Editing David Lloyd George (section)

== Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–1915) ==
{{see also|Women's suffrage in Wales#David Lloyd George and the suffrage movement, 1907–1912|l1=David Lloyd George and the suffrage movement, 1907–1912}}
On Campbell-Bannerman's death, he succeeded Asquith, who had become prime minister, as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] from 1908 to 1915.<ref name="CrosbyIntheCabinet"/>{{rp|81}}<ref name="CrosbyRighteousness">{{harvnb|Crosby|2014|loc=ch. The Righteousness That Exalteth a Nation}}</ref>{{rp|189–190}} While he continued some work from the Board of Trade—for example, legislation to establish the [[Port of London Authority]] and to pursue traditional Liberal programmes such as licensing law reforms—his first major trial in this role was over the 1909–1910 Naval Estimates. The Liberal manifesto at the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906 general election]] included a commitment to reduce military expenditure. Lloyd George strongly supported this, writing to [[Reginald McKenna]], First Lord of the Admiralty, of "the emphatic pledges given by all of us at the last general election to reduce the gigantic expenditure on armaments built up by the recklessness of our predecessors." He then proposed the programme be reduced from six to four [[dreadnoughts]]. This was adopted by the government, but there was a public storm when the Conservatives, with covert support from the First Sea Lord, Admiral [[John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher|Jackie Fisher]], campaigned for more with the slogan "We want eight and we won't wait". This resulted in Lloyd George's defeat in Cabinet and the adoption of estimates including provision for eight dreadnoughts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Massie |first=Robert K. |author-link=Robert K. Massie |title=Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94LfKeiMTegC&pg=PA609 |url-status=live |publisher=Random House |year=1992 |pages=609–615 |access-date=15 January 2018 |isbn=978-0-307-81993-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731133034/https://books.google.com/books?id=94LfKeiMTegC&pg=PA609 |archive-date=31 July 2020}}</ref> During this period he was also a target of protest by the women's suffrage movement, for he professed personal support for extension of the suffrage but did not move for changes within the Parliament process.<ref>{{cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Diane |title=Rise up, women!: the remarkable lives of the suffragettes |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=London |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-4088-4404-5 |oclc=1016848621}}</ref>

[[File:David Lloyd George 1911.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Chancellor Lloyd George by [[Christopher Williams (Welsh artist)|Christopher Williams]] (1911)]]

=== People's Budget, 1909 ===
{{further|People's Budget}}
In 1909, Lloyd George introduced his [[People's Budget]], imposing a 20% [[Land value tax|tax on the unearned increase in the value of land]], payable at the death of the owner or sale of the land, and {{frac|1|2}}&nbsp;d. on undeveloped land and minerals, increased death duties, a rise in income tax, and the introduction of [[Supertax]] on income over £3,000.{{sfn|McKinstry|2005|pp=504–505}} There were taxes also on luxuries, [[Alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] and tobacco, so that money could be made available for the new welfare programmes as well as new battleships. The nation's landowners (well represented in the House of Lords) were intensely angry at the new taxes, mostly at the proposed very high tax on land values, but also because the instrumental redistribution of wealth could be used to detract from an argument for protective tariffs.{{sfn|Ramsden|1998|p={{page needed|date=May 2018}}}}

The immediate consequences included the end of the [[Liberal League (United Kingdom)|Liberal League]], and Rosebery breaking friendship with the Liberal Party, which in itself was for Lloyd George a triumph. He had won the case of social reform without losing the debate on Free Trade.<ref name=JenkinsDLG>{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Roy |author-link=Roy Jenkins |chapter=David Lloyd George |title=The Chancellors |publisher=Macmillan |year=1998 |isbn=0-333-73057-7}}</ref>{{rp|166}} [[Arthur Balfour]] denounced the budget as "vindictive, inequitable, based on no principles, and injurious to the productive capacity of the country."<ref name=JenkinsDLG/>{{rp|167}} [[Roy Jenkins]] described it as the most reverberating since Gladstone's in 1860.<ref name=JenkinsDLG/>{{rp|172}}

In the House of Commons, Lloyd George gave a brilliant account of the budget, which was attacked by the Conservatives. On the stump, notably at his Limehouse speech in 1909, he denounced the Conservatives and the wealthy classes with all his very considerable oratorical power. Excoriating the House of Lords in another speech, Lloyd George said, "should 500 men, ordinary men, chosen accidentally from among the unemployed, override the judgement—the deliberate judgement—of millions of people who are engaged in the industry which makes the wealth of the country?".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseoflords/house-of-lords-reform/from-the-collections/peoples-budget/davidlloydgeorge/ |title=David Lloyd George (1863-1945) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2016-04-03 |publisher=UK Parliament |access-date=2023-10-15}}</ref> In a break with [[Constitutional convention (political custom)|convention]], the budget was defeated by the Conservative majority in the House of Lords. The elections of 1910 narrowly upheld the Liberal government. The 1909 budget was passed on 28 April 1910 by the Lords and received the [[Royal Assent]] on the 29th.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=Bruce |title=The "People's Budget" a Century On |url=http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/64_Murray_Peoples_Budget.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Journal of Liberal History |publisher=[[Liberal Democrat History Group]] |issue=64 |page=12 |date=Autumn 2009 |access-date=11 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213005558/https://liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/64_Murray_Peoples_Budget.pdf |archive-date=13 February 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Hattersley|2010|loc=ch. "A Reasonable Way Out", pp. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781408700976/page/278 278]–279}} Subsequently, the [[Parliament Act 1911]] removed the House of Lords' power to block money bills, and with a few exceptions replaced their veto power over most bills with a power to delay them for up to two years.

Although old-age pensions had already been introduced by Asquith as Chancellor, Lloyd George was largely responsible for the introduction of state financial support for the sick and infirm (known colloquially as "going on the Lloyd George" for decades afterwards)—legislation referred to as the [[Liberal Reforms]]. Lloyd George also succeeded in putting through Parliament his [[National Insurance Act 1911]], making provision for sickness and invalidism, and a system of unemployment insurance. He was helped in his endeavours by forty or so backbenchers who regularly pushed for new social measures, often voted with Labour MPs.{{sfn|Watts|2002|p={{page needed|date=May 2018}}}} These social reforms in Britain were the beginnings of a [[welfare state]] and fulfilled the aim of dampening down the demands of the growing working class for rather more radical solutions to their impoverishment.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

Under his leadership, after 1909 the Liberals extended minimum wages to farmworkers.<ref>[[Alun Howkins]] and Nicola Verdon. "The state and the farm worker: the evolution of the minimum wage in agriculture in England and Wales, 1909–24". ''[[Agricultural History Review]]'' 57.2 (2009): 257–274. [http://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/57_205HowkinsandVerdon.pdf online] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205013451/http://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/57_205HowkinsandVerdon.pdf |date=5 February 2017}}</ref>

[[File:David Lloyd George c1911.jpg|thumb|right|David Lloyd George circa 1911]]

=== Mansion House Speech, 1911 ===
Lloyd George was an opponent of warfare but he paid little attention to foreign affairs until the [[Agadir Crisis]] of 1911. After consulting Edward Grey (the foreign minister) and H.{{nbsp}}H. Asquith (the prime minister) he gave a stirring and patriotic speech at [[Mansion House, London|Mansion House]] on 21 July 1911, during that year's annual white tie dinner at the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, where the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers a speech known as the "Mansion House Speech".<ref>Timothy Boyle, "New Light on Lloyd George's Mansion House Speech." ''Historical Journal'' 23#2 (1980), pp. 431–33, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638677 online].</ref> He stated:<blockquote> But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure. National honour is no party question. The security of our great international trade is no party question.<ref>Kenneth Bourne, ''The Foreign Policy of Victorian England, 1830–1902'' (Clarendon Press, 1970) p. 496.</ref> </blockquote>

He was warning both France and Germany, but the public response cheered solidarity with France and hostility toward Germany.<ref>Keith Wilson, "The Agadir Crisis, the Mansion House Speech, and the Double-Edgedness of Agreements." ''Historical Journal'' 15.3 (1972): 513–532.</ref> Berlin was outraged, blaming Lloyd George for doing "untold harm both with regard to German public opinion and the negotiations." [[Paul Wolff Metternich|Count Metternich]], Germany's ambassador in London, said, "Mr Lloyd George's speech came upon us like a thunderbolt".{{sfn|Grey|1925|loc=i, pp. 236–237}}<ref>E. L. Woodward, ''Great Britain and the German Navy'' (1935) pp. 312–313.</ref>

=== Marconi scandal 1913 ===
In 1913, Lloyd George, along with [[Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading|Rufus Isaacs]], the Attorney General, was involved in the [[Marconi scandal]]. Accused of speculating in Marconi shares on the inside information that they were about to be awarded a key government contract (which would have caused them to increase in value), he told the House of Commons that he had not speculated in the shares of "that company". He had in fact bought shares in the American Marconi Company.<ref name="Pugh1988p59-61">{{cite book |last=Pugh |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Pugh (historian) |series=Profiles in Power |title=Lloyd George |chapter=The New Liberalism 1908–1914 |publisher=Longman |location=London / New York |year=1988 |pages=59–61 |isbn=0-582-55268-0}}</ref>

=== Welsh disestablishment ===
Lloyd George was instrumental in fulfilling a long-standing aspiration to disestablish the [[Anglican Church]] of Wales. As with [[Government of Ireland Act 1914|Irish Home Rule]], previous attempts to enact this had failed in the 1892–1895 Governments, and were now made possible by the removal of the Lords' veto in 1911, and as with Home Rule the initial bill (1912) was delayed for two years by the Lords, becoming [[Welsh Church Act 1914|law in 1914]], only to be [[Suspensory Act 1914|suspended for the duration of the war]]. After the [[Welsh Church (Temporalities) Act 1919]] was passed, Welsh Disestablishment finally [[came into force]] in 1920. This Act also removed the right of the six Welsh Bishops in the new [[Church in Wales]] to sit in the House of Lords and removed (disendowed) certain pre-1662 property rights.<ref name="TomJonesMember"/>{{rp|18–20}}<ref name="TomJonesCabinet">{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Thomas |title=Lloyd George |chapter=III: Cabinet Minister 1906–1914 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |year=1951}}</ref>{{rp|42}}<ref>K. O. Morgan, ''Wales in British Politics'' (Cardiff, 1963), 259–279.</ref>