The autumn issue of the Journal of Liberal History has just been published. Its contents include:

Cromwell’s statue and the fall of the Liberal government in 1895. Maybe you think that controversies over political statues are a feature only of recent years? You’d be wrong. William Wallace recalls how the erection of the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament helped bring down Lord Rosebery’s Liberal government in 1895.

Solving the ‘problem’ of the twentieth century. In the 1930s European governments appeared to have a stark choice: appease the rise of Nazi Germany or prepare for war. But maybe there was another way – Ewan Lawry examines the Liberal Lord Davies of Llandinam’s internationalist alternative.

The Liberal Democrat performance in the 2022 local elections. The Liberal Democrats were the surprise winners of this year’s local elections, gaining more council seats than any other party. The well-known psephologist John Curtice analyses where the party gained votes and seats, and whether Lib Dem support is still linked to voters’ views of Brexit.

The Journal also includes the report of our meeting in January, on the 1992 general election, with Alison Holmes and Dennis Kavanagh. We also carry book reviews of Stephen Hart’s James Chuter Ede, Jonny Oates’ I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Andrew Lambert’s The British Way of War, and Mark Knights’ Trust and Distrust, Corruption in Office in Britain and its Empire, 1600–1850.

Subscribers should soon be receiving their copy of the issue. Anyone else can purchase a copy via our website – and, if you take out an annual subscription now, you’ll get this issue together with the next year’s worth (four further issues).

Like everyone else, we regret the cancellation of the party’s autumn conference. We were intending to hold two fringe meetings there, so we’ve reorganised one of them to take place this coming Friday: the launch of Partnership and Politics in a Divided Decade, by husband-and-wife team Vince Cable and Rachel Smith.

This new book tells the inside story of Vince Cable’s political career during the turbulent decade of the 2010s, both as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the Liberal Democrat – Conservative coalition government, and as Liberal Democrat leader from 2017 to 2019. Chair/interviewer: Anne Perkins, journalist and historian.

The meeting will take place at 6.30pm on Friday 7 October 2022, in the David Lloyd George Room at the National Liberal Club (1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE). Drinks refreshments will be provided, and you will also have a chance to purchase Partnership and Politics in a Divided Decade.

Those unable to attend in person will be able to view the meeting via Zoom, and ask questions via the Zoom chat function. Please register for Zoom access via the History Group website. For those attending in person, there is no need to register. All welcome.

* Duncan Brack is a member of the Federal Policy Committee and chaired the FPC’s working group that wrote Rebuilding Trade and Cooperation with Europe, passed by conference in spring 2022.