WI Asquith had died, either effects of alcohol or some freak accident or even enemy action.
Does Lloyd George get to lead the coalition with a united Liberal Party?
Does Lloyd George get to lead the coalition with a united Liberal Party?
Taken from the book Asquith by Roy Jenkins, London: Collins, 1964.'I have not spent a day in bed for almost untold years,' he wrote on the 19th, 'nor do I quite know what is the matter with me.' But Margot [his wife] thought she did. 'I have had an agonising time,' she wrote to Lady Islington on October 26th. 'I never got such a fright in my life. I thought Henry was absolutely done. I think he thought so too.' The doctor's diagnosis, she added, was that 'overwork, hot rooms and no sort of exercise had gripped his liver and driven bad blood all over him.' After the first attack he slept for thirty-six hours. A week later he was substantially well, and by the beginning of November he was back in full harness.
Taken from the introduction to Chapter 8 The Political Crisis (II), November 1915-January 1916 of The Political Diaries of C.P. Scott 1911-1928, edited with an introduction and commentary by Trevor Wilson, London: Collins, 1970.In quarrelling with Lloyd George and Churchill [Lloyd George] had lost his
closest allies. He had antagonised Bonar Law some months back, when the posts in the new coalition were being apportioned. And he was viewed with profound suspicion by the more upright Tories, like Balfour and Long. Carson, who might have proved a valuable ally, had rashly resigned in October in protest against the government's failure to aid Serbia. So even though many Conservative ministers supported Lloyd George's stand over conscription, they had little time for him personally. As for the Liberal and Labour members of the government, they found his views and his character equally distasteful.