Mr Balfour's Poodle (31 page)

The results show that in the big towns, particularly Birmingham,
⁴
Liverpool and Sheffield, and the purely industrial areas, such as the North-East coast region, the Potteries and the Black Country, the strength of the Labour Party in 1945 was, on the whole, appreciably greater than that of the Liberal Party in 1906. The same was true of the Home Counties of Middlesex, Kent and Essex, those in which, between the wars, there was a great development of modern factories and working-class housing estates. In other industrial areas—South Wales, the Lancashire boroughs and the Scottish burghs—the absolute strength of the Liberal Party was rather greater than that of the Labour Party, and the relative strengths of the two parties about the same. In more mixed areas, containing nevertheless a substantial mining or industrial ingredient, such as the county divisions of Nottingham, Leicester and Derby, and of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Lowland counties of Scotland, the same proposition is broadly true,
although the Liberal preponderance was here a little greater. The largely agricultural region of East Anglia is also in this category.

In the South of England generally, excluding the large towns, both the Government of 1906 and that of 1945 were relatively weak, but the Labour Party was a great deal weaker than the Liberals had been. These tendencies are shown most strongly in the border counties of Hereford, Worcester and Shropshire, and in the residential counties of Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire. But the West Country breaks this pattern. Here the Liberals were overwhelmingly strong and the Labour Party equally strikingly weak. This was one of four regions where the differences between the 1906 and the 1945 results were so great as to make the one almost the converse of the other. The other three were Cheshire, the Highland counties of Scotland, and the rural parts of Wales. In the case of Cheshire, where the difference was in any case less great than in the other three, the discrepancy is at least partly to be explained by the growth of ‘commuting' areas for Liverpool and Manchester which took place between the two elections. Its results look less odd if considered in conjunction with those of Liverpool. The other three areas have many features in common. They none of them have any substantial industry, they are all made up of scattered rural communities, and they all have relatively declining populations; two of them are strongly Nonconformist, and two of them are part of the ‘Celtic fringe'. The collectivism of modern left-wing politics has not appealed to them as did the more purely political aspects of Liberalism, and the Labour Party has so far decisively failed to succeed to their strong radical tradition.

The general conclusion must be that, geographically, the Liberal Party of 1906 was a good deal more broadly based than was the Labour Party of 1945. Apart from the Universities, there was no category of seats in 1906 in which the Liberal Party could not secure substantial representation. But the same claim could not be made for the Labour Party in 1945. As an illustration of this point an analysis is given of a special category of seats—the seaside resorts—in which left-wing candidates might be expected to do badly. In 1906 there were thirteen seats which fell within this category. The Liberals won
eight of them. By 1945 there were eighteen such seats. But the Labour Party won only one of them, and that—Great Yarmouth—might almost be regarded as more a fishing town than a resort. In part, this difference may be due to the greater importance which the hotel and boarding-house trade had assumed by 1945 and to the franchise changes of 1918 which gave votes to the many elderly widows and spinsters who live in these towns. Nevertheless the difference between the two results is striking.

Bath (two members)

Bedford

Berkshire, North or Abingdon

Berkshire, South or Newbury

Boston

Brighton (two members)

Buckinghamshire, South or Wycombe

Burnley

Buteshire

Camberwell, Peckham

Cambridge

Cambridgeshire, East or Newmarket

Chelsea

Cheshire, Wirral

Cheshire, Eddisbury

Cheshire, Knutsford

Chester

Christchurch

Colchester

Coventry

Cumberland, Cockermouth

Cumberland, Egremont

Denbigh District

Devonport (two members)

Dorset, North

Dorset, South

Essex, North or Saffron Walden

Essex, North-East or Harwich

Essex, East or Maldon

Essex, South-East

Exeter

Fulham

Glasgow, Central

Gloucester

Gloucestershire, East or Cirencester

Greenwich

Hackney, North

Hampshire, New Forest

Hampshire, Isle of Wight

Herefordshire, North or Leominster

Herefordshire, South or Ross

Hertfordshire, North or Hitchin

Hertfordshire, West or Watford

Huntingdonshire, South or Huntingdon

Huntingdonshire, North or Ramsey

Kensington, North

Kent, North-East or Dartford

Kent, South-West or Tonbridge

Kent, North-West or Faversham

Kidderminster

Kirkcudbrightshire

Lambeth, North

Lambeth, Brixton

Lancashire, South-West or South-port

Lincolnshire, East Lindsey or Louth

Lincolnshire, North Kesteven or Sleaford

Liverpool, Abercromby

Middlesex, Enfield

Middlesex, Harrow

Middlesex, Brentford

Norfolk, Mid-

Northamptonshire, South

Nottingham, East

Nottinghamshire, Bassetlaw

Oxfordshire, North or Banbury

Oxfordshire, Mid- or Woodstock

Oxfordshire, South or Henley

Paddington, North

Penryn and Falmouth

Perthshire, West

Portsmouth (two members)

Preston

Radnorshire

Renfrewshire, East

Rochester

St. Pancras, South

Somerset, Wells

Somerset, East

Somerset, Bridgwater

Southwark, West

Staffordshire, Leek

Staffordshire, West

Stalybridge

Suffolk, North or Lowestoft

Suffolk, North-West or Stow-market

Suffolk, South or Sudbury

Suffolk, South-East or Wood-bridge

Surrey, North-West or Chertsey

Surrey, South-West or Guildford

Surrey, South-East or Reigate

Sussex, North or East Grinstead

Sussex, South or Eastbourne

Tower Hamlets, Mile End

Tower Hamlets, Bow and Bromley

Walsall

Warwick and Leamington

Warwickshire, South-West or Stratford-on-Avon

Warwickshire, South-East or Rugby

Wednesbury

West Bromwich

Westmorland, North or Appleby

Westmorland, South or Kendal

Whitehaven

Wiltshire, North or Cricklade

Wiltshire, North-West or Chippenham

Wiltshire, East or Devizes

Wiltshire, South or Wilton

Wolverhampton, South

Worcestershire, Mid- or Droit-wich

Yorkshire, North Riding, Richmond

Yorkshire, West Riding, Ripon

Antrim, North

Tyrone, South

Sunderland (to
Independent Tariff Reform)

Chatham
(from Labour)

Finsbury, Central
(from Labour)

Manchester, South-West
(from Labour)

Nottingham, South
(from Labour)

Northamptonshire, North
(from Labour)

Preston
(from Labour)

Sunderland (second seat)
(from labour)

Wolverhampton, West
(from Labour)

Woolwich
(from Labour)

Tyrone, Mid-
(from Nationalist)

Ayrshire, North

Blackburn

Darlington

Durham, South-East

Grimsby

Lanarkshire, Govan

Lanarkshire, North-West

Lancashire, North-East, Darvven

St. Andrews

Shoreditch

Stockton-on-Tees

Wick

Wigan
(to Labour)

Liberal to Labour

Derbyshire, North-East

Derbyshire, Mid-

Manchester, East

Sheffield, Attercliffe

Staffordshire, North-West

Labour to Liberal

Derby

Middlesbrough

Northumberland, Wansbeck

Nationalist to Independent

Nationalist

Cork, Mid-

Cork, North

Cork, North-East

Cork, West

Louth

Mayo, South

Monaghan, South

Westmeath, North

Liberals minus 108

Labour minus 6

Nationalists minus 8

Independent Nationalists plus 8

Government minus
115

Unionists plus 114

Independent Tariff Reform plus 1

Opposition plus 115

Ashton-under-Lyme

Birkenhead

Cardiff District

Cheshire, Altrincham

Cornwall, Bodmin

Cumberland, Eskdale

Darlington

Derbyshire, High Peak

Devon, Tavistock

Devon, Torquay

Devon, Ashburton

Dudley

Grimsby

Islington, North

King's Lynn (
from Independent Free Trade)

Lancashire, Darwen

Lancashire, Newton
(from Labour)

Leicestershire, Melton

Liverpool, Exchange

Montgomery District

Plymouth (two seats)

St. Andrews District

St. Helen's
(from Labour)

St. Pancras, West

Salford, South

Warrington

Wigan
(from Labour)

Bedford

Burnley

Camberwell, Peckham

Cambridgeshire, Newmarket

Cheltenham

Coventry

Cumberland, Cockermouth

Essex, Saffron Walden

Exeter

Kent, Dartford

Kirkaidbrightshire

Lincolnshire, Louth

Manchester, South-West

Oxfordshire, Banbury

Radnorshire

Rochester

Southwark, West

Staffordshire, Leek

Suffolk, Lowestoft

Sunderland (two seats)
(one Labour gain)

Tower Hamlets, Mile End

Tower Hamlets, Stepney

Tower Hamlets, Bow and Bromley
(Labour gain)

Tyrone, Mid-
(Nationalist gain)

Wakefield

Whitehaven
(Labour gain)

Wiltshire, Cricklade

Woolwich
(Labour gain)

Dublin County
(Nationalist gain)

Liberal to Labour

Fifeshire, West

Liberals minus 3

Labour plus 2

Nationalists plus 2

Government plus
1

Unionists minus 1

Opposition minus
1

a
J. A. Spender:
The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
, vol. II, p. 191.

b
ibid., p. 193.

c
Leading article, December II, 1905.

d
Leading article, December 9, 1905.

e
Leading article, December 23, 1905.

f
Parliamentary Debates, Commons
, Fifth Series, vol. 468, col. 174.

a
Disraeli:
Sybil, or The Two Nations
, p. 26.

b
Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice:
Life of the Second Earl Granville
, vol. II, p. 16.

c
Memorandum to the Queen, dated April 7, 1894, quoted in the Marquess of Crewe's
Lord Rosebery
, vol. II, pp. 451–4.

d
Emily Allyn:
Lords versus Commons
, p. 144.

e
Parliamentary Debates, Lords
, Third Series, vol. 149, col. 1771.

f
Sir Robert Peel:
Private Papers
, vol. II, p. 224.

g
Letter to Lord Caernarvon, dated February 20, 1872, quoted in Lady G. Cecil's
Life of Robert, Marquess of Salisbury
, vol. II, p. 25.

h
Memorandum to the Queen, dated April 7, 1894, quoted in full in Crewe,
op. cit
., vol. II, pp. 451–4.

i
Crewe, op. cit
., vol. II, p. 463.