Lloyd George was a Liberal politician, but He had very much seen himself as a man
representing the Welsh miners, representing the working class,
a spokesman for social insurance, for government help.
When it came to war, Lloyd George presented
himself as the dynamic man, the man who
could lead Britain to victory.
And indeed, Lloyd George begins to see this moment
as the one when he will become the war leader.
He will become prime minister. He's smart.
He doesn't see any panacea for a big breakthrough on the Western Front.
He's also highly critical of the quality of British generalship.
He has some ideas for using a blockade, for trying
to attack Germany and its allies at the margins somehow.
But he's determined that Britain just has to continue, and his
answer is to go public in September 1916, and tell journalists that
what Britain needs to do is to plan on a knockout
blow and be willing just to fight it all the way through.
He sets himself out to the public as the
man who is willing to do whatever is needed.
In contrast to Lloyd George, inside the Cabinet discussions,
Asquith gets an extraordinary memo from one of
the senior statesmen in his government, Lord Lansdowne.
Lansdowne has held several of the highest posts the British
government can give, even going back to the late 1800s.