Where did the parties gain and lose ground in the early twentieth century? The indications given by organised electoral activity are incomplete but illuminating. The Liberals made little headway among the cultural groups of the old politics. But the importance of these was anyway in decline - a decline which seriously weakened working-class Conservatism. Free Trade helped the Liberals, especially in 1906. The work of the Asquith Government, however, frightened the economic liberals, and there was a steady drift of rich men into the Conservative ranks. Organised labour, on the other hand, which had once been cool towards Liberalism, increasingly settled for the progressive coalition rather than strict independence. Between 1900 and 1910 Liberalism and Labour drew closer together; and their conjunction was the most important single factor in the new politics.