Les,reformes du gouvernement libéral en grante bretagne

Yann LE GUELLEC

'The liberal reforms of 1906-1914 failed to improve the lives of British people'. How valid is this view?

Before 1906 the governement thaught the poverty was not a real problem, they were in a movement of laissez-faire, which means that if you were in poverty, it was your fault and only because you were not able to use your money properly.

Between 1906 and 19014, the liberal governement introduced a series of social reforms, which were a big move away from laissez-faire.

One of the reason they passed these reforms was the Booth and Rowntree survey.

These surveys highlighted the true extent of poverty in Britain and also concern that poverty was not always self-inflected, In turn, this led to the movement away from the laissez-faire attitude by the Liberal Government as they realised something had to be done to help those living in poverty, through no fault of their own.  However, the reports by Booth and Rowntree were only responsible for the Liberal Reforms to an extent, as there were other significant motives. A further humanitarian reason was the concern of national stock/efficiency. At the time Britain was involved in the Boer War and many potential recruits were rejected on medical grounds which was a major concern for the government at the time as it signified the lack of good health in the population. On the other hand, a political reason for the introduction of the Liberal Reforms was the fear of the new Labour Party stealing the working class vote from the Liberals.  Finally, the last political motivation reason was the concept of New Liberalism which was used by ambitious members of the Liberal Party to raise their profile.

Beofre these surveys, governement thaught that only, 3% of the population were in poverty, but in fact, there was 35% poverty in London and 30% povert in York.

When they learned that, governement decided to pass some reforms for help people who were in poverty; for the olds, the youngs, the sick and the unemployed.

The OLD AGE PENSIONS ACT of 1908 gave to old people over 70 years old 5 shiling per week, in one hand it was very good because it did improve livings conditions and it was still better than workhouse, but in another hand, it was limited because it was not enough to sustain a person above Rowntree's poverty line, and also because in 1908, not a lot of people in the working class were living over 70 years.

For the youngs, the governement passed the SCOOL MEAL ACT of 1906, because they saw that a lot of pupils were not well fed so they couldn't work, they had to feed the stomach before the mind. 14 millions meals per weeks were distributed to Britains poorest children.

In one hand it was very good because it improved general health and wellbeing among poored school, it also increased attendance at school, so it improved education standards. But in an other hand it was limited because the governement said that schools SHOULD, not MUST, give free meals, so only 1/3 of local authorities took part in the sheme, and it was also not very good because many childrens were still not well fed during the week-ends.

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