Ditchers

The Ditchers were a group of upper-class British people, so called because they were prepared to stand in a "last-ditch" attempt against the Liberal government reforms to the constitution. Many of the nobility were determined to prevent David Lloyd George introducing the Parliament Act 1911. The Lords had delayed the 'People's budget' of 1909, which the Chancellor of Exchequer had brought forward to increase taxation, and start some form of welfarism. The 1911 act presented a fait accompli to the Lords by certifying the Commons traditional conventional power to create finance bills. No longer could the Lords forestall Treasury legislation. The power to delay was commenced for a period of two years only. Lloyd George famously threatened to advise King George V to create five hundred Liberal peers if the Lords did not yield their ancient privileges. A music hall song alluded to these potential lords with the line "Lloyd George knew my father, my father knew Lloyd George."

Many of the "Last Ditchers" were Tory farmers and landowners, who refused to surrender the political power that went with social superiority. But the aristocracy had been in decline, since the inexorable rise of business and merchant middle-class capitalists during the Edwardian era. Their entry in the Commons, and enfranchisement of the working-classes in the 1884-5 reform acts had already marked a significant shift of power. Government interventionism from devolution was threatening stability without control over local finance. The Naval Arms "Dreadnought" Race was very costly: it had done nothing to prevent world war by 1914, and Irish terrorism since 1881. However, the Government of Ireland Bill was delayed its enactment in August 1914, the very day war broke out.

References

• Phillips, Gregory D., The Diehards - Aristocratic Society and Politics in Edwardian England, Harvard University Press and London, England, 1979. ISBN: 0-674-20555-3