk of their lives, some of them are old, they have survived the perils of their trade, they are broken, they can earn no more. Won’t you give them something towards keeping them out of the work house?’ they scowl at us and we say: ‘Only a ha’penny just a copper.’ They say ‘you thieves’ and they turn their dogs on us, and you can hear their bark every morning. If this is an indication of the view taken by these great landlords of their responsibility to the people who at the risk of life create their wealth, then I say their day of reckoning is at hand.’