The Transformation of Urban Liberalism by James Moore

Author:James Moore [Moore, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781351126038
Google: MfdADwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-30T04:39:14+00:00

PART IV

The Town and the Suburbs

CHAPTER SEVEN

Manchester's Suburban Radicalism

The drift of middle-class suburbia towards Conservatism has traditionally been seen as an important feature in the development of class-based politics in late nineteenth-century Britain. Yet this process was neither inevitable nor universal, with Liberals in Manchester illustrating how suburban support could be maintained by adopting a new language of Progressivism and public improvement. This language was not designed solely to attract working-class support, but also addressed the aspirations of the rising group of clerks, shopkeepers and small traders in the suburbs. In contrast, most existing literature concentrates on how Gladstone's support for Irish Home Rule and land reform seemingly accelerated the growth of class-based politics, by driving English 'Villadom' into the arms of the Conservatives in defence of their property rights.1 For some, 1892 was the first general election to be fought 'to a great extent upon class'.2 Long-standing Nonconformist suspicion of Roman Catholicism and a growing sense of Imperialist egotism, it is alleged, further acted to prise 'Villadom' from a Gladstonian Liberal Party allied to, and apparently politically dependent upon, Irish Nationalists.3 Indeed some have suggested that the core values of middle-class suburban Nonconformists - the bedrock of Liberal support - were changing, with social ambitions and economic self-interest were taking over from religious convictions as the chief motivational force in their public lives.4

Current interpretations of the suburban middle class have been shaped by the attitudes of Victorian Conservatives who often saw suburbia as their 'natural' territory. In 1885 the Conservative Party campaigned for the creation of single-member suburban constituencies with the hope that they could create Conservative 'islands' in the larger Liberal boroughs.5 Yet their success in this type of constituency was patchy. Liberals in Manchester illustrated how suburban support could be maintained by adopting a new language of Progressivism and public improvement. Existing literature tends to view Manchester Progressivism primarily as a Liberal method of attracting working-class support.6 However, it also addressed the aspirations of the rising group of clerks, shopkeepers and small traders in the suburbs. Hastily built suburbs often lacked basic social infrastructure and facilities. Therefore, far from being hostile to increasing public expenditure on local services, many in suburbia were the most vehement advocates of public investment in public health, tramways, branch libraries and schools. These were services that were regarded as just as essential for the health and welfare of middle-class suburbia as the inner-city slums. Liberal Progressivism succeeded amongst the suburban middle class by addressing aspirations that were shared across classes of the late Victorian city.

Liberal success in suburban politics is important because it challenges important assumptions about the long-term decay of British Liberalism. Although there is disagreement about the degree to which the Liberal Party suffered from the rise of class-based politics, the middle-class flight from Liberalism has become an important part of subsequent explanations for Liberal decline. Clarke's work on Lancashire emphasises how successfully the Liberal Party attracted working-class support by transforming itself into a social democratic party. A consequence of this transformation was.

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