ABSTRACT
What emerged in the first years of twentieth century was a changed social structure, but one which was changed more in perceptions of the world and its hierarchy of status than in any real redistribution of social or economic power. The core of the rural social structure was an axis of landed wealth or at least tenant wealth, and control of the means both of representing and governing the rural areas. The first of these, landed wealth, was not seriously challenged before the late 1910s, although there were serious problems in some areas. That 1909 Budget was the work of David Lloyd George. Lloyd George had a deep and abiding hatred for the English rural ruling class born of his own Welsh childhood. The new middle class incomers confused social relations with their wealth and status which could not be related to the old model of society in the longer term.
