The Conservative Government was so unsuccessful for a variety of events and political developments which all contributed to their overwhelming defeat in the 1906 General Election.
It was key events such as the Education and Licensing Acts that in my opinion were crucial factors and evermore their leader Balfour that greatly affected the Conservatives position in Great Britain as a whole. Firstly, the Boer War not only uncovered the vast amount of poverty in Cities but it also publicised the need for Social Reforms.The Boer War ultimately revealed the great extent of poverty, and to many people, the amount of money and lives lost in the War itself were seen simply unjustified and caused moral outrage throughout Britain. Unlike the Conservatives, some Liberals were already working out a new form of Liberalism in which the State would play a greater role in ensuring minimum living standards for the most vulnerable, and with the constant growing awareness of this vital need of Social Reforms led to much unpopularity for the Conservatives; with the people wanting change; and now.
Secondly, they became ever more unsuccessful with events such as the “Chinese Labour Issue” and the “Taff Vale Case”. With unemployment very much still on the rise, the British Trade Unions feared that employers might bring the Chinese into Britain because they were willing to work for low wages which would intern push down the wages back at home, so opposition to the so-called “Chinese Slavery” led to take votes from the Conservatives.The party then went onto refuse to introduce a new legislation regarding the “Taff Vale Case” which encouraged the Trade Union support for the idea of a Labour group in Parliament, leading them to campaign actually against the Conservatives party itself. Thirdly, the “1902 Education Act” and the “1904 Licensing Act” are seen to be a fundamental reason why the Conversations were so unsuccessful.
The “Education Act” created great anger to those of the nonconformists whom feared that their taxes might be spent on schools, which they highly objected and later led them to revert to the Liberal Party. While the “Licensing Act” outraged the nonconformists even further due to the Act compensating publicans and brewers for the cancellation of licenses. However, in conclusion I feel that the main reason to why the Conservatives were so unsuccessful was due to their leader itself.Balfour succeeded as Government Priminister after his Uncle Lord Salisbury’s death in 1902 and undeniably was a big factor to the disaster that was to come. It was Balfour that had piloted the “1902 Education Bill” through Parliament and so incurred the hostility of the nonconformists. He also failed to foresee the anger that both the “Chinese Labour Issue” and his refusal to reverse the “Taff Vale” would cause amongst British workingmen.
In my personal judgement, it was all these miscalculations, which ultimately led to the Conservatives to being so unsuccessful.
