Journal of Liberal History

England Objects to the Treaty of Versailles, June 1, 1919

Journal of Liberal History

For the discussion and research of Liberal, Liberal Democrat and SDP history

Events

  • Back from the dead: the Liberal Party in the 1950s

    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…

  • Asquith versus Lloyd George

    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.…

  • Liberals with a radical programme: The post-war welfare state, Beveridge and the Liberal Party 75 years on

    2020 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 1945 general election and the beginning of the creation of the post-war welfare state. While the system of social security introduced after 1945 is often heralded as one of the greatest achievements of the Labour Party, its intellectual origins and design were primarily owed to Liberal thinkers and…

  • General Election 2019: Disappointment for the Liberal Democrats

    The Liberal Democrats entered the 2019 general election campaign buoyed by their best opinion poll ratings in a decade, a second place showing in the recent European Parliament elections, impressive local election results in England and high-profile defections from the other parties. The party had a dynamic, young new leader in Jo Swinson and a…

  • The 1979 General Election

    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 Liberal Party, Health Policy and the Origins of the NHS

    The familiar story of the NHS has it that the health service is a Labour achievement, dating from the Attlee administration of 1945–51. But in reality the Liberal governments of the early twentieth century helped to lay the foundations of the NHS, and the welfare state as a whole. Join Dr Chris Renwick (University of…

  • The Peterloo Massacre and Nineteenth-Century Popular Radicalism

    On 16 August 1819, 60,000 peaceful protesters gathered on St Peter’s Fields in Manchester to demand the right to elect their own MPs. The demonstration ended when local militia on horseback charged the protesters and cut them down with sabres, leaving at least eleven dead and hundreds injured. The episode became known as ‘The Peterloo…

  • Liberalism in the north

    Despite its decline after the First World War, the Liberal Party managed to hang on in Yorkshire and Lancashire, contributing to its eventual revival. Discuss why this was with William Wallace, Tony Greaves and Michael Meadowcroft. Chair: Baroness Kath Pinnock. A fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat spring conference (no conference pass necessary).

  • Gladstone’s first government 1868–74

    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…

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