MIA: Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of People


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Askew, J. B. ( - )

Leading member of the Social Democratic Federation and the British Socialist Party before and during the First World War. Acted as British correspondent of the German Social Democratic paper Vorwärts and opposed the chauvinist policies of the leaders of the British movement, characterizing Hyndman as a 'bourgeois nationalist'. Helped foreign socialist exiles in Britain during the war, including Petrov.

 

Asquith, Herbert Henry (1858-1928)

British Liberal politician became a barrister and an MP in 1886. Became Home Secretary in 1892 and with the return of a liberal government in 1905 was made Chancellor of the Exchequer succeeding Campbell Bannerman as Prime Minister in 1908. Asquith was a free trader, liberal reformer and advocate of Irish Home Rule. With the outbreak of war he was at first reluctant for too great a military commitment but yielded under pressure from the Tories. On this and the Ulster question he formed a war coalition in 1915 including leading Ulster Unionists and other Tories. In 1916 he crushed the Irish uprising and executed all its leaders. He was replaced by Lloyd George as Prime Minister the same year but he remained leader of the Liberal Party until 1926.