The politics of improvement

Abstract

The first fruits of municipal reform had been popular participation in local government and the creation of a political role for previously proscribed social groups. The exercise of such political power was, however, never deemed an end in itself. It was valid to ask ‘what boots it to the people whether a fool wear a blue cap or a yellow one?’ and to state one’s indifference to mere politics, ‘I care nowt what colour they wear; its not blue nor yellow ‘at makes ’em better or warse’.¹ Corporations, in order to justify themselves, had to contribute to the welfare of the urban community. As the first reform mayor of Leeds put it, their aim was to ‘effect a material improvement in the condition of the burgesses ... and promote those objects which would tend to their happiness and prosperity’.² It was significant that when Manchester council had served its seven years’ apprenticeship mayor Alexander Kay chose to review its achievements in terms of the improvements made on behalf of the local community. He particularly emphasized that ‘we have largely increased and have every intention of still further increasing the funds destined to improve and embellish this, the metropolis of the great manufacturing district of England. We have acquired the power ... of promoting the health and comforts of our population’.³ The provision of new markets and water supply figured in his programme for the future.

‘The advocates of the dry earth system and the fluid method of deodorisation fight as bitterly as did the partisans of the Neptunian against the Vulcanian philosophers who theorised upon the original formation of the world.’ Liverpool Courier 5 August 1870