Editing Edwardian era (section)

===Labour Party===
{{Further|History of the Labour Party (UK)}}
[[File:Labour_Representation_Committee_leaders_1906.jpg|thumb|right|Leaders of the Labour Party in 1906]]
The Labour Party was emerging from the rapidly growing trade union movement after 1890. In 1903 it entered the [[Gladstone–MacDonald pact]] with the Liberals, allowing for cross-party support in elections, and the emergence of a small Labour contingent in Parliament. It was a temporary arrangement until the 1920s, when the Labour Party was strong enough to act on its own, and the Liberals were in an irreversible decline. Subtle social changes in the working-class were producing a younger generation that wanted to act independently.<ref name="Michael Childs 1929">Michael Childs, "Labour Grows Up: The Electoral System, Political Generations, and British Politics 1890–1929." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 6#2 (1995): 123–144.</ref>

Michael Childs argues that the younger generation had reason to prefer Labour over Liberal political styles. Social factors included secularised elementary education (with a disappearing role for Dissenting schools that inculcated Liberal viewpoints); the "New Unionism" after 1890 brought unskilled workers into a movement previously dominated by the skilled workers;<ref>G.R. Searle, ''A new England?: peace and war, 1886–1918'' (2004), pp 185–87.</ref> and new leisure activities, especially the [[music hall]] and sports, involved youth while repelling the older generation of Liberal voters.<ref name="Michael Childs 1929"/>