ABSTRACT
The government’s decision to accept Labour’s Trades Disputes Bill, the passage of a new Workmen’s Compensation Act, an Exchequer grant for unemployment relief, and the provision of meals for needy school children, all seemed to confirm that Labour had acquired real influence and power in government. Such was the hold exerted on the capital’s fragmented trade unions by the Social Democratic Federation via the London Trades Council that it was not until 1914 that a London Labour Party appeared. The enforced necessity of relying upon voluntary contributions showed just how indifferent many unionists were and plunged Labour’s finances into a precarious state. Similarly, Professor Morris brings out clearly the overlap between Labour’s approach to foreign affairs and that adopted by broad sections of the Liberal Party, confirming the observation of an earlier writer that Labour’s ‘ideals in the realm of colonial and foreign policy have been the ideals of the Victorian Little-Englanders.’.
