What was the significance of the ‘Labour Unrest’ in Britain 1910-1914?

The labour unrest which erupted in Britain in the years immediately preceding the First World War were, to say the least, something of a shock to a country used to unusually peaceful industrial relations. In 1911, A. Clay wrote, “Until lately the news of industrial violence on the Continent has affected the British public as much as the howling of the storm outside affects a man comfortably sitting by his own fireside. Any fear that the dangerous forms assumed by labour revolts abroad might be imitated at home has been tranquillised by the belief that our Trade Union system and the traditional common sense of the nation would be a sufficient protection against industrial revolution….(short extract)