Friends or Enemies, Allies or Competitors? Liberals and Labour 1903–2019
September 15, 2024 / 06:19 PM
Empress Room, Grand Hotel
97–99 Kings Road, Brighton BN1 2FW
Lloyd George, Herbert Samuel and Palestine: background and legacy
July 25, 2024 / 06:20 PM
National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE.
What role did Liberals play in the Middle East settlement after the First World War? In 1917, the Lloyd George Coalition Government announced its support for the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. This was the ‘Balfour Declaration’, named after Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. After the defeat and dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, the new League of Nations established a mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, and Britain governed the region until 1948. The first High Commissioner was Herbert Samuel, a former Liberal MP and minister, and later (1929–35) leader of the Liberal Party. He held the High Commissioner post from 1920 to 1925. Discuss these topics with Dr Peter Shambrook, an independent scholar and historical consultant to the Balfour Project, which works to advance equal rights for all in Palestine/Israel. He is the author of Policy of Deceit: Britain and Palestine, 1914–1939 (2023). Chair: Layla Moran MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for foreign affairs.
Greening Liberalism
March 15, 2024 / 07:51 AM
Meeting Room 4, Novotel York Centre
Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
The history of Liberal and Liberal Democrat environmental thinking How and when did environmental policy become important to British political parties, and to the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats in particular? Speakers: Professor Neil Carter (York University) and Baroness Parminter. Chair: Keith Melton (Green Liberal Democrats). You can view the accompanying slides here
The 1847 Financial Crisis and the Irish Famine
January 29, 2024 / 06:44 PM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
The Irish famine of the 1840s remains the worst humanitarian crisis in the United Kingdom’s history. Within six years of the arrival of the potato blight in Ireland in 1845, more than a quarter of its people had died or emigrated.
Despite this, Lord John Russell’s Whig government decided in spring 1847 – long before the famine ended – to cut Treasury spending on public relief efforts. The move is generally attributed by economic historians to the pervasive influence of ‘laissez-faire’ ideas on Russell and his colleagues. But they also faced a deepening financial crisis, which severely limited the government’s options. The Bank Charter Act of 1844 required all bank notes issued by the Bank of England to be fully backed by gold. A major harvest failure in Ireland and England the previous year had led to large price increases and trade deficits, which had in turn caused a sharp drain of gold reserves from the Bank of England in March and April 1847. The Bank responded by lifting the discount rate at which it would lend money to other banks. This led to a drastic curtailment of available commercial credit and contributed to the collapse of numerous businesses in the autumn.
By October 1847, Russell and his cabinet faced a choice: between suspending the Bank Charter Act to permit the Bank of England to discount more freely and to issue banknotes in greater volume, or sticking to economic orthodoxy. They also had to tread carefully through the two crises because the government lacked a parliamentary majority.
Dr Charles Read (Faculty of History, University of Cambridge and author of The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain’s Financial Crisis (2022)) and Liam Kennedy (Emeritus Professor of History at Queen’s University, Belfast) discuss the Russell government’s response to the 1847 financial crisis and the Irish Famine.
What Have the Liberals Ever Done For Us? Book Launch
September 23, 2023 / 03:06 PM
Meyrick Suite, Bournemouth International Centre (BIC)
Launch of the Liberal Democrat History Group’s new concise guide to the greatest Liberal achievements, from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries.
Speakers: Layla Moran MP, Sarah Olney MP, Wendy Chamberlain MP, Baroness Barker. Chair: Lord Wallace of Saltaire.
The Strange Death of Liberal England Revisited
July 10, 2023 / 07:15 PM
Lounge, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
George Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England, published in 1935, became one of the most influential accounts of the Liberal Party’s demise as a party of government. Dangerfield claimed that by ‘the end of 1913 Liberal England was reduced to ashes’ by three forms of political turbulence and upheaval: the threat of civil war in Ireland; the campaign for women’s suffrage; and an unprecedented wave of strikes.
But in recent decades many historians have taken issue with Dangerfield’s thesis and some point out that liberal values, and the Liberal Party, endured in the inter-war years and after.
Vernon Bogdanor (Research Professor at the Centre for British Politics and Government at King’s College London and author of The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain: Politics and Power Before the First World War) and Richard Toye (Professor of History at the University of Exeter) discuss Liberal politics in the early twentieth century. Chair: Anne Perkins (journalist and historian).
Shirley Williams: Liberal Lion and Trailblazer
March 17, 2023 / 10:30 AM
Meeting Room 3 & 4, Novotel York Centre
Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2XK6dWTFlI
Shirley Williams, part of the ‘Gang of Four’ who founded the SDP and former leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, was one of the UK’s best-loved politicians. She championed numerous progressive causes and for decades was an inspiration to millions of liberals.
Mark Peel (author, Shirley Williams: The Biography), Lord Tom McNally and Baroness Julie Smith discuss her life, beliefs and legacy. Chair: Baroness Kate Parminter.
Forgotten Liberal Heroes: Sir Edward Grey and Richard Haldane
January 30, 2023 / 04:12 PM
Violet Bonham Carter Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51pobLIraVg
The Liberal governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H.H. Asquith included many ‘big beasts’. Sir Edward Grey served as Foreign Secretary and remains the longest-serving holder of the office. He maintained good relations with France and Russia at a time of great instability in Europe. When his efforts to avert conflict failed, in 1914, Grey persuaded a divided cabinet to support Britain’s entry to the First World War.
Richard Haldane was Secretary for War and created the Territorial Army and the British Expeditionary Force. As Lord Chancellor after 1912 he pursued a series of judicial reforms. He was also a co-founder of the UK university system.
Both have a credible case for being regarded as Liberal heroes. But Grey’s record has been strongly criticised in recent years and Haldane is largely forgotten.
Thomas Otte (University of East Anglia and author of Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey) and John Campbell OBE (author of Haldane: The Forgotten Statesman Who Shaped Modern Britain) assess these Liberal politicians and their legacies. Chair: Layla Moran MP.
Was the Coalition a mistake? Why did we fail to stop Brexit?
October 7, 2022 / 04:16 PM
National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
Launch of Partnership & 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. The book covers Vince’s time as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the Liberal Democrat – Conservative coalition government, from 2010 to 2015. Having lost his seat in the calamitous 2015 election, Vince returned to Parliament in 2017, and six weeks later was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats. The book includes his time as party leader and the Liberal Democrats’ role in the attempts to force a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal. Chair/interviewer: Anne Perkins, journalist and historian.
The fall of the Lloyd George coalition
July 11, 2022 / 11:15 AM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
Working with Labour: The Liberal Party and the Balance of Power 1923-31
March 11, 2022 / 01:44 PM
Liberal Democrat spring conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdCcEP5d8ag The 1920s were a challenging decade for the Liberal Party. With the advance of Labour, the Liberals were now the third force in British politics. The Asquith and Lloyd George factions united to contest the 1923 general election as one party, but tensions remained. The election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Liberals holding the balance of power. They opted to sustain Ramsay MacDonald’s minority Labour government, but the party remained divided over the decision. The Labour government fell the following year and the Conservative Party won a landslide victory in the ensuing general election, with the Liberals suffering heavy losses. After the 1929 general election, MacDonald formed another minority Labour government, supported once more by the Liberal Party – which, yet again, led to division and dissent among Liberal factions. Join Professor Philip Williamson (Durham University) and Michael Meadowcroft (former Liberal MP) to discuss the Liberal Party’s dilemmas and choices. Chair: Wendy Chamberlain MP. This is a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats’ federal conference, which be held online, via the Hopin online conference platform. It will be open to anyone participating in the conference; to register, click here. You do not need to register separately for this meeting.
The 1992 General Election
January 31, 2022 / 10:06 AM
Online via Zoom
The general election of 1992 was the first contested by the Liberal Democrats, who had been formed from the merger of the Liberal Party and the SDP just four years before. The new party entered the contest buoyed by parliamentary by-election victories, impressive local election results in 1991, and the high popularity of their leader, Paddy Ashdown. The party fought an effective campaign, but the election result was disappointing: the Liberal Democrats finished with fewer seats and a lower share of the vote than the Liberal-SDP Alliance had achieved in 1987, and the Conservatives unexpectedly won a fourth term in office. Compared to the dark days of the post-merger period, however, when the party had come a distant fourth in the Euro elections in 1989, perhaps the result was not so bad. Thirty years on, join Alison Holmes (General Election campaign co-ordinator for the Liberal Democrats) and Dennis Kavanagh (Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Liverpool and co-author of The British General Election of 1992) to discuss the 1992 general election and its significance. Chair: Lord Don Foster (first elected as MP for Bath in the 1992 election). The meeting will start at 7.00pm, following the AGM of the Liberal Democrat History Group at 6.30pm. The meeting will be held online via Zoom. Pre-registration is essential: register here. We have an upper limit on the number of participants, and will close registration when we reach it; if you are unable to register, the video of the meeting will be available on our Facebook page and via our website shortly afterwards.
The two Davids: Steel versus Owen
September 17, 2021 / 05:03 PM
Liberal Democrat autumn conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqInGwjf_pk In 1981 the alliance between the Liberal Party and the newly founded SDP was agreed; the two parties would fight elections together on a joint platform with join candidates. Between 1983 and 1987, however, the working relationship between the Liberal leader, David Steel, and his SDP counterpart, Dr David Owen, became increasingly marked by tension and distrust. Steel became steadily more frustrated at Owen’s resistance to joint selection of candidates, and any convergence on policy proposals. The Liberal Party and the SDP clashed over some issues, most notably nuclear weapons. In particular, Owen strongly opposed any long-term moves to merge the two parties. The clash became painfully obvious during the 1987 general election campaign, when Steel ruled out supporting a minority Thatcher government while Owen was adamant that Labour was unfit to govern. The results of the election were disappointing for both parties. The leadership tensions ultimately wrecked the Alliance. Discuss what went wrong with Sir Graham Watson (Steel’s former Head of Office) and Roger Carroll (former SDP Communications Director). Chair: Christine Jardine MP.
Liberalism in the United States
July 6, 2021 / 03:04 PM
What is political liberalism in the United States? The original concept was the protection of people from arbitrary power, support for the free market and advocacy of religious tolerance. But that started to change in the early twentieth century, when American liberals joined with progressives in advocating government intervention in the economy and social legislation. The presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945 confirmed that American liberalism would be based on using the market economy to deliver mass prosperity and active government to promote greater equality. FDR’s version of liberalism became America’s national creed and for three decades, the welfare state expanded massively. But in 1981, the new President, Ronald Reagan declared, ‘Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem’. Most Americans seemed to agree and, despite some interruptions, a powerful surge from the right has dominated American politics ever since. The word ‘liberal’ is now a term of abuse in the country’s political discourse. Join us to discuss the origins, development and challenges of American liberalism with Helena Rosenblatt (Professor of History at The Graduate Center, City University of New York and author of The Lost History of Liberalism) and James Traub (journalist and author of What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present and Promise of a Noble Idea). Chair: Layla Moran MP (Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson) This will be an online meeting, held over Zoom. You must register in advance to participate; register here.
Back from the dead: the Liberal Party in the 1950s
March 19, 2021 / 12:42 PM
Liberal Democrat spring conference
In 1951, the Liberal Party’s existence was in grave doubt. At the October general election, the party contested a mere 109 seats, and only six MPs were returned. The party was badly divided over basic questions of strategy, and membership and morale were low. The late 1950s saw an upturn in the Liberals’ fortunes. In March 1962, they won a sensational by-election victory at Orpington and, soon after, reached 25 per cent in the Gallup poll. The party’s performance at local elections was similarly impressive and it claimed a record 350,000 members. Join Lord William Wallace of Saltaire and Mark Egan (Greffier of the States of Jersey) to discuss how the Liberal Party survived a near-death experience and revived. Chair: Baroness Liz Barker.
Asquith versus Lloyd George
February 1, 2021 / 06:43 PM
Online meeting, via Zoom. To register, see link below.
On 7 December 1916, H.H. Asquith was replaced as Prime Minister by David Lloyd George. The change followed mounting disquiet over the conduct of the First World War, and Lloyd George’s demands that a small committee, not including Asquith, should direct the war effort. Lloyd George forced the issue by resigning from the coalition government. Unionist ministers sided with Lloyd George and indicated their willingness to serve in a government led by him. The Liberal Party remained divided until the end of the war and beyond. The party fought the next two general elections as two separate groups and the reunion that finally came, in 1923, was, in Asquith’s words, ‘a fiction if not a farce’. Was the split between Asquith and Lloyd George caused by their contrasting personalities, or by substantive disagreements over management of the war? Or did their rivalry reflect deeper divisions between different Liberal traditions? Join David Laws and Damian Collins MP to discuss the causes and consequences of the Asquith–Lloyd George rivalry. Both speakers contributed chapters to Iain Dale’s new book, The Prime Ministers: 55 Leaders, 55 Authors, 300 Years of History (Hodder & Stoughton, 2020), David Laws on Asquith and Damian Collins on Lloyd George. Chair: Wendy Chamberlain MP. This online meeting will start at 7.00pm, following the Liberal Democrat History Group’s AGM at 6.30pm. All welcome. To register, please click here. (Zoom webinar, kindly hosted for the History Group by Liberal Democrat HQ.)
Liberals with a radical programme: The post-war welfare state, Beveridge and the Liberal Party 75 years on
September 26, 2020 / 05:59 PM
General Election 2019: Disappointment for the Liberal Democrats
July 8, 2020 / 11:09 AM
The 1979 General Election
February 3, 2020 / 06:11 PM
David Lloyd George Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
The 1979 general election inaugurated the premiership of Margaret Thatcher and an eighteen-year period of Conservative government. It took place after the ‘winter of discontent’, marked by public sector strikes which destroyed the Labour government’s social contract. The results signalled the end of the post-World War II political consensus, based on an enhanced role for the state in economic management, strong trade unions, a broad welfare state and the pursuit of full employment. The election came at the end of a decade that had seen numerous political upheavals, including two hung parliaments and record levels of support for the Liberal Party. But the Liberals’ share of the vote fell sharply in 1979, and two-party politics seemed to be back. Join Lord David Steel, Professor Sir John Curtice (University of Strathclyde) and Baroness Shirley Williams to discuss the 1979 general election and its significance. The meeting will start at 7.00pm, after the Liberal Democrat History Group’s AGM at 6.30pm.
The Liberal Party, Health Policy and the Origins of the NHS
September 15, 2019 / 11:36 AM
Purbeck Suite, Marriott Highcliff Hotel
105 St Michael’s Rd, Bournemouth BH2 5DU
The Peterloo Massacre and Nineteenth-Century Popular Radicalism
July 16, 2019 / 05:58 PM
Committee Room 4A, House of Lords
London SW1A 0PW
Liberalism in the north
March 15, 2019 / 04:54 PM
Meeting room 1/2, Novotel Hotel
Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
Gladstone’s first government 1868–74
January 28, 2019 / 01:39 PM
National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
One hundred and fifty years ago, in December 1868, William Ewart Gladstone became Prime Minister for the first time. Over the following six years, from 1868 to 1874, his government produced a series of lasting reforms, including nationwide primary school education, the secret ballot, legalisation of some trade union activities and the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. This record helped build his reputation as the greatest Liberal leader in history. In this meeting Professor Jon Parry and Dr David Brooks discuss the importance and legacy of what might be considered the first Liberal government and the first modern administration. The meeting accompanies the publication of issue 101 of the Journal of Liberal History, a special issue on the same topic. Chair: Baroness Liz Barker. Jon Parry is Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University, specialising in the history of British politics and political ideas in the nineteenth century. His publications include Democracy and Religion: Gladstone and the Liberal Party, 1867–1875 and The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain. Dr Brooks is Emeritus Lecturer in History at Queen Mary University London. He has written extensively on Gladstone and organises the annual ‘Gladstone Umbrella’ weekend conference at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden.
Europe: the Liberal commitment
September 16, 2018 / 01:47 PM
Sandringham Suite, Hilton Brighton Metropole
King’s Road, Brighton, BN1
The 1918 coupon election and its consequences
July 2, 2018 / 10:07 PM
Committee Room 4A
House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
In November 1918, just 24 hours after the Armistice had been signed with Germany, the Liberal Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, announced his decision to hold a general election. Selected coalition candidates received a signed letter of endorsement from Lloyd George and the Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law. The 1918 election thus became known as the ‘coupon election’. The election saw 133 Coalition Liberals returned to the House of Commons, but the independent Liberals, whom Lloyd George had abandoned, were reduced to a tiny minority, overtaken by the new Labour Party, while the Coalition Liberals increasingly became the prisoner of their Conservative Coalition partners. The election was a key stage in the decline of the Liberal Party; it cemented the wartime split and ensured that the Liberals were eventually relegated to third-party status. Speakers: Kenneth O. Morgan, Lord Morgan (author of Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918-22 and several other books on Lloyd George) and Alistair Cooke, Lord Lexden (official historian to the Conservative Party and the Carlton Club). Chair: Claire Tyler (Baroness Tyler). The report of this meeting was published in Journal of Liberal History 100 (autumn 2018) and is also available here.
The Liberal Party and Women’s Suffrage
March 9, 2018 / 12:53 PM
Executive Boardroom, Ramada Hotel, Southport
2018 marks 100 years since the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed under Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George, beginning the enfranchisement of women. While the vast majority of Liberal MPs supported the change, this support was not unanimous, however: the party had been divided for many years over the issue, and the previous Asquith government had obstructed reform. Opponents argued both that politics was not the ‘proper sphere of women’ and that if enfranchised, women would be more likely to vote Conservative. This fringe meeting at the Southport Liberal Democrat conference will discuss the divisions within the Liberal Party over votes for women, the stance taken by the Asquith government and the impacts on the party of the debates over women’s suffrage. Speakers: Jo Swinson (Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and MP for East Dunbartonshire) and Krista Cowman (Professor of History, University of Lincoln). Chair: Elizabeth Jewkes (Deputy Chair, Liberal Democrat Women).
Election 2017 – a missed opportunity?
February 5, 2018 / 09:18 AM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
The Liberal Democrats entered the 2017 general election campaign with high hopes: they were the only major UK-wide party unequivocally to oppose Brexit, and the campaign followed months of encouraging local government by-election results. But the outcome was a disappointment: a further fall in the vote from the catastrophic result in 2015, and four losses out of the eight seats that had been salvaged then – though this was offset by the recapture of eight seats which had been lost in 2015 or 2010. What went wrong? Was it a failure of leadership, of positioning or of campaigning? Or was the party simply swept aside by the rising Labour tide? Discuss the result and the implications for the Liberal Democrats with Professor Phil Cowley (co-author of The British General Election of 2017) and James Gurling (Chair, Liberal Democrats Federal Campaigns and Elections Committee). Chair: Baroness Grender (Paddy Ashdown’s second-in-command on the 2015 Liberal Democrat election campaign). The AGM of the Liberal Democrat History Group will take place first, at 6.30pm, followed by the speaker meeting at 7.00pm.
Liberals in local government 1967 – 2017
September 17, 2017 / 06:20 PM
Bayview 2, Bournemouth International Centre
The Leadership of Charles Kennedy
July 3, 2017 / 01:05 PM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
Who Rules? Parliament, the People or the Prime Minister?
March 17, 2017 / 09:47 AM
Meeting Room 4, Novotel Hotel
Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
‘Jeremy is Innocent’ : The Life and Times of Jeremy Thorpe and Marion Thorpe
February 6, 2017 / 10:43 AM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1
Jeremy Thorpe led the Liberal Party over three general elections from 1967 to 1976. Immensely charismatic, under his leadership the Liberal vote at general elections more than doubled. Yet following a scandal, his career ended in a criminal court case. Why? On the fiftieth anniversary of Thorpe’s rise to the party leadership, Ronald Porter (obituarist for The Independent and a regular speaker at National Liberal Club events) will present an illustrated talk covering the life of Jeremy Thorpe and his second wife, Marion, who was married to Jeremy from 1973 until her death in 2014. Chair: Michael Steed. The event will start at 7.00pm after the Annual General Meeting of the Liberal Democrat History Group at 6.30pm.
Coalition: Could Liberal Democrats have handled it better?
September 18, 2016 / 07:14 PM
Lancaster Room, Hilton Brighton Metropole
The 2015 election decisively ended the Liberal Democrats’ participation in government. Did what the party achieved in coalition between 2010 and 2015 justify the damage? Could the party have managed coalition better? The meeting marks the publication of the autumn Journal of Liberal History, a special issue on the policy record of the coalition. Speakers: David Laws (Minister for Schools, 2012-15), Chris Huhne (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, 2010-12), Akash Paun (Institute for Government). Chair: Jo Swinson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Poster Affairs, 2012-15).
The legacy of Roy Jenkins
June 27, 2016 / 11:18 AM
Committee Room 4A
House of Lords, Westminster (please allow 20 minutes to get through security)
NOTE: START TIME CHANGED TO 7.00pm Roy Jenkins is best remembered in Liberal Democrat circles as one of the ‘Gang of Four’ who established the Social Democratic Party, the SDP’s first leader, and then a staunch supporter of merger with the Liberal Party. But even as a Labour politician he had a liberal record. In his first two years as Home Secretary (which started just over fifty years ago), he abolished theatre censorship, passed the first effective legislation to outlaw racial discrimination and delivered government support for private members’ bills on the legalisation of homosexuality and on abortion. In 1972 he led the major Labour rebellion that saved the Conservative government’s legislation to take Britain into the European Community. John Campbell (author of Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life) and Lord David Steel (Leader of the Liberal Party 1976-88) discuss how much liberalism in Britain owes to Roy Jenkins. Chair: Dick Newby (Liberal Democrat Chief Whip, House of Lords, and the SDP’s National Secretary 1983-88). Please print this web page and bring it with you; you may be asked to show it at the security check.
The ideas that built the Liberal Democrats
March 11, 2016 / 12:31 PM
Novotel Hotel (Meeting Room 4)
Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
What do Liberal Democrats believe? And what stems from our historical legacy? Against the background of the ‘Agenda 2020’ review of values and beliefs, discuss the party’s ideological inheritance with David Boyle, Teena Lashmore and Nick Thornsby at the History Group’s fringe meeting at the York Liberal Democrat conference. Chair: David Howarth.
Europe: The Liberal commitment
February 1, 2016 / 11:29 AM
National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
How and why did the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats all end up as the strongest supporters of Britain’s membership of the European Economic Community and its successor institutions? Has it helped or hindered the party’s political achievements? Have developments in Europe since the EEC’s founding Treaty of Rome in 1958 reflected the party’s European faith? In this year of a possible referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, discuss the historic Liberal commitment and record with Sir Graham Watson (Liberal Democrat MEP 1994–2014) and Lord William Wallace (Liberal Democrat Foreign Office minister in the coalition government, 2010–15). Chair: Baroness Julie Smith.
Liberal leaders and leadership
September 20, 2015 / 11:04 PM
Deauville Suite, Trouville Hotel
5-7 Priory Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5DH
Party leaders matter: they embody a party’s present, while also shaping its future. This is particularly important in the values-based Liberal tradition. A total of twenty-five individuals led the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats between Earl Grey’s assumption of the leadership of the Whig opposition in 1828 and Nick Clegg’s resignation in 2015. What did it take to be a Liberal leader across these two centuries of tumultuous change? Who was a good leader and who was a bad one? Join us to launch our new book, British Liberal Leaders, and discuss the challenges of leading the Liberals, with Sir Simon Hughes (MP for Bermondsey, 1982–2015) and Lord Paul Tyler (MP for North Cornwall, 1974, 1992–2005). Chair: Lynne Featherstone (MP for Hornsey & Wood Green, 2005–15).
Catastrophe: The 2015 Election Campaign and its Outcome
July 13, 2015 / 10:38 PM
NOTE VENUE CHANGE: HOUSE OF LORDS COMMITTEE ROOM 1
NOTE VENUE AND START TIME CHANGE
The venue of this meeting has changed from the National Liberal Club to the House of Lords (Committee Room 1), and the start time from 6.30pm to 6.45pm.
There are several votes in the Lords on Monday, and our chair and one of our speakers are both Liberal Democrat peers who need to be in Parliament at the time. Entry is via Parliament’s public entrance, opposite Westminster Abbey – tell the police officers you are going to a meeting hosted by Baroness Grender in Committee Room 1, and they will direct you. You should allow at least 20 minutes to go through the security check.
Please also note that the room is smaller than our original venue, and we cannot guarantee to be able to seat everyone; we suggest you turn up early. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
The 2015 election is the most catastrophic in the history of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties; in no other previous election has the party lost such a high proportion of its votes and seats.
Entry into coalition with the Conservative Party in 2010 meant that the party always knew it would lose a good number of those who had voted for it in 2010, but Liberal Democrats hoped that they could replace at least some of them with new supporters who had not previously believed the party had a realistic chance of power. The party also assumed that the incumbency factor would save many of their MPs even though the national vote was falling. Neither of these things happened, despite a campaign that was generally recognised as well organised and well funded. Discuss why everything went wrong with Phil Cowley (Professor of Parliamentary Government, University of Nottingham and co-author of The British General Election of 2010) and Baroness Olly Grender, Paddy Ashdown’s second-in-command on the ‘Wheelhouse Group’ which ran the Liberal Democrat election campaign.All welcome, whether or not you are a member of the Liberal Democrat History Group.
Community politics and the Liberal revival
March 13, 2015 / 10:45 PM
Room 13, Arena & Convention Centre
Kings Dock, Liverpool (conference pass needed for entry)
The Liberal-Tory Coalition of 1915
January 26, 2015 / 04:11 PM
David lloyd George Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2HE
As we enter the final months of the present Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government it is an appropriate time to look back to a previous partnership between the two parties in the 100th anniversary of its formation. In May 1915, following political and military setbacks, Liberal prime minister H H Asquith brought senior figures from the opposition parties into his government. The meeting will be held jointly with the Conservative History Group and will look in detail at the background to the formation of the coalition and go on to consider its performance in government before its dramatic fall in December 1916. Speakers: Dr Ian Packer, Acting Head of the School of History and Heritage at Lincoln University, author of a number of books on Edwardian and Liberal politics, who will look at the coalition from the Liberal side and Dr Nigel Keohane who now works at the Social Market Foundation and is the author of the book The Conservative Party and the First World War, to consider the coalition from a Conservative perspective. Chair: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (Raymond Asquith) the great-grandson of H H Asquith and currently the newest member of the Liberal Democrat team in the House of Lords.
The Liberal Party and the First World War
November 1, 2014 / 04:04 PM
Kings College, London – Room K2.40, Strand Campus
A one-day conference organised by the Journal of Liberal History and Kings College, London. In this year, 100 years since the coming of war in August 1914, the conflict is remembered chiefly for its impact on the millions of ordinary men, women and children who were to suffer and die and over the following four years. Lives were altered forever and society transformed. But the war had political consequences too: empires fell, new nations emerged and British political parties and the party system underwent profound change, a transformation which plunged the Liberal Party into civil war and caused it to plummet from a natural party of government to electoral insignificance within a few short years. This conference will examine some of the key issues and personalities of the period. Agenda: 09.30 Registration 09.50 Introduction: Lord Wallace of Saltaire, President of the Liberal Democrat History Group 10.00 The Liberal Party and the First World War an overview: Professor Pat Thane, Kings College 10.30 Sir Edward Grey and the road to war: Professor Thomas Otte, University of East Anglia 11.15 Coffee break 11.45 Gilbert Murray v. E.D. Morel: Liberalism’s debilitating Great War divide: Professor Martin Ceadel, New College, Oxford 12.30 Lunch break 13.15 The papers of Asquith and Harcourt: Mike Webb, Bodleian Library 14.00 Asquith as War Premier and Liberal Leader: Dr Roland Quinault, Institute of Historical Research 14.45 Coffee break 15.15 Comparing Lloyd George and Winston Churchill as war leaders: Professor Richard Toye, University of Exeter 16.00 Panel discussion on the impact of the war on the Liberal Party: Michael Steed, Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Roland Quinault, Pat Thane 17.00 Close of conference
Great Liberal thinkers: lessons for the future
October 5, 2014 / 07:51 PM
Picasso 2, Campanile – Liberal Democrat Glasgow Conference
To mark the launch of our publication, ‘Liberal Thinkers’, Baroness Liz Barker and MPs Alan Beith, David Laws and John Pugh draw lessons from past Liberal thinkers for the future direction of the Liberal Democrats.
Liberalism, Peace and the First World War
June 30, 2014 / 11:25 PM
David Lloyd George Room, National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, SW1
The First World War sent a shockwave through the Liberal Party, permanently affecting its politics, its people and the way it viewed the world and its own place in it. This meeting, jointly organised by the Liberal Democrat History Group and Liberal International British Group and held a hundred years, almost to the day, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo will explore key aspects of this crisis of Liberal internationalism. Speakers: Robert Falkner (Associate Professor of International Relations, LSE) on the Great War and its impact on liberal internationalism, and Louise Arimatsu (Associate Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House) on war, law and the liberal project. Chair: Martin Horwood MP (Co-Chair, Liberal Democrat parliamentary policy committee on international affairs).
Social reformers and liberals: the Rowntrees and their legacy
March 7, 2014 / 09:03 AM
Riverside Room
Novotel Hotel, Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
Joseph and Seebohm Rowntree were successful businessmen, pioneers of social investigation and committed Liberals. Discuss their careers and political legacy at the History Group’s meeting at the Liberal Democrat spring conference, with Ian Packer (Lincoln University), Tina Walker and Lord Shutt (Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust). Chair: Lord Kirkwood.
Decline and Fall: the Liberal Party and the general elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924
February 10, 2014 / 06:16 PM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, SW1
For the Liberal Party, the three general elections of 1922,1923 and 1924 represented a terrible journey from postwar disunity to reunion, and near return to government to dramatic and prolonged decline. Arguably, this was the key period which relegated the Liberals to the third-party status from which they have still never escaped. The Liberal Democrat History Group winter meeting on 10 February 2014 will look in detail at these elections and what they meant for the Liberal Party and the changes they brought about in British politics. Speakers: Michael Steed, Honorary Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent and noted psephologist; Professor Pat Thane, Professor of Contemporary History at King’s College, London. Chair: Dr Julie Smith, Cambridge University. (The event will be preceded by the Liberal Democrat History Group’s AGM at 6:30pm.)
Survival and success: the first 25 years of the Liberal Democrats
September 15, 2013 / 11:23 PM
Picasso 2 room, Campanile Hotel, 10 Tunnel Street, Glasgow G3 8HL
This year, 2013, marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Liberal Democrats. From near-annihilation to entry into government, the years since 1988 have been a roller-coaster ride for the party. Discuss which factors were important in the survival and success of the Liberal Democrats, and speculate about the future, with: Duncan Brack (Editor, Journal of Liberal History): on leadership and policy Mark Pack (Liberal Democrats online campaign manager, 2001 and 2005): on campaigns John Curtice (Professor Politics, Strathclyde University): who votes for the Liberal Democrats? Cllr Julie Smith (Vice Chair, Lib Dem Policy Committee): on the impact of coalition Chair: Paddy Ashdown (Chair, 2015 general election campaign) A Liberal Democrat History Group fringe meeting (note this is outside the conference secure area no passes necessary)
Jo Grimond – the legacy
June 10, 2013 / 10:16 PM
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2HE
Jo Grimond, leader of the Liberal Party from 1956 to 1967, holds a particularly affectionate place in the collective memory of the Liberal Democrats. His charisma, charm, good looks, political courage, intellect and inherent liberalism inspired many to join the Liberal Party in the late 1950s and 1960s and gained him a national reputation as someone who could give politics a good name which has endured to the present day. One hundred years after his birth in 1913, our next meeting will examine in more detail the legacy of Jo Grimond, not simply for the modern Liberal Democrats but, more widely, for British politics and political ideas. Speakers: Dr Peter Sloman (New College, Oxford) on Grimond’s ideas, with a focus on his thinking around the role of the state and free market; Harry Cowie (former Liberal Party Director of Research and speechwriter to Grimond) on the development of policy under Grimond’s leadership; Michael Meadowcroft (Liberal MP for Leeds West 198387) on Grimond’s leadership of the Liberal Party, 1956 67, and its legacy. Chair: William Wallace, Lord Wallace of Saltaire (press assistant to Jo Grimond during the 1966 general election).
David Lloyd George: the legacy
March 8, 2013 / 12:06 AM
Buckingham Room, Hilton Brighton Metropole, Brighton
One of the greatest Liberal prime ministers, David Lloyd George, was born 150 years ago. Come and discuss his legacy, for the country and for Liberalism, with his biographer Kenneth O. Morgan and David Howarth. Chair: Lady Celia Thomas. A Liberal Democrat History Group / Lloyd George Society meeting.
The progressive coalition that never was lessons from the Ashdown-Blair ‘project’
January 22, 2013 / 03:06 PM
Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, House of Commons, SW1A 2LW
Between 1994 and 1999, Paddy Ashdown and Tony Blair led a process of collaboration between the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party, with the aim not merely of defeating the Conservatives but of establishing clear common ground between the progressive parties in British politics. Some of the outcomes of this process – ‘the project’, in Ashdown’s phrase – were public, such as the programme of agreed constitutional reforms drawn up by Robin Cook and Robert Maclennan. Far more were secret: covert electoral collaboration in marginal seats during the 1997 election, attempts to agree a programme for government, talks about coalition – and hints of a more permanent alliance. In the end, the size of Labour’s majority in 1997 destroyed the case for coalition, and the main outcome was a Joint Cabinet Committee between the two parties. What it achieved is not clear, and it was abandoned by Ashdown’s successor Charles Kennedy. Now, in a period of cooperation between political parties very different from that envisaged by Ashdown and Blair, what can we learn from ‘the project’? What did it achieve? What could it have achieved under different circumstances? And what can it tell us about the desirability and achievability of collaboration between progressive forces? Speakers: Paddy Ashdown, Rt Hon Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon GCMG KBE Leader of the Liberal Democrats 1988-99 Roger Liddle, Lord Liddle Special Adviser to Bill Rodgers 1976-81; Member of the SDP and then Liberal Democrats 1981-94, member of the Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee; Special Adviser to Tony Blair 1997-2004 Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP Adviser to Donald Dewar 1988-93, to John Smith 1993-94 and to Tony Blair 1994-2005 Chair: Steve Richards, Chief Political Commentator, The Independent Jointly organised by the Liberal Democrat History Group and the Labour History Group
The Liberal Party, Unionism and political culture in late 19th and early 20th century Britain
November 10, 2012 / 10:16 PM
Newman UC, Birmingham
A one-day seminar organised by Newman University College and the Journal of Liberal History. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw great changes in British political culture. The gradual emergence of a mass electorate informed by a popular press, debates about the role of the state in social policy, Imperial upheavals and wars all had their impact on political culture. Political parties got more professional, labour more organised, regional identities sharpened. To accompany this turmoil a new political party, the Liberal Unionists, was formed to oppose Gladstones policy of Irish Home Rule policy, splitting the Liberal family and causing a re-appraisal of what it meant to be a Unionist. The seminar will examine some of the key changes in the political culture of this period against the background of the formation of the Liberal Unionists and the new party and political alignments this brought about. Speakers: Professor Robert Colls, University of Leicester – Political culture in Britain 1884-1914 Dr Ian Cawood, Newman UC, Birmingham – The impact of the Liberal Unionists, 1886-1912 Dr Matthew Roberts, Sheffield Hallam University – A terrific outburst of political meteorology: by-elections and the Unionist ascendancy in late Victorian England Dr James Thompson, Bristol University -The Liberal Party, Liberalism and the visual culture of British politics c.1880-1914 Dr Kathryn Rix, History of Parliament Trust – Professionalisation and political culture: the party agents, 1880-1914 Dr James Owen, History of Parliament Trust – Labour and the caucus: working class radicalism and organised Liberalism in England The cost of the seminar will be £20 (students and unwaged £10) to include morning refreshments and buffet lunch. Other refreshments will be available to purchase from the coffee bar after the conference closes. To register please contact Tracy Priest, History Department at Newman University College, Birmingham B32 3NT, 0121 476 1181, t.priest@staff.newman.ac.uk
Mothers of liberty: how modern liberalism was made by women
September 23, 2012 / 07:55 PM
106 Bar, Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel, Kings Road East Sussex Brighton BN1 2FU
Thanks to their exclusion from the right to vote and to stand for Parliament before 1918, the role of women in Liberal history is often overlooked. Yet many women played crucial roles, from the earliest days of Liberal history, as organisers, campaigners and theorists. This meeting analysed and celebrated the importance of women to the growth and success of Liberal thought and politics. The meeting also marked the launch of a new History Group booklet, a series of biographies of famous women liberals, which details the contribution of women to Liberal politics from the eighteenth century to the present day. The speakers were: Dr Helen McCabe, Oxford University, on women associated with the development of Liberal political thought in the 18th and 19th centuries, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Martineau, Harriet Taylor Mill and Barbara Bodichon. Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter, on the story of one of the most significant Liberal women of the 20th century, Violet Bonham Carter. Jo Swinson MP (PPS to the Deputy Prime Minister) on the role of women in the modern Liberal Democrats. Chair: Lynne Featherstone MP, Minister for Equalities, Home Office. You can ||http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzu8g0coIG0||watch the meeting online here||.
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