ABSTRACT
The early Victorian period brought dramatic changes to the nature of political debate, and the political arena widened immeasurably. Public opinion came to include the working class and there was a recognition of the possibility of influencing politics by means of pressure groups and campaigns. Voluntary organisations proliferated, and they learned from one another the tactics of winning public support and influencing the politicians. Benjamin Disraeli in 1872, in one of his best-known speeches, had talked of the states responsibility to provide pure air, pure water, pure food, healthy homes and public recreation Sanitas sanitatum omnia sanitas. The Liberals liked to believe that it was the unpopular licensing of public houses that had done for them, carried away in a torrent of gin and beer. Within a fortnight of the Hyde Park demonstration, he had abandoned most of the safeguards against democracy that he had originally proposed.
