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65-700: From the Liberal split over the Irish Home Rule Bill 1886 until the effects of the House of Lords Act 1999 , the second chamber had a Conservative majority (or, in later years, quasi-majority given the overall tendency of the crossbenchers to side with Conservatives) so manifesto commitments of the Liberal Party and Labour Party could not be sure of passing. Since the Lords threw out the Liberal budget in 1909 , there had been

130-522: A Unitarian . Though he had joined the Liberal Unionists late on, he was more determined to maintain their separate status in the alliance with the Conservatives, perhaps hoping and wishing that he would be able to refashion the combination under his own leadership at a later date. Chamberlain's stroke in 1906 robbed him of this chance, though he remained involved in political life until 1914. Though

195-545: A Liberal, in the 1880s, he had been one of their sternest critics. Also, in an age when religious identification still mattered, Chamberlain was not a member of the established Church of England but belonged to the minority Unitarians . Chamberlain could, perhaps, have led the Unionists despite these drawbacks, but in July 1906 he suffered a stroke, which left him physically crippled. He remained semi-politically active and continued as

260-557: A convention that they do not interfere on financial matters. In the Parliament Act 1911 the Peers lost their right to vote down a financial measure and their veto over other measures was reduced to a two-year delaying power, later reduced to one year by the Parliament Act 1949 . A Conservative majority of Lords used their maximum power, of delaying via wrecking amendments, certain Bills tabled by

325-495: A direct part in these meetings, and there seemed to be no other Liberal statesman who could reunite the party. Within a few months the talks were over, though some Liberal Unionists, including Trevelyan, later rejoined the Liberal Party soon after. The failed talks of 1887 forced the Liberal Unionists to continue to develop their links with the Conservatives. In Parliament, they supported the Salisbury administration, though they sat on

390-468: A joint committee (of both Houses) to investigate possibilities of formalising numerous conventions including the Salisbury Convention. The proposals were dropped in favour of maintaining such conventions as part of the more ad hoc unwritten constitution . Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from

455-597: A lasting statement of principles, now regarded as a constitutional convention , as to the etiquette of how the House of Lords should treat bills fulfilling manifesto promises. Lord Addison and the pre-accelerated Lord Salisbury , the Conservative leader in the House of Lords from 1942 to 1957, both with memories of the troubles leading to the passing of the Parliament Act 1911, agreed principles as follows: In its modern form,

520-479: A new class division to British party politics. Scholars since 1970 have dropped this class conflict approach. They see the Liberal Unionists as motivated primarily by ideology not class. For example, W. C. Lubenow finds no correlation between Liberal MPs' class background and their position on home rule. Jonathan Parry and T. A. Jenkins have separately argued that Gladstone's domineering leadership, his intense religiosity and his pandering to public opinion alienated

585-474: A party of disaffected Liberals. Though not numerous, the Liberal Unionists boasted having the vast bulk of the old Whig aristocracy within their ranks, as represented by the stolid "old money" Duke of Devonshire. Another example is Frederick Leveson-Gower . The Duke of Devonshire's political partner, the Radical Joseph Chamberlain, was from a very different "new money" background, a businessman and

650-530: A period of time. Conversely, customs and practices that have been observed for long periods in an uncodified manner may be added to the written constitution at various junctures, such as in the case of the two-term limit for presidents of the United States. This custom was observed for nearly a century and a half, unbroken, without any enforcement mechanism until it was ignored by Franklin Roosevelt , after which it

715-477: A series of meetings with their former Liberal colleagues. Led by Chamberlain and Sir George Trevelyan , the Round Table Conference was an attempt to see if reunion of the Liberal Party was possible. Despite some progress (and Chamberlain's statement that they were united on ninety-nine out of a hundred issues), the problem of Home Rule for Ireland could not be resolved. Neither Hartington nor Gladstone took

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780-414: A specific moment where the principles of its government were deliberately decided. Instead, these are allowed to evolve according to the political and social forces arising throughout its history. When viewed as a whole system, the difference between a codified and uncodified constitution is one of degree. Any codified constitution will be overlaid with supplementary legislation and customary practice after

845-706: A standard bearer of radical liberalism against the Whigs, his adherence to the alliance against the Gladstonian Liberals came as a surprise. When the dissident Liberals eventually formed the Liberal Unionist Council, which was to become the Liberal Unionist party, Chamberlain organised the separate National Radical Union in Birmingham. This allowed Chamberlain and his immediate allies to distance themselves from

910-468: A variety of official documents, though not codified in a single document. However, there may be truly "unwritten" constitutional conventions which while not usually legally enforceable may hold just as much sway as the letter of the law. An uncodified constitution has the advantages of elasticity, adaptability and resilience, A. V. Dicey described the uncodified constitution as "the most flexible polity in existence." A significant disadvantage, however,

975-720: Is sometimes referred to as an "unwritten constitution", although the New Zealand constitution is in fact an amalgamation of written and unwritten sources. The Constitution Act 1986 has a central role, alongside a collection of other statutes , orders in Council , letters patent , decisions of the courts , principles of the Treaty of Waitangi , and unwritten traditions and conventions . San Marino has several documents that make up its constitution, including some lasting centuries. These documents include six books of The Statues of 1600 and

1040-458: Is that controversies may arise due to different understandings of the usages and customs that form the fundamental provisions of the constitution. A new condition or situation of government may be resolved by precedent or passing legislation . Unlike a codified constitution , there are no special procedures for making a constitutional law and it will not be inherently superior to other legislation. A country with an uncodified constitution lacks

1105-429: The 1929–1931 minority Labour ministry . Most legislation worked its way through by threatening use of the Parliament Act 1911 . At the time of the landslide Labour general election victory in 1945 , 16 of more than 761 peers qualified to sit in the House of Lords were Labour -affiliated. This small minority was led by Lord Addison . As Clement Attlee 's Labour government had a clear electoral mandate to deliver

1170-642: The 85 years of union . Some Liberals believed that Gladstone's Home Rule bill would lead to independence for Ireland and the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , which they could not countenance. Seeing themselves as defenders of the Union, they called themselves "Liberal Unionists", although at this stage most of them did not think the split from their former colleagues would be permanent. Gladstone preferred to call them "dissentient Liberals" as if he believed they would eventually come back like

1235-600: The Conservative parties was agreed to in May 1912. The Liberal Unionists owe their origins to the conversion of William Ewart Gladstone to the cause of Irish Home Rule (i.e. limited self-government for Ireland). The 1885 general election had left Charles Stewart Parnell 's Irish Nationalists holding the balance of power, and had convinced Gladstone that the Irish wanted and deserved instatement of Home Rule for Ireland and so reform

1300-603: The Irish Unionist Party and the separately organized Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, later formally to become the Ulster Unionist Party . Outside Scotland and the English city of Birmingham , many local Liberal Unionists and Conservatives had already formed joint constituency associations in the previous decade. In May 1912 the formal merger of the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists was finally accomplished to form

1365-642: The Liberal Party . Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain , the party established a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule . The two parties formed the ten-year-long coalition Unionist Government 1895–1905 but kept separate political funds and their own party organisations until a complete merger between the Liberal Unionist and

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1430-780: The Manitoba Act and the Newfoundland Act . Some Chinese academics including legal theorist Jiang Shigong have argued that China has both a written constitution and an unwritten constitution based on the comprehensive leadership of the Communist Party . The Israeli Declaration of Independence promised a constitution by 2 October 1948, but due to irreconcilable differences in the Knesset , no complete codified constitution has been written yet. However, there are several Basic Laws . New Zealand has no single constitutional document. It

1495-501: The Whig faction of the party and had been expected to split from the Liberal Party anyway, for reasons connected with economic and social policy. Some of the Unionists held extensive landed estates in Ireland and feared these would be broken up or confiscated if Ireland had its own government, while Hartington had suffered a personal loss at the hands of Irish Nationalists in 1882 when his brother

1560-413: The judiciary , government committees or legal experts . In such a constitutional system, all these elements may be (or may not be) recognized by courts , legislators and the bureaucracy as binding upon government and limiting its powers. Such a framework is sometimes imprecisely called an " unwritten constitution "; however, all the elements of an uncodified constitution are typically written down in

1625-462: The " Adullamites ", Liberals who had opposed the extension of the franchise in 1866 but had mostly come back to the main party after the Conservatives had passed their own electoral reform bill in 1867. In the end it did not matter what the Liberal Unionists were called, the schism in the Liberal Party grew wider and deeper within a few years. The majority of Liberal Unionists, including Hartington, Lord Lansdowne , and George Goschen , were drawn from

1690-570: The Conservative Party and thus became Prime Minister in 1937, told an audience how proud he was of his Liberal Unionist roots. This isn't surprising. Neither Neville or Austen actually stood for Parliament as 'Conservative' candidates. Their local political association in Birmingham preferred to call themselves Unionist rather than Conservative during this time and campaigned as such. The Unionist label privately suited Neville Chamberlain as well. He confided to his own family how he always regarded

1755-525: The Conservative Party refused to stand for fear of splitting an established Liberal vote and letting in the Labour Party. Since then, many adaptations of the play have kept this brief mention of the obscure political party. However, in the 2002 film version which starred Judi Dench , Colin Firth , Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon – the lines were dropped yet episodes and characters in an earlier version of

1820-548: The Conservative and Unionist Party, now usually called the Conservative Party . Although by 1912 the political distinctions between the two parties had long ceased to have any real meaning, they had been a residual factor in Austen Chamberlain's failure to become the Unionist leader in the House of Commons in 1911. When Arthur Balfour resigned, Austen Chamberlain and Walter Hume Long both declared themselves as candidates for

1885-511: The Conservative party label as 'odious' and thought of it a barrier to people joining what he thought could be a non-socialist but a reforming party during the 1930s which Chamberlain hoped would be called National to include the parties of the National Government coalition in the 1930s. Iain Sharpe argues that for many years historians largely ignored the party or mentioned it as introducing

1950-644: The Declarations of Citizen's Rights. It is the oldest surviving constitution in the world. Saudi Arabia has no legally binding written constitution. In 1960, King Faisal declared the Quran , the religious text of Islam, to be the constitution. However, in 1992, the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia was adopted by royal decree . In the United Kingdom, there is no defining document that can be termed "the constitution". Because

2015-606: The Exchequer , Salisbury offered the position to Goschen, by far the most conservative of the leading Liberal Unionists. After consulting Hartington, Goschen agreed to join the Conservative government and remained Chancellor for the next six years. While the Whiggish wing of the Liberal Unionists cooperated informally with the Conservative Government (and supplied it with a cabinet minister), the party's Radical Unionist wing held

Salisbury Convention - Misplaced Pages Continue

2080-535: The House of Lords , said it was "far from clear that the Salisbury-Addison Convention was ever intended to apply to minority governments". Amendments made by the House of Lords to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 were described by some MPs, such as Bill Cash , as "wrecking amendments", a view which was contested by Lords. In 2006, Tony Blair appointed Lord Cunningham of Felling , to chair

2145-408: The House of Lords as a crossbencher . In the 1906 general election , the Liberal Unionists (both Free Traders and Tariff Reformers) shared the same fate as their Conservative allies, with a big reduction in their parliamentary strength. They now numbered only 23 MPs (or 25 according to other calculations) in a combined Unionist alliance of just 157 in the new House of Commons – though in Birmingham

2210-533: The Liberal Party of the British political scene. From 1830 to 1886 the Liberals (the name the Whigs, Radicals and Peelites accepted as their political label after 1859) had been managed to become almost the party of permanent government with just a couple of Conservative interludes. After 1886, it was the Conservatives who enjoyed this position and they received a huge boost with their electoral and political alliance with

2275-507: The Liberal Unionist and Conservative candidates won all the seats available. With a few exceptions, the remaining Liberal Unionists were now firm supporters of tariffs, as were now the majority of the Conservative MPs. Indeed, for a short period in early 1906, Chamberlain was the de facto leader of the Unionist alliance in the House of Commons, as the Conservative party leader, and former Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour had lost his seat in

2340-515: The Liberal Unionist party disappeared as a separate organisation in 1912, the Chamberlain legacy helped keep the industrial powerhouse of Birmingham from returning to the Liberal Party and would only be changed in 1945 in the Labour Party electoral landslide of that year. It also remained a profound influence on Chamberlain's sons Austen and Neville Chamberlain , who, when he was elected leader of

2405-469: The Liberal Unionists were initially the more dominant group in their alliance with the Scottish Conservatives against the Liberals. From the start, there was tension within the Liberal Unionists between the moderate Whigs, such as Devonshire, and the more radical Chamberlainites. While both factions opposed Home Rule, there was little else that united them, and a separate Liberal Unionist identity

2470-441: The Liberal Unionists' attempts to be two things at the same time but in different places would have appealed with his double identity ('Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country', he says in act 1). Since 1895 the then topical 'Liberal Unionist' reference has caused some problems with later productions of the play. Usually the line is retained – despite its reference to a long dead political issue (and also party) but it

2535-532: The Unionist Free Trade League (also called the Free Food League) which included a sizeable minority of Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) including, for a few months, Conservative MP Winston Churchill before he too defected to the Liberals in 1904. Most of them eventually left the party while Devonshire ended his political career estranged from both main parties and appears to have sat in

2600-595: The Unionist alliance, but especially with the Devonshire section of the Liberal Unionists. Rejecting tariff reform, Devonshire and other supporters of Free Trade left the Liberal Unionist Association in May 1904 in protest. Chamberlain took over the party's leadership, but this did not stop a large number of disgruntled Liberal Unionists, including a few MPs, migrating back to the Liberal Party. As for Devonshire and his allies, they put their political efforts into

2665-487: The catchy slogan, " Home rule means Rome rule ." The 1886 election left the Conservatives as the largest party in the House of Commons, but without an overall majority. The leading Liberal Unionists were invited to join the Conservative Lord Salisbury 's government. Salisbury said he was even willing to let Hartington become Prime Minister of a coalition ministry but the latter declined. In part, Hartington

Salisbury Convention - Misplaced Pages Continue

2730-669: The convention: After the Labour general election victory in 2005 , the Liberal Democrats indicated that they did not feel bound by the Salisbury Convention as a result of decreasing voter turnout , the low share of the vote received by the Government, and the changes to the composition of the House of Lords introduced in 1999 by the Labour Government. It is mooted that during minority governments and post-election coalitions in which

2795-405: The election (though he soon managed to return to parliament after a conveniently-arranged by-election). It was possible that at this stage Chamberlain could have become leader of all the surviving Unionists (at least all those in favour of tariff reform) and force Balfour to resign. However, even protectionist Tories were reluctant to choose Chamberlain as their leader, not having forgotten how, as

2860-558: The exclusively Tory Carlton Club ), the party still continued to maintain a separate identity and to raise their own funds. Their strength in the House of Commons fell from 78 seats in 1886 to 47 in 1892 but recovered to 71 and then 68 in the general elections of 1895 and 1900 . The Liberal Unionists managed to stay strong in the south-west of England, the West Midlands (the centre of Chamberlain's power base), and especially in Scotland, where

2925-510: The federal level and to the provinces , although each does have the power to modify or enact their own within their exclusive areas of responsibility. To date only British Columbia has enacted a codified provincial constitution (see Constitution of British Columbia ), though the other provinces' roles and powers are spelled out in section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 , and through amendments to it dealing with particular provinces such as

2990-604: The leadership of the Unionist Party in the Commons. However, as Austen Chamberlain was still officially at least a Liberal Unionist, his candidature was opposed by many Conservatives, because they already had the Liberal Unionist Lord Lansdowne leading them in the House of Lords. In the end, Bonar Law was elected unopposed by Unionist Members, and Austen Chamberlain would have to wait ten years for his chance to lead

3055-529: The main body of Liberal Unionism (and their Conservative allies) and left open the possibility that they could work with the Liberal Party in the future. In 1889 the National Radical Union changed its name to the National Liberal Union and remained a separate organisation from the main Liberal Unionist Council. Historian Robert Ensor reports that after 1886, Gladstone's main Liberal Party

3120-561: The main party in government does not have a clear majority the Convention does not hold, somewhat enhancing the Lords' power to delay and suggest redrafting of bills. Following the hung parliament in 2017 , the government argued that the convention continued to apply. Baroness Evans of Bowes Park , Leader of the House of Lords , claimed that the convention applied to the Conservative manifesto, but not to their DUP confidence-and-supply partners. Baroness Smith of Basildon , Shadow Leader of

3185-412: The more secular and rationalist outlook of many Liberals. Ian Cawood portrays the Liberal Unionists as a distinct and vital political force, at least until 1895 when they entered coalition with the Conservatives. In Oscar Wilde 's play The Importance of Being Earnest there is an exchange between Jack Worthing and Lady Bracknell about his suitability as a match for her daughter Gwendolen. The play

3250-538: The official leader of the Liberal Unionists, but his son Austen Chamberlain and Lansdowne effectively acted on his behalf in both the party and the Tariff Reform League. Devonshire died in 1908 but, despite the loss of the party's two most famous standard bearers, the Liberal Unionists were still able to increase their parliamentary representation in the two 1910 general elections to 43 and then 49 MPs. The issue of tariff reform had now become overshadowed by

3315-483: The opposition benches alongside the Liberals. Hostile feelings between the former political colleagues hardened with the return of Gladstone as Prime Minister, following the 1892 general election . Forming a minority government (with Irish Nationalist parliamentary support), the Liberals introduced the second Home Rule bill . Leading the opposition to the Bill were Hartington (now the Duke of Devonshire) and Chamberlain. The Bill

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3380-427: The play that Wilde had been encouraged to drop before the play's first performance were re-incorporated. Unwritten constitution An uncodified constitution is a type of constitution where the fundamental rules often take the form of customs , usage , precedent and a variety of statutes and legal instruments . An explicit understanding of such a constitution can be developed through in commentary by

3445-401: The policies of nationalisation and welfare state measures, supporters and commentators supposed that the unelected House of Lords would not oppose the second reading of such legislation. Ministers and ex-ministers in the Lords echoed that the destruction and social plight caused by World War II called for more state spending. However, Lord Salisbury, Conservative Leader in the Lords, offered

3510-520: The political system evolved over time, rather than being changed suddenly in an event such as a revolution, collapse of government or overthrow of monarchy, it is continuously being defined by acts of parliament and decisions of the courts . The closest the UK has come to a constitutional code has been the Treaty of Union 1707 . Due to the United Kingdom having an uncodified constitution, many acts have been added to

3575-467: The revived threat of Home Rule for Ireland, as the Parliament Act 1911 effectively stripped the House of Lords of its ability to veto it, while leaving it with delaying powers. This encouraged a movement to merge the two parties formally at the constituency and national organizational levels, a process speeded up by the election in 1911 of Bonar Law as the new Conservative Party leader. An effective merger had already happened to some extent in Ireland, with

3640-529: The united party. Following the merger, the party remained officially distinct in Scotland as the Unionist Party , though its MPs sat with the Conservatives and were part of the Conservative Party in all but name only; the Scottish party finally officially merged with its English counterpart in 1965. The political impact of the Liberal Unionist breakaway marked the end of the long nineteenth century domination by

3705-459: Was added to the written Constitution as mandatory de jure . The following states can be considered to have uncodified constitutions. Although there are Constitution Acts, important aspects of the constitutional system are uncodified. The preamble to the Constitution of Canada declares it to be "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" (which is uncodified). This applies at

3770-455: Was altered or omitted in at least two film versions of the play. In 1952 film version directed by Anthony Asquith (the son of a former British Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith ) Jack answers that he is a 'Liberal' rather than 'Liberal Unionist'. Lady Bracknell's answer remains the same. In 1952 this comment was applicable to the then Liberal Party's precarious political position, whose few remaining MPs were largely in constituencies where

3835-399: Was defeated in the House of Lords by a massive majority of Conservative and Liberal Unionist peers. By now all chance of a reunion between the Liberals and Liberal Unionists had disappeared, and it was no great surprise when leading Liberal Unionists joined Salisbury's new administration in 1895 following the heavy electoral defeat inflicted on the Liberal Party. The resulting government

3900-571: Was deserted by practically the entire Whig peerage and the great majority of the upper-class and upper-middle-class Liberals. Gentlemen's clubs that had a Liberal base were deeply split. Ensor notes that "London society, following the known views of the Queen, practically ostracized home rulers". Chamberlain used anti-Catholicism to build a base for the new party among "Orange" Nonconformist Protestant elements in Britain and Ireland. John Bright popularised

3965-614: Was first performed at the Queen's Theatre London on 14 February 1895 and ran for 83 performances. Jack Worthing's declaration that he was in essence apolitical but – if pressed – would say Liberal Unionist was a joke that would have appealed to the audiences that saw the play in that period. As a party that depended on an electoral pact with the Tories to maintain their MPs in parliament, the Liberal Unionists had to at least appear to be also 'Liberal' in matters not connected with Home Rule including some measures of promoting reform. To someone like Jack,

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4030-457: Was generally referred to as "Unionist", and the distinction between Conservatives and Liberal Unionists began to dissolve, though the latter were still able to field around 100 candidates for all the subsequent general elections until the December 1910 general election when that total dropped to 75. Though a few Liberal Unionists like Goschen formally joined the Conservatives (by becoming member of

4095-532: Was hard to define in the politics of the late 1890s. Weak local party associations were encouraged to amalgamate with their Conservative allies, though Devonshire's wish to merge fully was rejected by Chamberlain. Despite these tensions, the Liberal Unionists more or less managed to stay together until 1903, when in a surprise move, Chamberlain dramatically launched tariff reform with a speech in his Birmingham political homeland. This departure from Free trade (i.e. no tariff barriers) caused immediate problems within

4160-608: Was killed during the Phoenix Park Murders . The anti-Home Rule Liberals formed a Committee for the Preservation of the Union in early 1886, and were soon joined by a smaller radical faction led by Joseph Chamberlain and John Bright . Chamberlain had briefly taken office in the Gladstone government which had been formed in 1886 but resigned when he saw the details of Gladstone's Home Rule plans. As Chamberlain had previously been

4225-497: Was worried this would split the Liberal Unionists and lose them votes from pro-Unionist Liberal supporters. The Liberal Unionists, despite providing the necessary margin for Salisbury's majority, continued to sit on the opposition benches throughout the life of the parliament, and Hartington and Chamberlain uneasily shared the opposition Front Bench with their former colleagues Gladstone and Harcourt . In December 1886, when Lord Randolph Churchill suddenly resigned as Chancellor of

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