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After a General Election victory in 1906, the Liberals began a series of ambitious social reforms such as medical examinations for school children, free meals for the poorest students and a programme for slum clearance. Other reforms involved the setting up of Labour exchanges and the introduction of a basic old age pension scheme.Additionally, they reversed the 1901 Taff Vale judgement, which had made trade unions liable for employer\'s losses during strikes. The House of Lords (which did not have a Liberal majority) on several occasions refused to pass pieces of the government\'s social and spending legislation. Conflict between the Commons and the Lords escalated and came to a head in 1909 with the Lord\'s rejection of the so-called \'People\'s Budget\' (which attempted to fund - by higher redistributive taxation - the government\'s social reform programme and a substantially increased military budget).A period of constitutional crisis ensued, which was concluded when King George V agreed that he would accede to the Liberal government\'s request for the creation of sufficient new Liberal peers to pass a parliament act which would limit the powers of the Lords to delay legislation to two years and remove their veto on any finance related bill.
The Unionist majority in the House of Lords admitted defeat and in 1911 the Parliament Act was passed, which entrenched the parliamentary primacy of the Commons over the Lords.The remainder of the Liberal government\'s term in power before the First World War was principally occupied with troubles in Ireland, industrial unrest and difficulties over the issue of women\'s suffrage, although it continued in its programme of limited social reform.
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