Coalition Government in British Politics: From Glorious Revolution to Cameron-Clegg

Single-party government, based on clear parliamentary majorities, is the norm of British politics or so conventional wisdom has it. History tells us otherwise. Coalitions have been a feature of British political life since the Glorious Revolution . And most of them were in office for long spells at a time. At different times, coalitions seemed preferable to single-party administrations, at others a vital prop to national unity in moments of acute national crisis; and sometimes they were seen as something best avoided. At all times, coalitions faced similar problems at their formation, during the lifetimes, and when they broke up, as they all eventually did. Frequently, they were the products of a national emergency. That in turn provided a strong, and convenient, political narrative. The most notable coalitions were products of the necessities of war. In the twentieth century, the Lloyd George coalition in the First World War, transplanted into peacetime through a skilful blend of shrewd positioning and blatant corruption, was perhaps less obviously successful than its Churchillian successor between 1940 and 1945. Both, however, shaped British politics for years to come. Regional devolution since the late 1990s, meanwhile, suggests that coalition politics have come to stay in one form or another. Indeed, future historians may well conclude that the alternate two-party majorities between 1945 and 1974, let alone the landslide majorities enjoyed by Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, were something of an aberration. Bringing together leading political historians, this book casts new light on past and present problems of coalition politics. It draws out broader lessons about the nature of British politics. Reassessing how and why previous associations between parties were formed and sustained, what undermined them, and which, if any, of its participants benefitted from them, helps to throw the problems of the present and the possibilities of the future into sharper relief. Coalition government in the twenty-first century faces the same challenges that past political leaders had to face; and that mostly defeated them.