Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

Author Archives: Neil Hughes

Opinion: A hundred years ago…

By Neil Hughes | Tue 26th August 2014 - 3:35 pm

1910 was a momentous year for Liberals in UK government, with a long-desired end to bitter struggles with the Conservatives over House of Lords reform arriving at a triumphant conclusion. Now a House of Lords of whatever persuasion would no longer be able to resist indefinitely progress for the vast majority of democratically drawn-up Parliamentary bills, and Asquith, Lloyd George & co could take much credit for this. Only four years later, however, the country slipped into a war, the wastage of human life caused by which remains unrivalled in the history of western and of European civilisation. What could have gone wrong?

1910 also marked the beginning of – and 1914 the near-culmination of – a slide in Liberal fortunes which within a decade of the second date would see a national institution reduced to a crowd of irrelevant backbenchers. Asquith was still leader; did he any longer have any party to follow him?

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged first world war and liberals | 9 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)
A Federal Britain: 3. Fiscal Federalism and a complete constitutional settlement (Iain Donaldson)

Advert

Recent Comments

Gill Travers
Chris says "he harsh truth is that, unless we have a message that gives us an identity among those who don’t take a massive interest in politics but do at l...
paul barker
If we are going to attract new Voters, Young Voters & Women in particular, then we have to be prepared to annoy & appall some other Voters. Trying to pl...
Peter Wrigley
I think Kira Collins is wrong. When Jo Grimond was leader he wrote an article in the Observer (I think it was in the very first edition of their weekend Magazi...
Mick Taylor
It is NOT a review of policy. It's a review of strategy, under section 5.1 of the constitution. We have enough policy to fill the British Library. The problems ...
expats
@ Tom Walker, “Economic decline, Conservative austerity and misguided government policy have all been blamed for worsening inequality in the UK”.... Our ...