At the lowest point in its history, during the early and mid 1950s, the Liberal Party almost ceased to exist. Its decline from one of the great governing parties of the nineteenth century was rapid; the last solely Liberal government came to an end in 1915, the last Liberal Prime Minister left office in 1922, and thereafter Liberals only participated in government during the National emergency coalitions of the 1930s and 1940s (until 2010). The party was reduced to contesting only just over 100 seats in the 1951 and 1955 elections, and fell to a mere five MPs in 1957. Yet at the same time, Liberal ideas, propounded by John Maynard Keynes, Ernest Simon and William Beveridge, among others, helped lay the foundations of post-war British governments’ economic, welfare and housing policies.
How the Liberal Party survived at all, to enjoy successive waves of revival from the 1960s onwards, is still something of a mystery. Was it due to the Conservatives’ desire to recruit Liberal voters into the broadest possible anti-socialist coalition? Was it thanks to the stubborn refusal of Liberal activists in the few remaining areas of core strength to give up the struggle? Was it simply because the party seemed too insignificant for the others to go to the trouble of wiping it out?
The summer issue of the Journal of Liberal History is a special themed edition, looking at this question, the survival of the Liberal Party in its darkest hours. Contents include:
- The survival of the Liberal Party, 1931–60 Malcolm Baines introduces this special issue
- ‘They will not suffer in silence, and they will be right’ Herbert Samuel and the survival of the Liberal Party 1932–33; by Andrew Loader
- Cornwall: A local study in Liberal survival Garry Tredidga examines how the party fared in its traditional stronghold
- The rebuilding and reorganisation of the party Lord Meston and the report of the Liberal Re-organisation Committee, 1936; by Andrew Loader
- A party divided Liberals, Liberal Nationals and the decline of the Liberal Party; by David Dutton
- William Beveridge and Ernest Simon Liberalism and social policy in the twentieth century; by Stuart Jones
- The geography of Liberal survival Mark Egan analyses the geographical persistence of the Liberal vote
- New Liberals and old in the revival of 1957–66 How much did the reviving Liberal Party of the 1960s owe to its forebears? by William Wallace
- Liberal personalities: concise biographies of Sir Archibald Sinclair, Violet Bonham Carter, Megan Lloyd George and Clement Davies, by Malcolm Baines
The issue is available now for purchase from the Liberal Democrat History Group’s website. Annual subscriptions to the Journal of Liberal History, in either print or digital versions, can be taken out via the same link.
* 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.
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21 Comments
Yes, Jo Grimond.
Jo Grimond………….. of course.
Although Jo Grimond was a key element, there were other key individuals including Donald Ward and Elliott Dodds in Yorkshire, Clement Davies in Montgomeryshire and doubtless others in parts of the country I am not aware of.
Ultimately we all owe those who carried on believing and working to keep the show on the road at that time a real debt of gratitude.
It was my great pleasure to speak to Donald Wade’s daughter while telephoning party members in West Yorkshire a few years back.
Donald was indeed one of the stalwarts that kept the Liberal Party alive during the 1950s, like his colleague Arthur Holt he held his seat due to a pact with the local Tories to keep Labour out which lasted for more than a decade.
The crucial event though was then party leader Clement Davies turning down Churchill’s offer a government post as minister for education following the latters return to office in 1951. Had the offer been accepted there is a good chance the Liberal party would have been taken over by the Conservatives.
@ David Warren re Clement Davies, “Had the offer been accepted there is a good chance the Liberal party would have been taken over by the Conservatives”.
Not so sure about that, David. I think Jo would have taken over a few years earlier than he actually did……….. Clem Davies, sadly, I’m afraid, had a problem he shared with both Kennedy C. and Asquith H.H.
As for Donald Wade, yes, initially the beneficiary of a pact, but nearly kept Huddersfield West in 1964 (a matter of a mere 400 votes). I know personally that Donald would have objected to a merger with the Tories in 1951, as would Arthur Holt in Bolton.
I wonder what shape we would have been in, particularly in Scotland, had the Tories stuck to the Fixed Term Parliament Act and not called an election in 2017, followed by one in 2019, but left it until 2020?
@David Raw
Yes Wade was very much a Liberal and played a crucial role in removing the colour bar on Britain’s railways.
As for Davies, yes he had his personal demons but he did play a crucial role in keeping the party together. Apparently at party meetings he sat between Megan Lloyd George and Violet Bonham Carter two very forceful women with very different views on what the party should stand for!
“I wonder what shape we would have been in…..had the Tories stuck to the Fixed Term Parliament Act”
What was the thinking behind the FTPA? Whatever it was, it was clearly faulty.
Oppositions are always going to challenge Governments to call an early election. So, if Governments wanted an early election, under the FTPA, they could always rely on opposition support to override the legislation.
Anyone could easily have anticipated that it was never going to work.
I should like to buy a copy of this issue of the Journal, have been to the site via the link, but it does not say which is the “Summer Issue.” Please clarify. I’m not sure whether poor comunication skills are Brack’s problem or mine (or maybe endemic in the party)
How did/does the the Party,which promoted the society saving ideas of “Maynard Keynes, Ernst Simon and William Beverage”, come to espouse Austerity/Neoliberalism, which opposes and attacks them?
How well do the ideas put forward by Maynard Keynes, Ernest Simon and William Beverage fit with the L. D. Policy of addopting/supporting Austerity/Neolibealism?
Clement Davies’s drinking was not helped by the loss of three of his children in their early twenties.
@ Peter Wrigley I suggest you get in touch with Andrew Pinnock (husband of Kath Pinnock) just up the road from you in Gomersal. Andrew deals with membership/subs etc., As for Duncan, he is usually most reliable., so try again.
@ Steve Trevethan “How well do the ideas put forward by Maynard Keynes, Ernest Simon and William ‘Beverage’ fit with the L. D. Policy of addopting/supporting Austerity/Neolibealism?”
They don’t.
John Maynard Keynes saw his mission as saving capitalism from collapse by emphasizing the importance of expanding the functions of government to achieve full employment through increased effective demand—specifically, (i) partly through the taxation method and partly through the interest rate to influence the propensity to consume, and (ii) the comprehensive socialization of investment.
Keynes was not an advocate of socialism and particularly not the dictatorship of the the proletariat. In his 1925 essay “Am I a Liberal?” he wrote “The Class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie,”.
As the 2018 economist article writes “He belonged to a new breed of liberals who were not in thrall to laissez-faire, the idea that “unfettered private enterprise would promote the greatest good of the whole”. That doctrine, Keynes believed, was never necessarily true in principle and was no longer useful in practice. What the state should leave to individual initiative, and what it should shoulder itself, had to be decided on the merits of each case”Was John Maynard Keynes a liberal?
1925, : J.M. Keynes, “The Class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie,” No surprise there. That’s who he was and what he belonged to.
A year later, in 1926, I wonder if my then 10 year old Mum ever reflected on these things as she picked through the County Durham slag heaps io try to bring warmth to her family during the miners strike after the coal owners such as Lord Londonderry, the Vane-Tempest Stewarts and the Edens had cut the miners’ wages ?
Might the L. D. Party have changed from the Social Liberalism of Lloyd George and co to a recent and current Austerity/Neoliberal policy?
@ Peter Wrigley – apologies, I should have mentioned that the summer issue is number 127, the most recent.
@ Steve Trevethan, “Might the L. D. Party have changed from the Social Liberalism of Lloyd George and co to a recent and current Austerity/Neoliberal policy ?”
I’m afraid LLG wasn’t always a ‘Social Liberal’, Mr Trevethan.
He could also be a right wing ruthless bully banning newspapers he didn’t like – (e.g. ‘Forward’ under the Defence of the Realm Act), connived to imprison dissenters to his policies, (e.g. E.D. Morel, Bertrand Russell et al), was in the pocket of multimillionaire press owners, Harmsworth, Beaverbrook, and Lord Riddell. Riddell provided a very comfortable villa and farm next to Walton Heath Golf Club. He also amassed over £ 4 million in 1920 values (£ 156 million today) from the sale of honours when he was PM.
A carnivore rather than a herbivore.
@ Steve Trevethan P.S. forgot to mention the Black & Tans.
@ Steve Trevethan
How did/does the the Party, which promoted the society saving ideas of “Maynard Keynes, Ernst Simon and William Beverage”, come to espouse Austerity/Neoliberalism, which opposes and attacks them?”
It doesn’t. However, the party still remembers and promotes sound money, and properly regulated free trade and free markets.
And if you mean by “austerity” having sensible and affordable spending plans, then yes Liberal Democrats support that too.