British Depth Study

?
View mindmap
  • Liberal Reforms
    • Background of the 1890-1905
      • all children had to go to school and eduation was free
      • all male house owners had the right to vote in elections
      • houses were connected to the sewer systems
      • wages had risen and the average family was better off than it had been at the start of the century
      • the poor were arranged into starving, homeless, honest poor, druggies and people in crime
      • it was thought that 25% of people were living poverty
    • Work of social reformers (Booth and Rowntree)
      • most Victorians believed that the poor were responsible for their own poverty - 'laissez-fair'
      • by the end of the 19th century people were staring to see the social and economis reasons of poverty
      • Charles Booth
        • born into a wealthy ship owning family and moved to London
        • he refused to accept the statistics of 25% of the population were living in poverty
        • set up a team of investigators and spent 17 years investigating the living conditions, income and spending of over 4000 people.
        • the work was published between 1889 and 1903, called 'Life and Labour of the People of London'
        • he found that nearly 31% of Londoners were living below the 'poverty line'
          • 'poverty line' = didn't have money to but enough food, shelter and clothing
        • he split the poor into 4 classes:
          • Class A: lowest class- street sellers, criminals, and loafers. Live like savages with extreme hardship, represent 1.25% of London's population
          • Class B: casual earnings- widows, deserted women and part-time labourers who are shiftless and helpless, represents 1.25% of London's population
          • Class C: Occasional earnings- hit by trade depression, 8% of London's populatin
          • Class D: low wages- less than 21 shillings a week, wages barley enough to stay alive
      • Seebohm Rowntree
        • belonged to a York biased chocolate factory
        • interested in Booths findings he decided to see if it was the same in York
        • he found that 28% of people in York were living in poverty
        • he divided poverty into 2 types:
          • Primary poverty: no matter how hard the family worked they would not have enough money for food, shelter and clothing - they had no chance
          • Secondary Poverty: could just about afford food, cloths and shelter for themselves - living on the edge
        • both showed that the poverty problem was not solved and that poverty usually wasn't the fault of the poor
          • Charles Booth
            • born into a wealthy ship owning family and moved to London
            • he refused to accept the statistics of 25% of the population were living in poverty
            • set up a team of investigators and spent 17 years investigating the living conditions, income and spending of over 4000 people.
            • the work was published between 1889 and 1903, called 'Life and Labour of the People of London'
            • he found that nearly 31% of Londoners were living below the 'poverty line'
              • 'poverty line' = didn't have money to but enough food, shelter and clothing
            • he split the poor into 4 classes:
              • Class A: lowest class- street sellers, criminals, and loafers. Live like savages with extreme hardship, represent 1.25% of London's population
              • Class B: casual earnings- widows, deserted women and part-time labourers who are shiftless and helpless, represents 1.25% of London's population
              • Class C: Occasional earnings- hit by trade depression, 8% of London's populatin
              • Class D: low wages- less than 21 shillings a week, wages barley enough to stay alive
        • wrote a book called 'A study of Town life'
      • Rowntree and Booths books were read by thousands of people
    • Life for the poor at the beginning of the 20th century - charities/poor law
      • Charities
        • Provided help in the form of money, food and clothes
        • by 1905 there were 700-800 in London
        • some charities were set up for children e.g. Barnardo's made by DR.Barnardo in 1865
      • The Poor Law, Workhuses
        • the most dreaded and feared type of help
        • workhouses provided food shelter for the poor but were very grim places; conditions were awful
        • the usual form of relief, outside the workhouse, was payments in cash and goods.
          • it was one thing to be poor but another to accept relief  there was big shame and discrace attatched it
          • like to admit defeat
      • poor people lived in poor housing with seasonal jobs
      • there was no government help if they were sick or unemployed
      • they were expected to save when they had jobs although did not earn enough to do this
    • Why did poverty became such a political issue?
      • thousands of people read Charles Booth's and Seebohm Rowntree's books- even Churchill who would be in the position to do something
      • The Boer War in 1899. Young men volunteered to fight and thousands were rejected for being too unfit.
        • as many as 2/3 of volunteers were turned down because of medical examinations
      • the economies countries as America and Germany were highly successful due to a skilled and hardworking workforces
        • it looked like the British workforce hadn't got the strength or stamina to compete
        • in Germany reforms were made to help the poor
      • competition from the conservative party
        • in 1905 the conservatives introduced the Education act, which showed that they were trying to help the poor
        • most likely to gain votes and this worried the Liberals
      • competition from the Labour party which was formed in 1900 by socialist groupes
        • they pledged to help workers get better living conditions
        • wted a fairer distribution of wealth
        • liberals worried this would make them loose votes
      • many younger 'new liberals' like David Lloyd George and Winston Curchill actually wanted to help people
    • Reforms for children
      • Free school meals (1906)
        • provided free school meals for children from the poorest families
        • +ve by 1914 150,000 children we having them once ever day
        • -ve as councils had to pay for it they often chose not to
      • School medical Inspections (1907)
        • doctors and nurses and gave free medical checks to kids and recommended treatment
        • +ve childrens parents were told what their child needed
        • -ve checks were free but treatment children went untreated
      • Children's act, aka Children's Charter(1908)
        • children became protected people, children homes were inspected and juvenile courts were made
        • +ve parents could be punished for being cruel to their children and children in homes gained better care
      • School clinics(1912)
        • a network of clinics were set up providing free treatment for children
        • +ve it meant kids could get the treatment that they had to pay for before
        • -ve the standard varied depending on the council
    • Reforms for the sick and unemplyed
      • the Labour Exchange act (1909)
        • like a job centre
        • +ve unemployed workers could go to labour exchange to get a job instead of tramping back and fourth from place to place
      • the National Insurance Act Part 1 (1911)
        • set up to aim to reduce poverty resulting from illness
        • +ve in the beginning around 10 million men and 4 million women were covered, helped when they were ill and given free treatment
        • -ve only workers were covered and they had to pay from their already low wages
      • the National Insurance Part 2 (1912)
        • aimed at preventing poverty from unemployment by insuring workers whilst they were jobless
        • +ve at first covered 2.25 million workers most skilled men
        • -ve restricted to seasonal trades so unemployment was common
    • Reform for the elderly
      • the Pensions act (1908)
        • gave weekly money to the elderly
        • +ve kept some old people out of workhouses
        • -ve funds were cut in 1909
        • -ve only around 1/2 million people qualified. as they had to be over 70, earn less than £21 a year, been a British citizen for 20 years =, not been in prion 10 years before, and could prove they had tried to find work all their life.
        • the rich were against this because they were taxed more for it
    • Opposition to the reforms
      • as the reforms had to be air for Lloyd George introduced the a budget in 1909 which taxed the rich and the landowners
      • the house of Lords, full of rich land owners opposed the budget at first, people a 'lasses faire' attitude.
      • people felt it was wrong for the state to encourage people to be lazy
      • after the general election in in Jan 1910 which the liberals won the House of Lords had to agree with the budget
    • effectiveness of the reforms
      • the liberal reforms did not help everyone, nor did they intend to
      • the 2 main reforms, pension and national insurance were both quite limated
    • Historians views on the reforms
      • disagree about the importance
        • some see them as the beginning of the Welfare State
        • others see it purely as economic biased move to improve the health of Britain's workforce

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all Changes in British society during the 20th century resources »