But an obvious and grave complication was introduced into both British and Irish politics at the moment when the democratic alliance had achieved its first great objective.
Parliament had been in session almost continuously since the beginning of 1909, with the added strain of two general elections thrown in.

There was a widespread desire to clear the autumn of 1911, so that members might have some breathing space, and, not less important, devote themselves to propagandist work in their constituencies for the new struggle of carrying measures under the hardly won Parliament Act.

Each of these measures must involve a fight prolonged over three years.
But this desire ran against the purposes of Mr.Asquith's chief lieutenant, whose power and popularity were now at their height.

Mr.
Lloyd George in the course of the session had introduced his Insurance Bill, and it was welcomed with astonishing effusion from both sides of the House.

As discussion proceeded, however, the complexity and difficulty of its proposals, and the number of oppositions which they provoked, became so apparent that it was not in human nature for politicians at such a crisis to forgo the opportunity.