Lloyd George's Revolution

Available for over a year

Drawing on sound archive and key contemporary witnesses, Peter Hennessy tells how David Lloyd George revolutionised Britain's government when he became prime minister over a century ago. In the darkest days of the First World War, Lloyd George transformed an amateurish approach to government and galvanised a war weary country by radically reforming the Cabinet, bringing outsiders ('men of push and go') into Whitehall and creating new departments. As a radical politician, he always saw government as a force for progress, and as war leader he ruthlessly replaced unprofessional informality with business-like efficiency. He began by setting up a five-man War Cabinet, a reform that he recommended again on the BBC in the early days of the Second World War. Lloyd George also created a Cabinet Secretariat (now the Cabinet Office), ensuring that a minute was taken of Cabinet meetings and that ministers' decisions were implemented. Yet Lloyd George was also a precursor of presidential-style politics. He brought his own advisers and press secretary into Number 10, and his mistress became one of the private secretaries (the first woman to hold this post). Although his presidential tendencies later contributed to his downfall, his revolution in government had laid the foundations for victory in 1918 and remains his legacy in Whitehall. Among those taking part are biographers Ffion Hague, Kenneth Morgan and Roy Hattersley, and historian, Hew Strachan. Producer: Rob Shepherd First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.