Newcastle Programme

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Newcastle Programme, 1891. The split in the Irish Home Rule party in 1890 weakened the likelihood of a successful Home Rule Bill, and Gladstone did not attend that year's meeting of the National Liberal Federation. At the 1891 meeting in Newcastle upon Tyne he reaffirmed on 2 October the primacy of Home Rule, but associated it with reforms on the mainland by adopting various (but not all) of the proposals of the NLF Council, in particular: land reform; reform of the Lords; shorter parliaments; district and parish councils; registration reform and abolition of plural voting; local veto on drink sales; employers' liability for workers' accidents; Scottish and Welsh disestablishment. So detailed a ‘shopping list’ from an opposition leader was innovatory in British politics.

H. C. G. Matthew