The Role of the German Threat in the Propaganda and Electioneering Tactics of the Conservative Party at the Two General Elections of 1910

Abstract

For most of the period following the electoral Reform Act of 1884, the Conservative Party made opposition to Home Rule for Ireland and support for the Empire the two main planks of its appeal to voters. This proved a potent attraction at the 1900 ‘Khaki Election’, which was fought at the very height of the Boer War, at a time when the Liberal Party was in turmoil. At the 1906 General Election, the mood of the electorate had changed dramatically. Jingoism lost the advantages it had enjoyed six years earlier. After Lord Salisbury’s resignation in 1902, the party endured three years of bitter internal division over tariff reform and entered the election in a state of alarming disarray. During the election campaign, the Liberal Party offered voters a choice between a forward-looking modern party, espousing a ‘New Liberalism’ which was determined to uphold free trade and to implement social reform against a divided Conservative Party fighting to introduce protectionism.