Adjectives such as ‘comprehensive’, ‘rigorous’ and ‘learned’ are sure to litter reviews of David Dutton’s new history of the Liberal party. It does indeed possess each of these attributes, and more.
The book gives a full account of each of the major turning points for the Liberals since 1900. There is a lucid answer to the old A level question on the strange death of Liberal England (spoiler alert: there was nothing strange about it; after the first world war the Liberals literally split into two parties and went to war with themselves for over a decade) and a rather harrowing description of what decades of electoral irrelevance are like for a party.
Dutton is particularly strong on the Liberals’ more recent repeated attempts to realign themselves back into relevance, first through David Steel’s Lib-Lab pact, then the alliance with the Social Democratic party, the negotiations between Paddy Ashdown and Tony Blair in the 1990s and, finally, consummation with the Tories in the current coalition. He paints a picture of a party acutely aware of its peripheral position and desperate to return to the main stage.
But there is something of a missed opportunity in this book. Yes, it is thorough and all points of view are covered. Yet under the welter of detail the broader narrative sometimes sags. The description of events can veer towards a chronology at the expense of explanation or insight.
In particular, it suffers from a failing common to many similar historical works, underplaying the importance of the political process. The detail of how pivotal political decisions are made is often sketchy. For example, mention is made of Herbert Asquith and David Lloyd George’s difficult relations, but the causes and evolution of this schism are barely explored.
The feud between these two Liberal titans is arguably more responsible for Labour’s ascent than any of Labour’s own endeavours or the extension of the franchise. In this context, a deeper consideration of the detail of how their relationship broke down would have been illuminating.
For the Labour reader the book provides a salutary tale on the need for parties to modernise. When politics got tough, particularly in the years after slipping behind Labour, too often the Liberals retreated back into their comfort zone of 19th century certainties like free trade.
Equally, their more optimistic moments, such as Lloyd George’s mini-revival in 1929 or Jo Grimond’s rescue of the party from extinction in the 1950s and 1960s, are synonymous with their most forward-looking platforms.
Although Dutton’s book could hardly be classified as beach material – it is very academic in places – it does what it says on the tin. And, as such, for anyone in Labour seeking to understand the motivations of a party that could hold the balance of power after 2015, it makes for valuable reading.
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Atul Hatwal is editor of Labour Uncut
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A History of the Liberal Party
David Dutton
Palgrave Macmillan | 376pp | £20.99