tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/irish-home-rule-39776/articlesIrish home rule – The Conversation2019-12-09T11:48:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1273832019-12-09T11:48:59Z2019-12-09T11:48:59ZIreland, tariffs and welfare: the Conservatives faced partisan divides in the early 1900s too<p>At a time when the British Conservative Party has spent over two decades feuding over trade policy and its leadership was recently ruled to have acted <a href="https://theconversation.com/q-a-supreme-court-rules-boris-johnsons-prorogation-of-uk-parliament-was-unlawful-so-what-happens-now-124119">unconstitutionally</a>, it’s worth remembering that the 2010s are not unique in the party’s history. As my ongoing PhD research examines, in the early 1900s the Conservatives were caught up in bitter partisan divides over tariffs, regional nationalism, and welfare policy. </p>
<p>From 1886 until the early 20th century, the Conservative Party dominated British politics. Aided by a breakaway <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-liberal-unionist-party-9780857736529/">grouping of Liberals</a> – who were the Conservatives’ main electoral rivals until the first world war (WWI) – it successfully capitalised on opposition to Irish home rule, the movement for self-government in Ireland. Appeals to empire and to preserving the union with Ireland contributed to series of electoral victories in 1886, 1895, and 1900.</p>
<p>As the century turned, the political debate shifted and there was a growing interest in social reform. There were also increasing Conservative fears about <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Crisis-of-Conservatism-The-Politics-Economics-and-Ideology-of-the/Green/p/book/9780415143394">the survival of the British Empire</a>, control over which many in the party believed was necessary to maintain Britain’s place as a first-rank global power. </p>
<p>To address this problem, in 1903 the ex-Liberal Joseph Chamberlain proposed the introduction of tariffs. This was a very radical measure – since the repeal of the Corn Laws in the late 1840s, Britain had been a free trade nation, and free trade had become <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/free-trade-nation-9780199567324?cc=gb&lang=en&">ingrained in the national psyche</a>.</p>
<h2>The battle over tariffs</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304751/original/file-20191202-67017-l484yt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Joseph Chamberlain: pushing tariff reform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_Reform_League#/media/File:Each_for_all_and_all_for_each.jpg">Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science via Wikipedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Tariffs offered many attractions to Conservatives. By introducing its own tariffs, Britain could negotiate preferential trading arrangements with its colonies and dominions. This would in turn strengthen imperial ties and consolidate British power. </p>
<p>Additionally, the revenue from tariffs could <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ideologies-of-conservatism-9780199270330?cc=gb&lang=en&">finance social reform</a> without increasing the tax burden on the wealthy. Advocates of tariff reform also believed that protecting British industry from “unfair” foreign competition not only aided British manufacturers, but protected the livelihoods of their workers. It was a major policy shift intended to cement traditional ties while maintaining the British social system.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, while many Conservatives embraced protection, the electorate did not. Free trade was an article of faith for many British voters <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-british-history/national-crisis-and-national-government-british-politics-economy-and-empire-19261932?format=PB">until the Great Depression</a> of the 1930s, and fears about imposing taxes on imported food alienated many working-class voters. Since British exporters were still globally competitive, even many businessmen remained free traders. The Conservatives were thrashed at the 1906 general election by the pro-free trade Liberals. They were reduced to just 157 commons seats out of 670, the worst Conservative defeat in the 20th century.</p>
<p>Having lost government, the Conservatives turned obstructionist in opposition. Advocates of tariff reform consolidated their grip on the party, and increasingly pushed aside free traders. Against convention, the Conservatives used their majority in the House of Lords to block the Liberal Chancellor David Lloyd George’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/30/peoples-budget-taxes-for-social-progress-liberals-lloyd-george-1909">redistributive 1909 “People’s Budget”</a>. Financing social reform by taxing the wealthy, and without tariffs, was a step too far for many Conservatives in the Lords. After two general election defeats in January and December 1910, the Conservative lords surrendered their legislative veto under threat of being swamped by newly-created Liberal peers.</p>
<h2>Irish home rule</h2>
<p>An even more dramatic crisis loomed. After losing their majority in 1910, the Liberals relied on the support of Irish nationalists, the Irish Parliamentary Party – who controlled more than 80 seats – to govern. The nationalist price was home rule. The Liberals acquiesced and introduced a home rule bill for Ireland, which would have would have created an <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/century/home-rule-and-ulster-s-resistance/starting-out-on-the-road-to-partition-1.508371">autonomous Irish parliament in Dublin</a>. Key matters such as foreign affairs and defence were to be reserved for Westminster, and the number of Irish seats in the House of Commons was to be reduced.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305178/original/file-20191204-70144-16g6j37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A poster depicting Liberal Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was in favour of Irish home rule.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/22906005345/">LSE Library via Flickr</a></span>
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<p>The Conservatives, however, continued to fiercely oppose home rule. Of particular concern was the northern province of Ulster. While Ireland overall was largely Catholic, parts of Ulster had Protestant majorities and wanted nothing to do with home rule. In 1912 the new Conservative leader, Andrew Bonar Law, <a href="http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/about-the-assembly/assembly-commission/perspectives/covenant-lecture">infamously declared</a>: “I can imagine no length of resistance to which Ulster can go in which I should not be prepared to support them.” While it’s arguable whether he actually would have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/conservative-parties-and-birth-democracy?format=PB">backed armed insurrection</a> against home rule, that he even hinted he would was extraordinary.</p>
<p>By 1914, the Conservatives had recovered some lost ground after the 1906 electoral disaster, but structural problems complicated any return to power. <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319757438">The Liberal-Labour alliance</a>, under which the Liberals and the newly-created Labour Party generally avoided running candidates against each other, prevented the split in the centre-left vote that has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-923X.12327">bedevilled anti-Conservative forces since 1918</a>. </p>
<p>Fortunately for the Conservatives, WWI transformed their fortunes. Irish home rule was suspended until after the war. The Conservatives returned to government as part of a wartime coalition in 1915. <a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/the-downfall-of-the-liberal-party-1914-1935-by-trevor-wilson-then-and-now/">The Liberals then tore themselves apart</a> as the strains of war took their toll. </p>
<p>Labour then seized the opportunity to displace them as the dominant centre-left party. After WWI ended in 1918, the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/liberals-in-schism-9781780760476/">Liberals withered</a>, and the Conservatives picked up significant portions of the former Liberal vote during the interwar period. </p>
<p>One should never overstate the parallels between the past and present, but the Edwardian era in the early 20th century offers several key lessons for the modern Conservative Party. Despite its popular reputation for pragmatism, the Conservative Party today has ideological fixations that sometimes compromise its unity and electoral success. In the right circumstances, some Conservatives will even cast aside constitutional norms in pursuit of a major policy goal. Brexit is just the most recent example of this. If the party fails to secure a majority on December 12, it may regret uniting so many enemies against it. A split opposition will not always save the day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Prescott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The crisis of Conservatism of the early 20th century has some parallels for the party today.William Prescott, DPhil (PhD) Candidate in British Political History, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1148012019-09-13T09:28:08Z2019-09-13T09:28:08ZIrish unionists have long struggled to rally US support – and remain isolated as Brexit beckons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290889/original/file-20190904-175678-kwzzlw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1345%2C906&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Boston in the 19th century.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#/media/File:Boston-view-1841-Havell.jpeg">Robert Havell/Wikipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Those who are perpetually boasting about the greater Ireland beyond the sea ought to bear in mind that there are two Irelands beyond the sea.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Belfast News-Letter</em>, September 29, 1886</p>
<p>About one in ten people in the US <a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/genealogy/irish-ancestry-in-america">claim Irish ancestry</a>, so it’s little wonder that the US is often called “the other Ireland beyond the sea”. While the Irish homeland was deeply divided between predominantly Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists throughout its modern history, the recent behaviour of the US Congress suggests “the other Ireland” is not impartial. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290902/original/file-20190904-175678-59wa7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President of the Irish Republic, Éamon de Valera, on the front cover of Time Magazine, 1932.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera#/media/File:Eamon_de_Valera-TIME-1932.jpg">Time Magazine/Wikipedia</a></span>
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<p>Senior members of Congress representing both main parties have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/31/brexit-mess-with-good-friday-and-well-block-uk-trade-deal-us-politicians-warn">pledged to block any trade deals</a> between the UK and US if Brexit <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-ireland-determined-to-avoid-no-deal-scenario-as-uk-plays-politics-with-the-irish-border-113512">threatens the open border</a> between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This favours the position of the Republic and Irish nationalists over that of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which fears the proposed “backstop” to ensure the border stays open will cause a rift between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.</p>
<p>Yet despite the common image of Irish-Americans as a Catholic group, many of those with Irish heritage are actually of <a href="https://archive.org/details/scotchirishinam07amergoog/page/n6">Protestant Scots-Irish descent</a>. So why does there seem to be so little sympathy for Protestant unionist concerns within the US establishment? The answer can be found in the history of the Home Rule movement more than a century earlier, when unionist attempts to rally Irish-Americans failed.</p>
<h2>A false dawn for unionists</h2>
<p>The Irish Home Rule movement between 1880 and 1920 saw Irish nationalist leaders such as Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Davitt and Éamon de Valera journey to the US to target the large Irish diaspora there. They asked for campaign funding, manpower and for Irish-American pressure on the British government to give Ireland a devolved parliament.</p>
<p>Ireland’s unionists were suspicious. Not only were they largely opposed to home rule, but many also saw the influence of Irish-American nationalists as inherently militaristic and radical, favouring complete separation of Ireland from Britain instead of devolved power through home rule.</p>
<p>However, unionists also sought support and legitimacy across the Atlantic. During visits from prominent unionist politicians such as William Johnston, Irish-Americans were courted with flattering speeches about the strength of Protestant institutions and the cause of “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ktB0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=william+johnston+irish+US+visit&source=bl&ots=cmq48klfcn&sig=ACfU3U01XewEVz-tGpbTWhmrj3X6SEI5ew&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKk4-ciMbkAhVbilwKHbUOD1wQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=william%20johnston%20irish%20US%20visit&f=false">religious liberty</a>” in both their countries.</p>
<p>But they encountered a problem. Many Protestant Irish-American families had arrived in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their connection to the Irish homeland was much more distant than that shared by the majority of Catholic Irish-Americans, who tended to be more recent immigrants.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290896/original/file-20190904-175663-ifm6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Orange Order headquarters in New York City beset by rioting Catholics and Protestants, 1871.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Order#/media/File:Lamartine_Hall_Orange_headquarters.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
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<p>Even those who joined groups explicitly celebrating Protestant Scots-Irish heritage emphasised the distant past and how they’d assimilated, claiming that they were on par with the Puritans of New England in their contribution to the founding of the American republic.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-brexit-is-leading-a-resurgent-irish-american-influence-in-us-politics-121343">How Brexit is leading a resurgent Irish American influence in US politics</a>
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<p>By the mid-19th century, those claiming Scots-Irish ancestry held a diverse range of views and positions. Some were prominent members of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic groups. Others expressed anti-British, republican sentiments inherited from the traditions of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Society-of-United-Irishmen">United Irishmen</a>. </p>
<p>They used their heritage to assert a distinction from Catholic Irish immigrants, underscoring their ultimate loyalty to America. Many in Scots-Irish groups accused Catholic Irish-Americans of being loyal to a foreign government. But because of their political diversity, Irish unionists struggled to summon the Orange Ireland beyond the sea.</p>
<p>This divergence of Protestant Irish-Americans from their unionist cousins across the Atlantic continued through the course of the 20th century. As a result, unionist political parties in Northern Ireland have held an uneasy relationship with the US. </p>
<p>It was most notable during the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which ended the Troubles, and in which the Clinton administration played a key role. The DUP was the only major party within Northern Ireland to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/04/moderates-northern-ireland-good-friday-agreement/587764/">oppose the agreement</a>, which maintained an open border in Ireland was key to lasting peace.</p>
<p>This history helps explain why, as the US continues to intervene in Irish politics as Brexit looms, any efforts of unionists to rally Irish-Americans seem forever destined to fall flat.</p>
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<header>Lindsey Flewelling is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781786940452/">Two Irelands beyond the Sea: Ulster Unionism and America, 1880-1920</a></p>
<footer>Liverpool University Press provides funding as a content partner of The Conversation UK</footer>
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</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114801/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsey Flewelling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite many Irish-Americans claiming Protestant descent, unionists throughout history have found their rallying cries falling on deaf ears.Lindsey Flewelling, Historic Preservation Officer, Central City, CO, University of Colorado DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793842017-06-20T08:28:17Z2017-06-20T08:28:17ZHung parliaments have voted down the Queen’s speech before – here’s what happened<p>To govern effectively in the UK, the prime minister needs to command a majority in the House of Commons. Convention dictates that following a general election, the leader of the largest party is “invited” by the monarch to form a government. To demonstrate that the new government is legitimate, the Queen presents its programme to parliament in the Queen’s speech, which must be put to a vote in the commons and which the government must win.</p>
<p>Britain’s current prime minister, Theresa May, is now eight seats shy of an overall majority, meaning the country is now in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-election-hung-parliament-casts-doubt-over-theresa-mays-future-79169?sr=1">hung parliament</a>. This is why talks continue to form a “confidence and supply” <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-will-conservative-deal-with-the-dup-work-79448?sr=1">arrangement</a> with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has ten seats. The first test this will face is the vote in the days following the debate on the Queen’s speech on June 21. </p>
<p>The Telegraph has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/19/exclusive-labour-liberal-democrats-scottish-national-party-mps/">reported</a> that Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party could introduce amendments during the vote to force a vote of no confidence in May’s government. </p>
<p>There have been three occasions in modern parliamentary history when a government failed to secure a majority on the Queen’s speech vote. May actually finds herself better placed than her predecessors. </p>
<h2>Gladstone and the Irish home rulers</h2>
<p>The first instance was in January 1886. In June 1885, the Liberal government lost a vote on the budget and the prime minister, William Gladstone, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gladstone_william_ewart.shtml">resigned</a>. A general election could not be held immediately because a law governing the redistribution of parliamentary seats had yet to be fully implemented. The Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative leader in the Lords, formed a minority government until a general election was held in December.</p>
<p>The result was Liberals 319, Conservatives 237 and the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) 86 – a hung parliament. The IPP supported Irish home rule, a form of devolved government similar to the current devolution settlements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and now had the balance of power. The Conservatives had flirted with the IPP during 1885 and many home rule MPs <a href="http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199549344.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199549344-e-029">shared</a> Conservative ideological sympathies. As it was not inevitable that the home rulers would oppose a Conservative Queen’s speech and Salisbury had incumbency on his side, he was invited to form a government. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174455/original/file-20170619-12400-1ioixsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1886 cartoon showing Gladstone kicked in the air by men angry about the Home Rule Bill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gladstone_being_kicked_in_the_air_by_angry_men_Wellcome_V0050369.jpg">Wellcome Library via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, in the closing days of the general election, Gladstone signalled his support for Irish home rule. The Liberals and the IPP passed an amendment to the Queen’s speech and Salisbury’s <a href="http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1886/jan/28/parliament-adjournment-resignation-of">government fell</a>. Gladstone formed a government with the IPP, effectively entering into a “confidence and supply” agreement on the condition he placed an Irish Home Rule Bill before the Commons. This he <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliamentandireland/overview/two-home-rule-bills/">did</a> in April 1886. But it provoked a Liberal split and parliament was dissolved. The Conservatives comfortably won the general election.</p>
<h2>A second stumble</h2>
<p>The second occasion when a new government lost the vote on the Queen’s speech occurred a few years later after the general election of 1892. The result was: Conservatives and the Liberal Unionist 315, Liberals 272 and the Irish Home Rulers 81. </p>
<p>The Irish had the balance of power and once again Gladstone’s support for Irish home rule ensured they supported a Liberal “no confidence” <a href="http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1892/aug/08/address-in-answer-to-her-majestys-most#column_94">amendment</a> to the new government’s Queen’s speech which Salisbury had put forward. Gladstone then formed a government and passed a second Home Rule Bill in the Commons – though it was defeated in the Lords.</p>
<h2>Baldwin defeated</h2>
<p>The third occasion was in 1923, but under different circumstances. The creation of the Irish Free State in 1921 had removed the IPP home rule MPs from the Commons and near-universal suffrage after 1918 made the Labour party the second party in the Commons. As the result of the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8572796.stm">general election in December 1923</a> demonstrated, the new circumstances did not immediately translate into a two-party system: Conservatives 258, Labour 191 and Liberal 158. </p>
<p>Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin had fought the campaign on <a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803102137307">tariff reform</a>, anathema to liberal free trade principles, and the Liberals and Labour combined to defeat the Conservative King’s speech in <a href="http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1924/jan/21/debate-on-the-address">early 1924</a>. </p>
<p>Labour formed a minority government with Liberal support, which governed successfully in 1924 for nine months with Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister. However, the Liberal party came to think that the Labour government was unduly influenced by the communist left and it <a href="http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1924/oct/08/attorney-generals-explanation">supported a vote</a> of no confidence on October 8 that year. This inevitably led to a general election. The Conservatives won a thumping majority and the Liberals were <a href="http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/history/the-1924-general-election/">reduced</a> to just 40 seats, from which they’ve never really recovered.</p>
<h2>Lessons from history</h2>
<p>Although the situations in 1886, 1892 and 1923 were very different to the one May faces today, they do suggest some parallels. In 1886 and 1893, the political legitimacy of the confidence and supply arrangement was questioned on a number of grounds. </p>
<p>The widespread sense that the DUP, a small, exclusively Northern Irish party, should not have such influence recalls the <a href="https://archive.org/details/englandscaseaga01dicegoog">argument</a> made by the jurist A V Dicey in the 1880s and 90s that Gladstone had allowed the Irish minority to dictate to the English majority. The Conservative party also condemned the Liberal alliance with the Irish nationalists back then as immoral and an alliance with criminality and terror. The morality of the deal with the DUP has also been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/10/tory-dup-deal-ruth-davidson-receives-assurances-from-pm-over-gay-rights">questioned</a>, though on largely different grounds. </p>
<p>Potentially more serious are the consequences, both political and legal, for the Good Friday Agreement, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-international-law-could-scupper-a-tory-deal-with-the-dup-79583?sr=1">demands</a> political neutrality from the British government regarding power-sharing in Northern Ireland. As such, the DUP’s determination to keep Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10 makes it likely May will get her Queen’s speech approved by the Commons. But it is unlikely that this will lead to a period of strong and stable government. </p>
<p>The historical examples suggest that forming a government off the back of a Queen’s speech defeat does not lead to effective government in the medium term. With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukip-faces-a-difficult-future-after-voters-deserted-britains-brexit-party-78883?sr=1">demise</a> of UKIP, May is advantaged by the relative unity of the right and, despite talk of the return of two-party politics, the continued fragmentation of the left. The Labour party, having recovered something of its capacity for unity and loyalty, should focus on winning the next general election. If they are to make a genuine stab at restoring UK social democracy, they’ll want to start the task with a comfortable majority for their first Queen’s speech since 2009.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>And two of the occasions involved Irish MPs.Matthew Kelly, Professor of Modern History, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.