Lloyd George Coalition

1918 General Election

There had not been a general election for almost eight years by the time the war ended. The British government clearly needed a fresh mandate in readiness for the peace negotiations. The Conservative (and Lloyd George) was keen to cash in on victory to secure another term in office. Therefore Parliament was dissolved and a general election was called. Labour decided not remain in the government, although a few wartime ministers left the party stayed in office.

The general election was held on 14 December 1918. Government candidates fought on the victorious record of Lloyd George's wartime government, and there was promise of a vigorous programme of social reconstruction. Labour and Asquithian Liberal candidates were often attacked as having been hostile, or at least lukewarm, towards the war effort - significantly, Asquith, and a number of prominent Labour leaders like Ramsay MacDonald and Arthur Henderson, lost their seats.

Overall, the results were fairly unsurprising. The Coalition came back with a huge majority. Coalition candidates took 473 seats; 50 further Conservatives were elected. Lloyd George's Liberals took 127 seats. The largest opposition party was Sinn Fein which; however, refused to take its seats and set up the unofficial Dail Eireann in Dublin instead.

The largest opposition party at Westminster was Labour, but its performance had been rather disappointing. The party had adopted a new constitution earlier in 1918 as a sign of its new-found total independence from the fading Liberals, but despite getting 20.8% of the votes cast it won only 57 seats. It lost many of its able leaders, including Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden and Arthur Henderson. The independent Liberals won only 36 seats, and many on their leaders, including Asquith himself, were defeated.

Make-up of Parliament

Thus, the new Parliament was very unbalanced. On the one side was a glittering array of talent, buoyed up by the prestige of having 'won the war'. The key figures were:

• David Lloyd George who remained Prime Minister
• Arthur Bonar Law was, in effect, deputy Prime Minister
• Austen Chamberlain was Lord Chancellor
• Winston Churchill Secretary of State for War

Facing them was Labour, under the dour Scottish miner, Willie Adamson, and the Liberals under another rather dull Scot, Sir Donald Mclean. It soon became clear that the real opposition in Parliament would come from within the coalitions ranks, particularly from discontented Conservatives, but they were, as yet, in no position to challenge the government's dominance seriously.

Economic Policy

In 1919 the economic system remained buoyant as the high demand and full employment of the war years were followed by a massive restocking boom which, combined with the rapid elimination of women from industrial employment, meant that full employment among men was maintained. The idea of building 'A Land Fit For Heroes' had been a major plank of the Coalition's appeal in 1918, and a number of steps were taken in the area of reconstruction.

• Already, in 1918, an Education Act had been passed, increasing the school-leaving age from 12 to…