During the period of 1830-1930, vast changes were made to our political system that brought about a working class party and eventually positioned them into power. However, it is hard to quantify the significance of the duration of time taken for these developments to occur; can this be considered as an extensive or even short phase of time? In 1830 the electoral system was tremendously obsolete and corrupt with only 5% of the population being able to vote. Parliament was dominated by the House of Lords making it hard for changes to occur in a short period of time. There were also very few organisations that represented the working class, and any early trade unions that were affiliated with workers did not often concern themselves in politics. Furthermore it was evident that strict regulations were in place to ban strikes and any other industrial action. As a result of these circumstances it had not yet been possible for a labour party to form, and it is apparent that the workers were very poorly represented; it is even clear by the actions of the Liberals and Conservatives that they did not in any way favour the interests of the workers. They believed that there was no need for reform in an already stable political system.
Undoubtedly, the first steps towards a working class achieving political power came from the emergence of Chartism. The Chartist leader, O’Connor strived to enhance the credibility of the working class people through his enthusiastic policy of “peaceful if we can, violence if we must!” This in itself could be the foundation of why it would seem to take so long for the workers to form a government. An aggressive, yet defensive approach lacks the vigour to get a message across instantly and with force. This non-revolutionary mentality seemed to be in the air throughout this whole period. Nonetheless, this movement of Chartism was indeed the first steps towards working class representation, and could even be considered as party material. Though in…