Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

===Leader of the Opposition: 1922===
In January 1922 [[C.P. Scott]] of the ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'' told Asquith that he supported a centre-left grouping, but only if moderate Labour was included—in reality Labour leaders were unable to deliver the support of their local members for such a realignment.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=492–493}} Asquith achieved more success with a major speech at [[Westminster Central Hall]] in January 1922, in reply to a speech by Lloyd George a few days earlier. Asquith had with some difficulty been persuaded to make the maximum possible reference to his renewed alliance with Grey, but Haldane had refused to join the platform. Five days later Churchill replied with a pro-Coalition speech in which he accused Asquith and other Liberals of having "stood carefully aside" during the war, causing deep offence.{{sfn|Koss|pp=253–255}}{{efn|Churchill's wife remonstrated with him that Asquith had seen his sons killed and maimed. Churchill replied that Asquith had left him to be a scapegoat over the Dardanelles, had refused to appoint him Commander-in-Chief in East Africa or to give him the brigade command on the Western Front which he had promised him at the end of 1915, or to appoint him to the vacancy for Minister of Munitions in the summer of 1916.{{sfn|Koss|pp=253–255}} Asquith re-established friendly relations with Churchill after they were sat together at the wedding of the [[George VI of the United Kingdom|Duke of York]] and [[Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon]], writing of him as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1925 that he was "a Chimborazo or Everest among the sandhills of the Baldwin Cabinet".{{sfn|Jenkins|p=497}}}}

By the summer of 1922 Asquith's interest in politics was at a very low ebb.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=493}} He was observed to be very heavily drunk and was helped up the stairs by Lloyd George at a party of Sir [[Philip Sassoon]]'s on 16 July 1922. His reputation was further damaged by his portrayal in [[Aldous Huxley]]'s novel ''[[Crome Yellow]]'' and by the publication of the first volume of Margot's memoirs, which sold well in the UK and the United States, but were thought an undignified way for a former prime minister to make money.{{sfn|Koss|pp=255–256}} On 13 September 1922 Sir Donald Maclean told [[Harold Laski]] that Asquith was devoted to bridge and small talk and did not do enough real work.{{sfn|Koss|p=255}} Asquith was increasingly attracted by the thought of making money from writing, with Churchill doing very well from his ''[[The World Crisis]]'' and Lloyd George rumoured to be being paid handsomely for his memoirs (which in the event did not appear until the mid-1930s).{{sfn|Jenkins|p=494}} Asquith's books ''The Genesis of the War'' finally appeared in September 1923 and ''Studies and Sketches'' in 1924.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=495}} His second son Herbert recorded, "A large part of my father's later years was occupied with authorship and it was during this period that he wrote most of his longer books."{{sfn|Herbert Asquith|p=367}}

Asquith played no part in Lloyd George's fall from power in October 1922, which happened because the rank-and-file majority of his Conservative coalition partners, led by [[Stanley Baldwin]] and Lloyd George's former colleague Law, deserted him.{{sfn|Adams|pp=327–328}} Law formed a purely Conservative government, and the following month, at the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 general election]], Asquith ceased to be Leader of the Opposition as more Labour MPs were elected than the two Liberal factions combined. 138 Labour members outnumbered the combined Liberal number of 117, with 60 Asquith supporters and 57 "[[National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)|National Liberals]]" (adherents to Lloyd George).{{sfn|Jenkins|p=496}} Asquith had thought Paisley would be safe but was only narrowly returned with a 316 majority (50.5 per cent of the votes cast in a two-candidate battle with Labour), despite a rise in the Liberal vote. He put this down to the 5,000 unemployed at Paisley after the [[Depression of 1920–21|slump of 1920–1921]]. He wrote that he "gloated" over the senior Coalition Liberals—Churchill, [[Hamar Greenwood]], [[Freddie Guest]] and Edwin Montagu—who lost their seats.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=495–496}}<ref name="results">{{cite book | last = Craig | first = F.W.S.| year = 1977 | title = British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949 | edition = revised  | publisher = The Macmillan Press Ltd|location=London  | oclc = 26407514 |page=605 }}</ref>