THE WELSH WIZARD
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1863-1945
I bet you are wondering why, I have decided to do an article, about this very radical, former First World War Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, & Minister of Munitions. The reason is that David Lloyd George was teetotal, but his actions in government, especially during the First World War, has had a profound effect, on how British Pubs were going to develop, throughout the remainder of the 20th century . David LLoyd George was born in Chorlton-on-Metlock, an inner city suburb to Welsh parents.
His father a schoolmaster, died a year after his birth, therefore his early life, he was raised in Wales, by his mother, & her shoemaker brother. His upbringing was influenced by the families Liberal politics, & Baptist faith. David Lloyd George was extremely clever, being partly self-taught, he excelled in his studies at the local village school, learning Latin & French, to help him become a solicitor.
WESTMINSTER BECKONS
MP FOR CAERNAVON BOROUGHS
chancellor of the exchequer
chancellor of the exchequer
In 1890 at the age of 27, he was elected Liberal MP for Caernarvon,after he narrowly won a by-election where he reamined serving the constituency for 55 years. His energetic, & unconventional outlook in character, & politics, along with his scathing wit, made him a dreaded, but respected debating opponent, in the House of Commons chamber.
In 1890 at the age of 27, he was elected Liberal MP for Caernarvon,after he narrowly won a by-election where he reamined serving the constituency for 55 years. His energetic, & unconventional outlook in character, & politics, along with his scathing wit, made him a dreaded, but respected debating opponent, in the House of Commons chamber. Lloyd George served in Henry Campbell Bannerman's cabinet from 1905.
chancellor of the exchequer
chancellor of the exchequer
chancellor of the exchequer
In 1906, being recognised as an able politician he was made President of the Board of Trade. A couple of years later after H.H.Asquith had become Prime Minister, David Lloyd George became the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1909 he announced the "People's Budget", to enable him to raise funds for vital welfare reforms by taxing those with high incomes & land ownership.
PARLIAMENT ACT 1911
chancellor of the exchequer
PARLIAMENT ACT 1911
Due to the House of Lords being dominated by Conservative peers the,"People's Budget", broke convention by opposing the bill, this bought about a constitutional crisis. This was only resolved after 2 elections in 1910, & the passing of the Parliament Act 1911 which removed the right of the House of Lords to veto money bills.
Alongside the
Due to the House of Lords being dominated by Conservative peers the,"People's Budget", broke convention by opposing the bill, this bought about a constitutional crisis. This was only resolved after 2 elections in 1910, & the passing of the Parliament Act 1911 which removed the right of the House of Lords to veto money bills.
Alongside the enacting of the budget the,"National Insurance Act 1911", was introduced, which helped to establish the modern welfare state.
THE GREAT WAR JULY 1914 - NOVEMBER 1918
money spent on booze cannot buy shoes
The growing support for the Temperance Movement, those that wanted society to curb the devil drink, that they considered the scourge of all humanity, especially those in the lower classes, were slowly having the influence, to liberalise the consumption of alcohol on licensed premises. Licensing laws began to restrict the opening hours of premises.
This was to become even more drastic, with the outbreak of the Great War, to end all wars, when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, was assassinated in Sarajevo. This sparked the fire for hostilities to begin, between Germany, France & Great Britain.
WE ARE FIGHTING GERMANY AUSTRIA & DRINK
After the outbreak of the war in August 1914, Parliament introduced the," Defence of the Realm Act", which covered a range of measures to aid the Allied war effort. Part of the act, looked specifically at how the high consumption, of high strength alcohol, may have a negative impact, on troops on the front line, & municipal workers, producing an unsatisfactory supply, of quality bullets, shells, & other armaments, vital to winning the war. Something needed to be done, measures included restricting opening hours for licensed premises. Pubs were open at lunch time between 12:00 to 14:00 & later on in the early evening from 18:30 to 21:30.
These measures though, didn't have the desired results, especially with the workers, at the large munition factories, that were established to produce the vast amount of ordnance, needed to supply the troops entrenched in the fields of France.
The ministry of munitions
It became apparent that high level consumption of alcohol, threatened the productivity of munitions. Factory workers high work ethics were a concern, as being in a constant state of drunkenness, or recovering from hangovers, the quality of their work would suffer. This came to a head in the Shell Crisis of 1915. Artillery had become the main force in how the war was fought on the Western Front, owing to the high rate of firing shells at over a long period of time stocks of shells became very low.
Due to the fallout of the Shell Crisis, this prompted the formation of a coalition government. David Lloyd George, could see that a different strategy was needed, to bring the making of munitions, into government control. He became Minister of Munitions in 1915. This enabled him to bring about changes to workers conditions, improvement in health & safety at the factories as well as providing better quality workers housing.
His dogmatic leadership helped to encourage the workers to produce the required amount of munitions the army needed. This was also backed up with measures the government took to make sure the workers minds were 100% focused on their jobs.
THE IMMATURE SPIRITS RESTRICTION ACT 1915
TEETOTAL Lloyd george act backfires
The Immature Spirits Restriction Act 1915, introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George overall results, that was supposed to have brought in extra capital to the nations coffers as well as trying to curtail the nations appreciation for alcoholic beverages, would of had the Chancellor choking on his ice cold orange juice.
The reason for this, was because the desired effect the Act was supposed to have brought about, had totally the opposite outcome. Instead of making the stills run dry, the act turned out to be the industries saving grace. The Act stated that for the first time, the alcohol had to be matured in oak casts for a minimum of 3 years. Strangely, the production of whiskey in the early part of the 20th century, left a lot to the imagination. Some of the lesser known producers, would often sell the spirit in an immature state, more or less straight from the still. Although the legislation rooted out the cowboys of the whisky producers, it also turned the production of the spirit into a premium product.
Towards the end of the war, the industry enjoyed a revival especially that Prohibition was in full swing in the United States of America. Today the United Kingdom economy enjoys the £4bn exports whisky makes from exporting it to countries around the world.
THE CARLISLE EXPERIENCE
Making munitions was a highly dangerous business, factories were built is large designated areas away from populated cities. One such place was the town of Gretna, just over the Scottish border, 12 miles north of the English city of Carlisle. The factory consisted of 15,000 workers most of them were well behaved but cases of drunkenness, anti-social behaviour & the resulting convictions quadrupled.
It was considered that the war effort could be compromised, due to increased sick absences, & the on going threat of serious accidents, as workers had to handle extremely dangerous chemicals such as nitro-glycerine, guncotton into cordite paste which had to be carefully placed into shell casings.
In June 1916, the local authorities with the backing of central government, decided to form a specialised department, to help stop the problem from getting out of hand. This department was named the,"Central Control Body", its aim was to take control of 5 local breweries, 363 licensed premises mostly based in north & west Cumberland, south west Scotland but especially the city of Carlisle. This takeover was to be for a period of the duration of the war & 12 months after. The scheme became known as the Carlisle Experiment.
MEASURES NEED TO BE TAKEN
ADVERTISING ILLEGAL
Not to become too authoritarian, & not to say no worker could enjoy a cool pint of beer, at the end of a hard shift, certain measures were introduced. To achieve the fine balance, that enabled the hard working munitions worker to relax in a licensed establishment, but still be able to produce quality shells & bullets, it was decided, that all previous kinds of pub advertising had to be removed, from the now centrally controlled pubs.
Other measures included reducing the amount of public houses by 40%, stopping all off-sales licenses, even stricter opening hours, the introduction of hearty pub food, to help soak up the alcohol that was consumed. Pub managers were also to be employed by the state, earning a fixed rate salary, encouraging the sale of non-alcoholic drinks, prices to be fixed to stop competition between different pubs.
The beer to be sold, could only be brewed by the local government owned brewery, which was low in alcoholic strength.
you couldn't even buy a round
Spirit chasers were also forbidden. The normal tradition of buying a group of your friends a round, then moving onto drinking another round bought by a mate of yours was abolished. The only person you could buy a drink for was yourself.
Were these measures successful, I hear you ask? Along with the introduction of the Defence of the Realm Act, the formation of the department the Central Control Body, the government introduced higher taxes on alcohol, which proved successful in curbing the convictions for drunkenness on a national level.
The scheme proved to be such a winner in Carlisle, that pubs stayed in state control, with further plans for the way pubs should operate in the future, being considered. The architect Harry Redfern, had the opportunity to try various styles, & designs, that would help forge the way pubs make-up are considered to this day.