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Y112: Britain 1900–1951

British politics 1918–1929: the coupon election, the coalition’s fall and the 1923 election

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 1

Overview

Recall questions on the coupon election of 1918, Liberal decline, the peacetime coalition’s achievements, the Geddes Axe, the fall of the coalition in 1922 and the significance of the 1923 election.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What was the significance of the 1923 election?

Numbers

What was the 'coupon' in the election of December 1918?

Key term

What was the outcome of the 1918 election?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was the 'coupon' in the election of December 1918?

    Model answer

    A letter of endorsement signed by Lloyd George and Bonar Law identifying the candidate each constituency's coalition supporters should back, which effectively excluded the Liberals who had followed Asquith in 1916.

  2. 2

    What was the outcome of the 1918 election?

    Model answer

    The coalition won about 478 of the 707 seats, most of them Conservative, giving it an overall majority of roughly 250; Asquith's Liberals were reduced to about thirty and Asquith himself lost his seat, while Labour became the largest opposition party with fifty-seven.

  3. 3

    Why did the coalition win so heavily in 1918?

    Model answer

    Lloyd George was the man who had won the war and promised homes fit for heroes, the electorate had just been trebled and had no settled loyalties, feeling against Germany ran high, and the opposition was split between rival Liberals and an inexperienced Labour party.

  4. 4

    Why did the Liberal party decline so far by 1924?

    Model answer

    The split of 1916 left two organisations, two leaders and two funds; the party had no distinctive policy once free trade seemed secure; Labour captured the working-class vote created by the 1918 franchise; and in a first-past-the-post system a party running third won few seats for many votes.

  5. 5

    Name two domestic achievements of Lloyd George's peacetime coalition.

    Model answer

    Addison's Housing Act of 1919 gave the first substantial state subsidy for council housing, building over two hundred thousand homes, and unemployment insurance was extended in 1920 to cover most manual workers.

  6. 6

    What was the Geddes Axe?

    Model answer

    The committee under Sir Eric Geddes which in 1922 recommended cuts of tens of millions of pounds in public spending, falling on education, health and housing, and ending the promised reconstruction programme.

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