# Free Breakfast Table

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{{Short description|Demand of British working-class Liberalism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
The '''Free Breakfast Table''' was the demand of [British](/source/United_Kingdom) [working-class](/source/working-class) [Liberalism](/source/Liberalism) from the 1860s to the early twentieth century. It entailed abolishing [duties](/source/duty_(economics)) on basic foodstuffs as these were [indirect tax](/source/indirect_tax)es and therefore [regressive](/source/regressive_tax). It was as a result of the abolition of Protectionism.

The phrase is said to have been coined by the [Radical](/source/Radicals_(UK)) MP [John Bright](/source/John_Bright).<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Bright, John|volume=4 |page=569 |first=Peter William |last=Clayden}}</ref> There was also a campaigning organisation called the Free Breakfast Table Association.<ref>{{cite book |first=E. F. |last=Biagini |title=Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone, 1860–1880 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2004 |page=102}}</ref>

The [National Agricultural Labourers Union](/source/National_Agricultural_Labourers_Union) held the Free Breakfast Table as "an article of faith" and the idea helped to safeguard [Liberal Party](/source/Liberal_Party_(UK)) support in rural areas after the [Representation of the People Act 1884](/source/Representation_of_the_People_Act_1884).<ref>{{cite journal |first=Frank |last=Trentman |title=Political culture and political economy: interest, ideology and free trade |journal=Review of International Political Economy |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=Summer 1998 |page=230}}</ref>

In 1891 the [National Liberal Federation](/source/National_Liberal_Federation) convened in Newcastle and adopted [the Newcastle Programme](/source/the_Newcastle_Programme), which included a pledge in favour of the Free Breakfast Table.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=30&item=history&PHPSESSID=32f74420ec33... |title=The Newcastle Programme |first=Tony |last=Little |publisher=Liberal Democrat History Group |date=n.d. |access-date=25 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000553/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=30&item=history&PHPSESSID=32f74420ec33... |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first [Labour](/source/Labour_Party_(UK)) [Chancellor of the Exchequer](/source/Chancellor_of_the_Exchequer), [Philip Snowden](/source/Philip_Snowden), produced his first Budget in 1924 and claimed it went "far to realize the cherished radical idea of a free breakfast table".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,718325-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004754/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,718325-1,00.html |archive-date=1 October 2007 |magazine=Time |title=Labor's Budget |date=May 12, 1924}}</ref> Snowden had lowered duties on tea, coffee, cocoa, chicory and sugar.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=A. J. P. Taylor |first=A. J. P. |last=Taylor |title=English History, 1914–1945 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1990 |page=212}}</ref> As late as 1938 a Labour MP ([George Ridley](/source/George_Ridley_(Labour_politician))) was condemning the Conservatives' budget due to its "harsh and inhuman" increase on the tax on tea and thereby betraying the ideal of the free breakfast table.<ref>''The Times'' (28 April 1938), p. 9.</ref>

==Notes==
<references/>

Category:Political history of the United Kingdom
Category:Liberal Party (UK)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Free Breakfast Table](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Breakfast_Table) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Breakfast_Table?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.