Manchester University Press
4 Parallel politics
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Jill Liddington
Abstract
During summer 1909, the confrontation sharpened between the government's welfare reform agenda and the demand for women's full citizenship. Key political figure was Lloyd George, promoting his ambitious National Insurance scheme. His ‘People's Budget’ of April 1909 would help pay for this, and thrust taxation centre-stage. Yet women tax-payers remained voteless. So by summer 1909, two concepts of citizenship increasingly clashed. On one hand, Lloyd George urged welfare reforms: democracy for people. On the other, suffragettes demanded a say in policy that affected them, like taxation: democracy by people. This confrontation was played out against an increasingly forbidding backdrop: prison, hunger-striking and shortly afterwards, forcible feeding. This chapter tells the story through the experience of Helen Watts, Nottingham suffragette. In February 1909, Helen attended the WSPU's Women's Parliament in Caxton Hall, joining the deputation carrying the resolution to ‘Runaway Asquith’. Arrest and imprisonment followed, to the concern of her family. For the other Nottingham suffragettes, Helen returned home from prison a heroine. In September, Helen joined a hunger-strike in Leicester prison. But when in the autumn forcible feeding was initiated in Birmingham's forbidding Winson Green gaol, Helen Watts pondered ~ about what was now being demanded of suffragettes.
Abstract
During summer 1909, the confrontation sharpened between the government's welfare reform agenda and the demand for women's full citizenship. Key political figure was Lloyd George, promoting his ambitious National Insurance scheme. His ‘People's Budget’ of April 1909 would help pay for this, and thrust taxation centre-stage. Yet women tax-payers remained voteless. So by summer 1909, two concepts of citizenship increasingly clashed. On one hand, Lloyd George urged welfare reforms: democracy for people. On the other, suffragettes demanded a say in policy that affected them, like taxation: democracy by people. This confrontation was played out against an increasingly forbidding backdrop: prison, hunger-striking and shortly afterwards, forcible feeding. This chapter tells the story through the experience of Helen Watts, Nottingham suffragette. In February 1909, Helen attended the WSPU's Women's Parliament in Caxton Hall, joining the deputation carrying the resolution to ‘Runaway Asquith’. Arrest and imprisonment followed, to the concern of her family. For the other Nottingham suffragettes, Helen returned home from prison a heroine. In September, Helen joined a hunger-strike in Leicester prison. But when in the autumn forcible feeding was initiated in Birmingham's forbidding Winson Green gaol, Helen Watts pondered ~ about what was now being demanded of suffragettes.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents 237
- List of maps vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- List of abbreviations xiii
- Chronology xiv
- Introduction 1
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Part I Prelude: people and their politics
- 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
- 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
- 3 Propaganda culture 36
- 4 Parallel politics 48
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Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
- 5 Plotting across central London 63
- 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
- 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
- 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
- 9 The King’s Speech 97
- 10 Battleground for democracy 108
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Part III Census night: places and spaces
- 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
- 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
- 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
- 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
- 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
- 16 English journey 183
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Part IV The census and beyond
- 17 After census night 197
- 18 Telling the story 209
- 19 Sources and their analysis 219
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Front matter
- Contents 237
- Introduction 239
- Abbreviations 242
- Key mass evasions 243
- London boroughs and Middlesex 245
- Midlands 300
- Southern England 333
- Northern England 342
- Notes 363
- Select bibliography 389
- Index 395
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents 237
- List of maps vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- List of abbreviations xiii
- Chronology xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Prelude: people and their politics
- 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
- 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
- 3 Propaganda culture 36
- 4 Parallel politics 48
-
Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
- 5 Plotting across central London 63
- 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
- 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
- 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
- 9 The King’s Speech 97
- 10 Battleground for democracy 108
-
Part III Census night: places and spaces
- 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
- 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
- 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
- 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
- 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
- 16 English journey 183
-
Part IV The census and beyond
- 17 After census night 197
- 18 Telling the story 209
- 19 Sources and their analysis 219
-
Front matter
- Contents 237
- Introduction 239
- Abbreviations 242
- Key mass evasions 243
- London boroughs and Middlesex 245
- Midlands 300
- Southern England 333
- Northern England 342
- Notes 363
- Select bibliography 389
- Index 395
