Mr Balfour's Poodle

The House of Lords', said Lloyd George in one of his great platform orations of the years before 1914, 'is not the watchdog of the Constitution; it is Mr Balfour's poodle.' And it yapped at the heels of the Liberal Government of 1906 until one of the most bitter and prolonged constitutional struggles of modern English history was precipitated. The main battle was joined with the introduction of the 'People's Budget' of 1909, and it continued through two general elections, a change of reign and an ineffective constitutional conference, until August 1911, when late one night, in the hottest weather within living memory, the House of Lords accepted the Parliament Bill by a majority of seventeen. Roy Jenkins's account of these stirring events was recognised as definitive on its first publication in 1954, and it has since come to be regarded by many as a classic. It is a vivid description of one of the most dramatic periods of this century's political life, with sharp and enjoyable...