Outline the reasons for which the charge that ‘he must tax food’ was problematic for Chamberlain’s Tariff Reform campaign?

Chamberlain’s contentious commitment to Tariff Reform in 1903 dominated cross party debate and national political discussion in the years that followed. In his speech at Glasgow , the consequences of proposed protectionist policies became apparent as he himself stated that the nation must ‘put a tax on food’. In invoking collective memory revivals of the Hungry Forties, the subject of food became central to the campaign’s progress (or lack thereof). The idea of taxing basic foods became entirely unpopular with the working classes.  As social investigation demonstrated, basic nourishment was an area of huge preoccupation in extremely unpredictable social conditions. These wage-earning class concerns managed to translate into literary, academic, as well as broad middle class political interests (particularly through the employer). Uniting the then fractured Liberal factions under a renewed banner of quasi-religious free trade status, the food tax issue was effectively utilised in a mass propaganda campaign that re-established party policy to newly enfranchised masses. Through channelling fears of starvation,famine and national physical deterioration, the Liberal opposition was able to derail any attempt at a successful Protectionist campaign through addressing both past tragedy on one hand and very immediate everyday needs on the other. Although it cannot offer direct evidence on the food tax issue, the 1906 landslide victory seems an adequate measure for the ‘damage’ to the Tariff Reform campaign that premises the question. It is however worth noting that national attitudes in this period, particularly those of the working classes, are extremely difficult to support with direct evidence, even where they can be effectively gauged.