The Liberal Government, 1910–14: A ‘General Crisis’?

Abstract

Two General Elections were fought in 1910. The second was held at the end of the year because the new King, George V, insisted that another General Election be held before he would agree to create the several hundred peers apparently necessary to reform the House of Lords. These elections are known respectively as those of January 1910 and December 1910. Both produced remarkably similar results, and their outcomes were partially responsible for the troubled political situation in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the First World War. Both the Liberals and the Unionists were disappointed in the results of the January 1910 election. The Liberals expected their popular anti-House of Lords cry to be echoed by the electorate, while the Unionists expected to win back the ascendancy with the electorate that they had enjoyed before the abnormality of 1906.