The Election of 1878
The election of 1878 took place in an intense and violent atmosphere. Europe had arisen in violent revolution and Britain looked like it might follow. One side promised a political revolution in Britain and the other a violent repression unlike anything before seen on the British Isles. More so than ever before, Britain's future appeared to be at stake.
The result was incredibly close. Whilst in Ireland the two respective parties maintained their votes the Socialists did likewise on the mainland – once again winning 109 seats. However, Robert Napier's German Method was utterly rejected at the polls as the National Conservatives lost 2/3s of their votes and sank to just 64 seats – one seat worse than the pervious worse performance by the Tories in an election. The lost NCP seats seemed to flood towards the Liberals who remained true to the principles of the British Right but had not called for the same level of force as the NCP. At the same time, whilst the Liberals gobbled up moderate Tory voters, they saw an exodus back towards the Labour Party. Under the rejuvinating leadership of Joseph Arch Labour had recovered from the depths they had sunk to under Burt – more than doubling their share of seats.
At the end of the election the Liberals were by far the largest party with over 1/3 of Parliament under their control. But the right wing parties had suffered a narrow defeat. Labour, the Socialists and the Irish Parliamentary Party joined together to form a new government. This alliance of 3 parties of roughly equal size held just 307 seats – a slim majority, but a majority none the less.
As the inexperienced Joseph Arch, a man who had only been a Member of Parliament for a few short years, rose to lead the new left wing coalition in this most tumultuous situation the coalition agreement was hammered out:
In the field of social reforms the Socialists gained a lot. There were to be small improvements in safety standards in factories, penions and state provided healthcare whilst the minimum wage was set to be raised slightly. This programme for social reform was only a slightly dilluted version of the Socialists' own programme (which had merely called for greater increases in safety standards and pensions).
Both Labour and the Socialists had supported the idea of decentralised democracy through participatory councils and these were to be set up across the country. Whilst the powers of these councils would be rather limited at first the plan was to gradually increase their power.
In order to improve the economy and solve unemployment the coalition agreed to an intensive investment programme in industry. Abandoned and disused factories were to be nationalised, provided with funding to begin production again and were then to be turned into worker run industries. Likewise the newly state built factories were to be cooperativised in the same way. It was hoped that this would both help the fight against the obscene level of unemployment in Britain and push her forward on the road to socialism.
One of the harshest blows for the Socialists was their failure to secure Female Suffrage. Simply put there was a substantial part of the IPP and a smaller part of the Labour Party that were rather sternly opposed to the move and with such a slim majority in Parliament the coalition could not afford to ignore these more socially conservative Members.
Parnell, the man who had recently replaced the aging Isaac Butt after 3 decades as IPP leader, won several key concessions for Ireland. Firstly the Irish Dail (first established under Labour) was to be given tax raising powers and a significant increase in legislative power. Ireland was also to benefit from a large scale investment in its industry (Ireland too was suffering from unemployment). In Ireland the system of cooperativisation of industry was not to take place. Instead any nationalised industry was to remain under state control until a buyer could be found. The IPP, whilst largely left wing, contained a substantial centrist and even right wing element that did not want the full brunt of the coalitions socialisation schemes being extended to Ireland. However they were happy to work with the coalition in order to gain concessions for Ireland.
Internally the new government was to call upon militant groups to step down from conflict and support the government's new campaign for reform in the country. There was also a commitment to end the use of the military within the country to supress strikers and protestors and to look to gradually bring an end to the use of armed police – who had become so hated over the past years.
In foreign affairs Britain would recognise the new Socialist Republics in Quebec, Turkey and the SRR. She would stand again any foreign invasions of these states, although the coalition refused to committ to a promise of open warfare in the event of an invasion. The German Imperial regime was to be heavily and openly criticised for the use of the German Method and the thousands of deaths. Finally it was agreed that the new government was to send its fraternal support to Lincoln as the final Confederate Armies fought on in Virginia and the Carolinas and try to rebuild some sort of friendship between Britain and America.
The deals had been agreed to. Now all the new government had to do was to put its ambitious plans into action.
