Editing David Lloyd George (section)

=== Postwar prime minister (1918–1922) ===
[[File:David Lloyd George - Punch cartoon - Project Gutenberg eText 17654.png|thumb | upright| <div class="center">''Snowed under''</div>St. Bernard Pup (to his Master). "This situation appeals to my hereditary instincts. 'Shall I come to the rescue?'"<br /><small>[Before leaving Switzerland Mr. Lloyd George purchased a [[St. Bernard (dog)|St. Bernard pup]].]</small><br /><small>Cartoon from ''Punch'' 15 September 1920</small>]]
At the end of the war Lloyd George's reputation stood at its zenith. Law, who was also from a provincial background, said "He can be Prime Minister for life if he likes."<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Lord Beaverbrook]] |chapter=XI: The Hero |title=Men and Power 1917 – 1918 |publisher=Hutchinson |location=London |year=1956}}</ref>{{rp|325}} Headlines at this time declared a "huge majority win" and that "[[pacifists]], even 'shining lights' such as [[Arnold Lupton]], had been completely overthrown by [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Philip Snowden]]".<ref>{{cite news |title=The Victory Election – Pacifists Swept Away |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AS19190317.2.112 |url-status=live |work=[[Auckland Star]] |date=17 March 1919 |access-date=4 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108002505/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AS19190317.2.112 |archive-date=8 January 2014}}</ref>

==== Coupon election of 1918 ====
{{main|1918 United Kingdom general election}}
In the [[1918 United Kingdom general election|"Coupon election" of December 1918]] he led a coalition of Conservatives and his own faction of Liberals to a landslide victory.{{sfn|Turner|1992|pp=317–333}} Coalition candidates received a "[[coalition coupon]]" (an endorsement letter signed by Lloyd George and Law). He did not say "We shall squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak" (that was [[Sir Eric Geddes]]), but he did express that sentiment about reparations from Germany to pay the entire cost of the war, including pensions. He said that German industrial capacity "will go a pretty long way". We must have "the uttermost farthing", and "shall search their pockets for it".{{sfn|Rose|1999|pp=14–15}} As the campaign closed, he summarised his programme:{{sfn|Havighurst|1985|p=149}}

# Trial of the [[William II, German Emperor|exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II]];
# Punishment of those guilty of atrocities;
# Fullest indemnity from Germany;
# Britain for the British, socially and industrially;
# Rehabilitation of those broken in the war; and
# A happier country for all.

The election was fought not so much on the peace issue and what to do with Germany, although those themes played a role. More important was the voters' evaluation of Lloyd George in terms of what he had accomplished so far and what he promised for the future. His supporters emphasised that he had won the Great War. Against his strong record in social legislation, he himself called for making "a country fit for heroes to live in".{{sfn|Taylor|1976|pp=127–128}}

The Coalition gained an overwhelming victory, winning 525 of the 707 seats contested; however, the Conservatives had more than two-thirds of the Coalition's seats.<ref>Alistair Lexden, "A Prime Minister of the Left in Coalition with the Right:  Lloyd George and the Unionists, 1918–22,"
''Journal of Liberal History'' (Summer 2023)  119 pp.31-37. </ref>

Asquith's independent Liberals were crushed, although they were still the official opposition as the two Liberal factions combined had more seats than Labour.{{sfn|Havighurst|1966|p=151}} Accounts vary about the factional allegiance of some MPs: by some accounts as few as 29 uncouponed Liberals had been elected, only 3 with any junior ministerial experience, and only 23 of them were actually opponents of the coalition. Until April 1919 the government whip was extended to ''all'' Liberal MPs and Lloyd George might easily have been elected chairman of the Liberal MPs (Asquith was still party leader but had lost his seat) had he been willing to antagonise his Conservative coalition partners by doing so.{{sfn|Koss|1985|pp=241–2}}

==== Paris 1919 ====
[[File:ClemenceauLloydGeorgeYOrlando.jpg|thumb|right | Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George and Vittorio Orlando at Paris]]
[[File:Council of Four Versailles.jpg|thumb|"The Big Four" made all the major decisions at the Paris Peace Conference (from left to right, Lloyd George, [[Vittorio Emanuele Orlando]] of Italy, [[Georges Clemenceau]] of France, [[Woodrow Wilson]] of the US)]]
Lloyd George represented Britain at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]], clashing with French Prime Minister [[Georges Clemenceau]], US President [[Woodrow Wilson]], and Italian Prime Minister [[Vittorio Orlando]].{{sfn|MacMillan|2001|p={{page needed|date=May 2018}}}} Unlike Clemenceau and Orlando, Lloyd George on the whole stood on the side of generosity and moderation. He did not want to utterly destroy the German economy and political system—as Clemenceau demanded—with massive reparations. The economist [[John Maynard Keynes]] looked askance at Lloyd George's economic credentials in ''[[The Economic Consequences of the Peace]]'',{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} and in ''Essays in Biography'' called the Prime Minister "this goat-footed bard, this half-human visitor to our age from the hag-ridden magic and enchanted woods of [[Celts|Celtic]] antiquity".<ref>Keynes, John Maynard, ''Essays in Biography'', Harcourt, Brace, 1933, p. 36</ref>

Lloyd George was also responsible for the pro-German shift in the peace conditions regarding borders of Poland. Instead of handing over [[Upper Silesia plebiscite|Upper Silesia]] (2,073,000 people), and the [[East Prussian plebiscite|southern part of East Prussia]] (720,000 people) to Poland as was planned before, the plebiscite was organised. [[Danzig]] (366,000 people) was organised as the [[Free City of Danzig]]. The Poles were grateful that he had saved that country from the Bolsheviks but were annoyed by his comment that they were "children who gave trouble".{{sfn|Davies|1971|pp=132–154}} Distrusting Foreign Office professionals, Lloyd George and his team at Paris instead relied on non-professional experts through informal networks below them. They consulted with [[James Headlam-Morley]] about Danzig. Several academic historians also were consulted. Their experiences were the basis for building up diplomatic history as a field of academic research and the emergence of the new academic discipline of international relations.<ref>B. J. C. McKercher, and Erik Goldstein. "Introduction: Of War and Peace: Aspects of British Policy and the Treaty of Versailles". ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 30.2 (2019): 194–200.</ref>

Asked how he had done at the peace conference, Lloyd George retorted: "I think I did as well as might be expected, seated as I was between Jesus Christ [Wilson] and Napoleon Bonaparte [Clemenceau]."{{sfn|Cashman|1988|p=526}} Historian Antony Lentin evaluated his role in Paris as a major success, saying:

{{blockquote|He was an unrivalled negotiator: on top of his brief, full of bounce, sure of himself, forceful, engaging, compelling.&nbsp;... Acutely sensitive to what he divined as the motive force in his listeners, he was adept at finding the right tone and turn of phrase to divert that force in the desired direction.&nbsp;... [he had] powerful combative instincts, executive drive and an indomitable determination to succeed.&nbsp;... [He secured] as visible and immediate trophies&nbsp;... the spoils of empire: the coveted Middle Eastern mandates, protecting the route to India and rich in oil. There were the confiscated German colonies in Africa and the South Pacific, making a reality of British rule from Cairo to the Cape and setting the far-flung bounds of Empire at their widest.&nbsp;... [while being] wholly in accord with British interest in a continental balance of power.<ref name="LentinMarch1995">{{cite journal|last=Lentin|first=Antony|date=March 1995|title=Several Types of Ambiguity: Lloyd George at the Paris Peace Conference|journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft|volume=6|issue=1|pages=223–251|doi=10.1080/09592299508405960}} quoting pp. 228, 229, 246.</ref>}}

==== Postwar social reforms ====
A major programme of social reform was introduced under Lloyd George in the last months of the war, and in the post-war years. The Workmen's Compensation (Silicosis) Act 1918 (which was introduced a year later) allowed for compensation to be paid to men "who could prove they had worked in rock which contained no less than 80% silica."{{sfn|McIvor|Johnston|2007|p=74}} The [[Education Act 1918]] raised the school leaving age to 14, increased the powers and duties of the Board of Education (together with the money it could provide to Local Education Authorities), and introduced a system of compulsory part-time continuation schools for children between the ages of 14 and 16.{{sfn|Thorpe|2014|p=51}} The [[Blind Persons Act 1920]] provided assistance for unemployed blind people and blind persons who were in low paid employment.{{sfn|Thomas|Smith|2008|pp=13–14}}

The [[Housing and Town Planning Act 1919]] provided subsidies for house building by local authorities, and 170,000 dwellings were built under it by the end of 1922.<ref name="Thane1996p136">{{cite book|last=Thane|first=Pat|author-link=Pat Thane|title=Foundations of the Welfare State|edition=2|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-582-27952-0|page=136|chapter=The First World War and After}}</ref> which established, according to [[A. J. P. Taylor]], "the principle that housing was a social service".<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=A.J.P.|author-link=A. J. P. Taylor|title=England 1914–1945|year=2000|publisher=The Folio Society|location=London|page=128|chapter=Post-War, 1918–22}}</ref> A further 30,000 houses were constructed by private enterprise with government subsidy under a second act.<ref name="Thane1996p136"/>
The [[Land Settlement (Facilities) Act 1919]] and Land Settlement (Scotland) Acts of 1919 encouraged local authorities to provide land for people to take up farming "and also to provide allotments in urban areas."

The Rent Act 1920 was intended to safeguard working-class tenants against exorbitant rent increases, but it failed.{{sfn|Lowe|1984|page={{page needed|date=October 2018}}}} Rent controls were continued after the war, and an "out-of-work donation" was introduced for ex-servicemen and civilians.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thane|first=Pat|author-link=Pat Thane|title=Foundations of the Welfare State|edition=2|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-582-27952-0|pages=136–138|chapter=The First World War and After}}</ref>

==== Electoral changes: suffragism ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Wales#David Lloyd George and the suffrage movement, 1907–1912}}
The [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] greatly extended the franchise for men (by abolishing most property qualifications) and gave the vote to many women over 30, and the [[Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918]] enabled women to sit in the House of Commons. The [[Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919]] provided that "A person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from the exercise of any public function, or from being appointed to or holding any civil or judicial office or post, or from entering or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation, or for admission to any incorporated society".

==== Wages for workers ====
The [[Unemployment Insurance Act 1920]] extended [[national insurance]] to 11 million additional workers. This was considered to be a revolutionary measure, in that it extended unemployment insurance to almost the entire labour force, whereas only certain categories of workers had been covered before.<ref name="Davies1994p510"/> As a result of this legislation, roughly three-quarters of the British workforce were now covered by unemployment insurance.<ref>Charles Loch Mowat, ''Britain between the wars: 1918–1940'' (1955) pp. 45–46.</ref>
[[File:Crown Prince Hirohito and Lloyd George 1921.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Lloyd George with Japanese Prince [[Hirohito]], 1921]]

The [[Agriculture Act 1920]] provided for farm labourers to receive a minimum wage while the state continued to guarantee the prices of farm produce until 1921. It also provided tenant farmers with greater protection by granting them better security of tenure.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{harvnb | Taylor | 1988}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2018}} In education, teachers' salaries were standardised, and more than doubled from pre-War levels, in 1921 by the [[Burnham Committee]].<ref name="Pugh1988p139">{{cite book|last=Pugh|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Pugh (historian)|title=Lloyd George|year=1988|publisher=Longman|location=London and New York|series = Profiles in Power|isbn=0-582-55268-0|page=139|chapter=The Failure of the Centre Party 1918–1922}}</ref>

The [[Mining Industry Act 1920]] placed a mandatory requirement to provide social welfare opportunities to mining communities,<ref>{{cite news | title=Coal still uniting the community | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_7777000/7777620.stm | date=11 December 2008 | access-date=10 February 2016 | website=BBC History | archive-date=6 February 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206011623/http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_7777000/7777620.stm | url-status=live }}</ref> while the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Act 1921 increased the obligation of local authorities to treat and prevent TB.{{sfn|Thorpe|2014|page=54}}

==== Health reforms ====
In 1919, the government set up the [[Ministry of Health (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Health]], a development which led to major improvements in public health in the years that followed.<ref name="Davies1994p510">{{cite book|last=Davies|first=John|author-link = John Davies (historian)|title=A History of Wales|year=1994|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-014581-6|page=510|chapter=1914–1919: The Somme, Brynmawr and Penyberth}}</ref> Whilst the Unemployed Workers' Dependants (Temporary Provisions) Act 1921 provided payments for the wives and dependent children of unemployed workers.{{sfn|Mowat|1955|p=127}} The Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act 1920 prohibited the employment of children below the limit of compulsory school age in railways and transport undertakings, building and engineering construction works, factories, and mines. The legislation also prohibited the employment of children in ships at sea (except in certain circumstances, such as in respect of family members employed on the same vessel).{{sfn|Byrne|Padfield|1980|page=204}}

[[File:David Lloyd George gcf10404.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Portrait of David Lloyd George by [[Hal Hurst]], 1915]]
The [[National Health Insurance Act 1920]] increased insurance benefits, and eligibility for pensions was extended to more people. The means limit for pensions was raised by about two-thirds, immigrants and their wives were allowed to receive pensions after living in Britain for ten years, and the imprisonment and "failure to work" disqualifications for receiving pensions were abolished. <ref>{{Cite web |date=20 May 1920 |title=National Health Insurance Act, 1920. |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/10-11/10/pdfs/ukpga_19200010_en.pdf |archive-date=19 April 2019 |access-date=10 July 2019 |website=Legislation.gov.uk}}</ref> The Blind Persons Act 1920 reduced the pension age for blind people from 70 to 50.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rnib.org.uk/nb-online/timeline|title=From 1917 to 2017: NB magazine's 100 years of eye health and sight loss|date=31 March 2017|publisher=RNIB|access-date=11 September 2019|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729032052/https://www.rnib.org.uk/nb-online/timeline|url-status=live}}</ref>

Old age pensions were nearly doubled (from £26 5s to £47 5s a year),<ref name="Pugh1988p139"/> efforts were made to help returning soldiers find employment, and the [[Whitley Councils]] of employees and employers set up.<ref name="Pugh1988p119">{{cite book|last=Pugh|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Pugh (historian)|title=Lloyd George|series=Profiles in Power|year=1988|publisher=Longman|location=London and New York|isbn=0-582-55268-0|page=119|chapter=The Government of National Efficiency 1916–1918}}</ref>

==== Cost ====
The reforming efforts of the coalition government were such that, according to the historian [[Kenneth O. Morgan]], its achievements were greater than those of the pre-war Liberal governments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heyck |first=T. W. |date=1981 |title=''Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918–1922'' by Kenneth O. Morgan (book review)|journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=330–332 |doi=10.1086/242300 |jstor=1877839 }}</ref> However, the reform programme was substantially rolled back by the [[Geddes Axe]], which cut public expenditure by £76&nbsp;million, including substantial cuts to education,<ref name="Pugh1988p142143">{{cite book|last=Pugh|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Pugh (historian)|title=Lloyd George|series=Profiles in Power|year=1988|publisher=Longman|location=London and New York|isbn=0-582-55268-0|pages=142–143|chapter=The Failure of the Centre Party 1918–1922}}</ref> and abolished the Agricultural Wages Board.{{sfn|Hattersley|2010|loc=ch. "The Perils of Peace", p. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781408700976/page/529 529]}}

==== Ireland ====
As early as 1913 Lloyd George expressed interest in the issues surrounding the of [[Irish Home Rule movement]]. He stated that he supported "...the principle of a referendum...each of the Ulster Counties is to have the option of exclusion from the Home Rule Bill". Had a referendum occurred it is quite possible that only four of Ulster's nine Counties would have voted for exclusion (see [[List of MPs elected in the 1918 United Kingdom general election]]). During Asquith's premiership, the armed insurrection by Irish republicans, known as the [[Easter Rising]], had taken place in [[Dublin]] during Easter Week, 1916. The government responded with harsh repression; key leaders were quickly executed. The mostly Catholic Irish nationalists then underwent a dramatic change of mood, and shifted to demand vengeance and independence.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jeffrey M. Shaw|author2=Timothy J. Demy|title=War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDlFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA250|year=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|pages=250–51 vol 1|isbn=978-1-61069-517-6|access-date=19 May 2018|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729221555/https://books.google.com/books?id=KDlFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA250|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|McGarry|2010|pp=262–263}}

In 1917, Lloyd George called the 1917–18 [[Irish Convention]] in an attempt to settle the outstanding [[Government of Ireland Act 1914|Home Rule for Ireland]] issue; however, the upsurge in republican sympathies in Ireland following the Easter Rising coupled with Lloyd George's disastrous attempt to extend [[Conscription Crisis of 1918|conscription to Ireland]] in April 1918 led to the landslide victory of [[Sinn Féin]] and the wipeout of the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] at the December 1918 election.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joseph P. Finnan|title=John Redmond and Irish Unity: 1912 – 1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4xq07aUiSlIC&pg=PA1|year=2004|publisher=Syracuse UP|pages=1–3|isbn=978-0-8156-3043-2|access-date=16 January 2018|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729234144/https://books.google.com/books?id=4xq07aUiSlIC&pg=PA1|url-status=live}}</ref> Replaced by Sinn Féin MPs, they immediately declared an [[Irish Republic]].

Lloyd George presided over the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]] which partitioned Ireland into [[Southern Ireland (1921–22)|Southern Ireland]] and [[Northern Ireland]] in May 1921 during the [[Anglo-Irish War]]. Lloyd George famously declared of the [[Irish Republican Army (1917–22)|Irish Republican Army]] that "We have murder by the throat!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Wrigley|first=Chris|title=Lloyd George|series=Historical Association Studies|year=1992|publisher=Blackwell Publishers|location=Oxford|isbn=0-631-16608-4|page=106|chapter=A Fit World and a Fit Land to Live in?}}</ref> However, he soon afterwards began negotiations with IRA leaders to recognise their authority and to end a bloody conflict. Lloyd George also invited the leader of northern Irish Unionists [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|James Craig]] to the negotiations but he refused to attend. Lloyd George wrote to Craig on 14 November 1921 "Your proposal to leave the six counties under the Northern Parliament would stereotype a frontier based neither upon natural features nor broad geographical considerations by giving it the character of an international boundary. Partition upon these lines the majority of the Irish people will never accept, nor could we conscientiously attempt to enforce it."<ref>Healy, Cahir (1945), ''The Mutilation of a Nation: The Story behind Partition in Ireland'', McCarthy Publishers, p. 15, {{JSTOR|community.29825522}}.</ref> (See [[The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)]]). The [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] was signed in December 1921 with Irish leaders. The [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]] exercised Article 12 of the Treaty to opt out of the [[Irish Free State]]. The Treaty established the [[Irish Boundary Commission]] to draw a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions...". Southern Ireland, representing over a fifth of the United Kingdom's territory, seceded in 1922 to form the [[Irish Free State]]. (See [[Partition of Ireland]]).

==== Foreign policy crises ====
[[File:2211-lloyd-george.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Lloyd George in 1922]]
In 1921, Lloyd George successfully concluded the [[Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement]]. Despite much effort he was unable to negotiate full diplomatic relations, as the Russians rejected all repayment of Tsarist era debts, and Conservatives in Britain grew exceedingly wary of the communist threat to European stability. Indeed, [[Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet|Henry Wilson]], the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, worried that Lloyd George had become "a traitor & a Bolshevist".<ref name="CrosbyReconstruction">{{harvnb|Crosby|2014|loc=ch. 13: Reconstruction and Resistance}}</ref>{{rp|276–279}}

Lloyd George in 1922 decided to support Greece in a war against Turkey. This led to the [[Chanak Crisis]] when most of the Dominions rejected his policy and refused to support the proposed war.<ref>{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Kenneth O.|author-link=Kenneth O. Morgan|title=Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918–1922|year=1979|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-822497-4|pages=302–330|chapter=The Downfall of the Coalition: Foreign Policy}}</ref>

====Domestic crises====
[[File:David Lloyd George statue next to Caernarfon Castle.JPG|thumb|Lloyd George statue at Caernarfon Castle (1921), in recognition of his service as local MP and prime minister]]
The more conservative wing of the Unionist Party had no intention of introducing reforms, which led to three years of frustrated fighting within the coalition both between the National Liberals and the Unionists and between factions within the Conservatives themselves. Many Conservatives were angered by the granting of independence to the Irish Free State and by [[Edwin Montagu]]'s moves towards [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms|limited self-government for India]], while a [[Depression of 1920–21|sharp economic downturn]] and [[Triple Alliance (1914)#The Post-War Triple Alliance|wave of strikes]] in 1921 damaged Lloyd George's credibility. The "cash for patronage" scandal erupted in 1922 when it became known that Lloyd George had essentially sold [[Peerages in the United Kingdom|peerages]] (from 1917 to 1922 more than 120 hereditary peers were created) and lesser honours such as knighthoods, with a "price list for peerages" (£10,000 for a knighthood, £40,000 for a baronetcy), to raise funds for his party, via [[Maundy Gregory]]. This was not illegal at the time.<ref>{{cite web | title=A history of the UK's honours scandals | website=The Week UK | date=4 March 2022 | url=https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/954041/a-short-history-of-the-uks-honour-scandals}}</ref> A major attack in the [[House of Lords]] on his corruption followed, resulting in the [[Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925]]. Other complaints were that the Cabinet contained too many Scots, too few men from Oxbridge and the great public schools, too many businessmen, and too few gentlemen.<ref name="CrosbyTo Straighten">{{harvnb|Crosby|2014|loc=ch. To Straighten Ragged Edges}}</ref>{{rp|330–331}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Kenneth O.|author-link=Kenneth O. Morgan|title=Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918–1922|year=1979|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-822497-4|pages=331–356|chapter=The Downfall of the Coalition: Party Politics}}</ref>

[[File:The Colossus A Tale of Two Tubs.jpg|thumb|left |A cartoon from ''Punch'' depicting Lloyd George, with the caption "The Colossus: A Tale of Two Tubs"]]
==== Fall from power, 1922 ====

The coalition was dealt its final blow in October 1922. The Conservatives felt let down by France over the [[Chanak Crisis]], with Law telling France, "We cannot act alone as the policeman of the world."<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Boyce|author-link=Robert Boyce (historian)|title=The Great Interwar Crisis and the Collapse of Globalization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s3qHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|year=2009|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|page=125|isbn=978-0-230-28076-2|access-date=1 October 2018|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729233816/https://books.google.com/books?id=s3qHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|url-status=live}}</ref> The Conservative leader, [[Austen Chamberlain]], summoned a [[Carlton Club meeting, 19 October 1922|meeting of Conservative members of parliament]] at the [[Carlton Club]] to discuss their attitude to the Coalition in the forthcoming election. Chamberlain and most Conservative leaders supported Lloyd George; however, the rank and file rejected the coalition. The main attack came from [[Stanley Baldwin]], then President of the Board of Trade, who spoke of Lloyd George as a "dynamic force" who would break the Conservative Party. They sealed Lloyd George's fate on 19 October 1922 by voting in favour of the motion to end the coalition and fight the election "as an independent party, with its own leader and its own programme". Lloyd George submitted his resignation to the King that afternoon.{{sfn|Ramsden|1998|p=244}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Rowland|first=Peter|title=Lloyd George|year=1975|publisher=Barrie & Jenkins Ltd|location=London|isbn=0-214-20049-3|page=584|chapter=The Man at the Top, 1918–1922}}</ref>