When David Lloyd George bought a St Bernard puppy, Punch showed his new pet about to rescue him from an avalanche of papers dealing with pressing political issues [see Fig. 30.1]. Some were international – the crises in Poland and in Mesopotamia and the menace of Bolshevism – but most were domestic – the coal dispute, soaring prices, strikes, direct action and the cost of living. Lloyd George was scratching his head, and he had reason to feel overwhelmed by his post-war problems. The negotiations at Versailles were difficult, but the challenges at home were considerable: demobilisation of troops and the war economy, social tensions caused by inflation and militant trade unions, political difficulties with the war debt, the implications of a wider franchise, and ending the war of independence in Ireland.