The settlement with Germany generated much sound and fury in Britain in the months between November 1918 and June 1919. After a war that had such a profound effect on the life of the country, the home front was a factor that could not be ignored by the government in the negotiation of the final peace terms with Germany. There were many facets to the British home front: the populace with its broadened franchise, active pressure groups, members of Parliament (MPs), and, more important, the members of the ruling coalition parties, as well as the empire. The views of all these groups, in varying degree, had to be taken into account by the peacemakers. Between the end of the war and the conclusion of peace, the government's reactions to the home front dimension passed through three periods. The first stretched from the November 1918 Armistice to the December general election, in which all the pent-up emotions of war were released and views on the nature of the settlement vociferously expressed across the political spectrum. Here the requirements of political expediency led the government to pander to public opinion in order to secure a majority in the House of Commons. The second period ran from the general election to mid-April 1919. These were the months in which Lloyd George grew increasingly aware of the dangerous direction being taken in the drafting of terms but was constrained (and therefore British diplomacy was constrained) by the uncertain support of his own backbenches.