ABSTRACT
The case of Manchester illustrates how deeply entrenched commercial business interests were in policy-making and how difficult it was for a younger generation of radical leaders to overcome the culture of inertia and conservatism that had engulfed the council by the final quarter of the nineteenth century. The growing recognition of the inadequacies of the existing operational and decision-making process of the council was partly a product of continuing allegations of corruption and financial waste throughout the 1880s. Seuss Law has viewed the moves as evidence of increased party politicisation of the council and a response of the Conservatives to Liberal domination of the aldermanic bench. The Conservative leadership, further disappointed by the results of recent municipal elections, lapsed into mutual recriminations. The Liberal Union defeated a suggestion that specific wards should adopt 'representatives of labour' and instead passed a resolution appointing a committee to consider the adoption of 'an advanced Municipal Programme for Manchester'.
