... party was desperate and he was the best of the available members. He did have strengths, he was good at debating with fellow members and the opposition but there were far more weaknesses than strengths. He took things for granted. He came into power whilst the party was on a high and assumed that it would stay this way if he did nothing and sat back and watched. People never really looked upon him with the respect that a usual Prime Minister would command. He never married which was seen as strange at the time and employed members of his own family. He lost any support from the working classes that Salisbury had managed to gain by only appointing lords into the cabinet. Balfour closely supported the 1902 education act. Because of this, many people blamed him for the consequences. Non-Conformists in England defected back to the liberal party when it ...

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