Three Sorry Stories

I know this is old; I meant to note it at the time and then lost it. Kenneth Morgan’s historical take on Conservative-Liberal coalitions, in a letter in August’s Prospect, is a gem:

25th June 2010

Dick Leonard’s summary of past Lib-Con coalitions (July) deals admirably with those of 1895 and 1931. Both ended up with Liberals dividing their party, but this was even more true of the one peacetime coalition which he leaves out: that of 1918-22, in which over half the Liberal MPs followed Lloyd George into a right-wing anti-Labour alliance, hastening the Liberals’ demise as a credible party of government.

What he should add is that the coalitions of 1895, 1918 and 1931 were all disastrous. The first prevented Irish self-government and was responsible for the Boer war. The second saw us plunge into economic depression. The third made the social effects of that depression even worse. Each time, the Liberal coalitionists showed themselves to be mostly shallow opportunists willing to jettison their principles for the sake of office. This time around, with the supposed heirs of the early Lloyd George, Keynes and Beveridge smugly accepting Tory policies that will hurt the poor and vulnerable, create more unemployment and diminish the welfare state, is not Leonard’s “sorry story” likely to become even sorrier?

Kenneth Morgan

Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire

Photograph of Lloyd George: Corbis

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