The whole thing is a wicked fraud . " The Liberal leaders expected to lose the 1918 election badly, as they had lost the " Khaki Election " in 1900, but did not foresee the sheer scale of the defeat.
12.
The result of the by-election was not therefore a reliable pointer to the outcome of the next general election, as no doubt Edinburgh Liberals hoped although the political situation would be transformed by the time of the 1900 Khaki election as a result of the country s involvement in the Boer War and the depiction of many Liberal candidates as pro-Boer and unpatriotic.
13.
The election nonetheless saw a sharp fall in the Conservative share of the vote ( by over one third ) since the'khaki election'of 1918, although the Conservative vote only actually fell by 656, and Newton's fall in vote share is mainly attributable by a slight rise in the Labour vote, and the appearance of the first Liberal candidate to contest the seat since 1910.
