ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one of the most significant events of the generalised Edwardian crisis: the House of Lords’ rejection of the Liberal government’s ‘People’s Budget’ in 1909. The Liberal Party won the 1906 general election with a landslide majority, but soon met with resistance to its legislative programme from the House of Lords. In June 1907, the government decided to devise a strategy for attacking the Lords when Parliament debated a government resolution for removing their right to ‘veto’ legislation. The ‘Norman Yoke’ idea acted as a popular means of expressing contempt for a privileged ruling elite. The radical journalist, ‘Gracchus’, questioned the legitimacy of the peers by revealing their origin. Criticisms of official Liberalism were extremely common among the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), and in ways similar to the Independent Labour Party activists, the Liberal elite was condemned for its timidity. Leading SDF figures simply did not believe that the Liberal leadership were serious.
