1910-1929
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Sir John Simon (Viscount Simon), 1873-1954
Though he never rose to the premiership, John Allsebrook Simon’s collection of the highest offices of state – the Home Office (twice), the Treasury, the Foreign Office and the Woolsack – is unique in twentieth-century history. He played a major role in British politics over more than three decades, while also enjoying a distinguished legal…
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The Easter Rising
The issue of Home Rule returned to haunt the Liberals following the rebellion of Irish republicans during the Easter of 1916, at a time when the Party was at its most fragile. As the head of the wartime government, Asquith had already faced criticism over a series of disasters on the battlefield and his complacent…
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Rainbow Circle
The Rainbow Circle was a dining club which comprised a group of progressive politicians who met between 1894-1920.
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Liberal Governments of 1905-15
The Liberal government which took office as a minority administration in December 1905, before securing an overwhelming popular endorsement at the General Election of January 1906, remained in power until May 1915.
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The Liberals and the First World War
Understanding the history of the Liberal Party during the First World War has been made harder by hindsight. Later Liberal decline has called into question the efficacy of Liberal ideology in wartime.
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Conscription and the Liberal Party
The issue of conscription rocked the Liberal Party to its very core during the first part of the Great War, as Liberal parliamentarians struggled to justify the needs of war and necessity of compulsion against the concepts of individualism and laissez faire which they held so dear.
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The ‘Buckingham Palace plot’, 1916
Edwin Montagu, Minister of Munitions and confidant of both Asquith and Lloyd George lamented that the two great men of England were being slowly but surely pushed apart during the winter of 1916.
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The Maurice debate, 9 May 1918
According to A. J. P. Taylor, the historic Liberal Party committed suicide on 9 May 1918 in a parliamentary debate which saw the former Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith openly inferring that his former Liberal colleague and wartime Premier, David Lloyd George had misled the House of Commons about the number of British troops…
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Asquith and Grey at the Reform Club, December 1916
Speeches delivered by H. H. Asquith and Viscount Grey of Fallodon at the Reform Club, London on Friday 8 December 1916, following Asquith’s resignation as Prime Minister.