Liberals and Trade Unions: The General Strike of 1926
June 29, 2026 / 18:00
National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
One hundred years ago, from 4 to 12 May 1926, the TUC held the General Strike in support of the mineworkers, who were being forced to accept lower wages and work longer hours to maintain their employers’ profitability. It was one of the most dramatic peacetime events in twentieth-century Britain, affecting people and communities throughout the country, and remarkable more for its discipline and restraint than for street battles and picketline violence.
The General Strike deepened divisions with the Liberal Party. The party leader, the Earl of Oxford (H.H. Asquith) and the Liberal shadow cabinet were clear that society was obliged to secure victory over the strikers, while Lloyd George blamed the Conservative Government for the crisis and demanded further negotiations. Yet the trade unions had once found the Liberal Party a reliable ally.
Join Anne Perkins, author of A Very British Strike 3 May – 12 May 1926 and Dr. Alastair Reid, Life Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge University, to discuss the dispute and its implications for the Liberal Party.
Those unable to attend in person will be able to view the meeting via Zoom; registrations will open nearer the time. For those attending in person, there is no need to register.
Liberals and local government
March 14, 2026 / 18:15
Meeting Room 4, Novotel York Centre
Fishergate, York YO10 4FD
The Liberal commitment to localism and local power has strong historical roots. Discussing the Liberal innovations in local government in Birmingham in the 1870s, led by Joseph Chamberlain, and in Manchester in the 1920s, led by E. D. Simon, are Dr Ian Cawood (Associate Professor of History, University of Stirling) and Dr Brendon Jones (University of Manchester). Chair: Baroness Claire Tyler.
Liberals and Free Trade
January 27, 2026 / 18:30
National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
‘Free trade’, the removal of barriers to international trade in goods and services, played a critical role in British politics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and attitudes to free trade helped to define parties’ positions on the political spectrum.
For much of its life, the fortunes of the Liberal Party were closely tied to the strength of popular feeling for free trade. In 1846 the repeal of the Corn Laws split the Conservative Party and drove its free-trade-supporting members – including W. E. Gladstone – towards the Liberals. In 1906, the Unionist plan to introduce imperial preference underpinned the landslide Liberal election victory. And in 1923, the Conservative plan to introduce tariffs helped reunite the warring Liberal factions led by Asquith and Lloyd George.
Now, thanks to Brexit and President Trump, trade and tariffs are back on the political agenda. Discuss the historical and current relevance of trade policy with Professor Frank Trentmann (Birkbeck College, author of Free Trade Nation) and Lord Chris Fox (Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Business and Trade in the House of Lords). Chair: Tony Little.
Liberalism: the ideas that built the Liberal Democrats
September 20, 2025 / 20:15
Durley Suite, Bournemouth International Conference Centre
Exeter Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5BH
Politics rests on beliefs. Political parties that operate without a philosophical framework stand for little more than personality and populism. But equally, beliefs must rest on thought – they must be continually defined, tested and debated rather than simply inherited unquestioningly.
Liberalism, the tradition of political thought on which Liberal Democrats’ philosophy rests, possesses an immensely rich history, stretching back over three hundred years. Over this period it has evolved to suit changing political circumstances, but has its core remained recognisably constant?
The historical roots of the Liberal belief in liberty, equality, community, democracy, internationalism and environmentalism were discussed with Professor Jonathan Parry (author of Liberalism (Agenda Publishing, 2025)) and Professor David Howarth. Chair: Baroness Featherstone.
The meeting also marked the launch of the new and completely revised edition of the Liberal Democrat History Group’s popular booklet, Liberalism: the ideas that built the Liberal Democrats.
Liberals, Europe and the people
June 30, 2025 / 18:00
Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
The Liberals were the first party to argue for British participation in the European Common Market, in 1956. Support for membership of the European Economic Community was one the main drivers behind the formation of the SDP in 1981. Since the two parties merged, Britain’s destiny as part of the European Union has been a core value for the Liberal Democrats.
The British people have twice been asked to decide whether they should be ‘in or out’ of Europe. In 1975, Jeremy Thorpe and other leading Liberals played a key role in the successful ‘Yes to Europe’ campaign and seized the opportunity to build the party’s profile. They and social democrats in the Labour Party enjoyed working together and saw the potential for future collaboration.
In 2016, the Liberal Democrats were the strongest supporters of the Remain campaign in the Brexit referendum. Two days after the result, the party leader Tim Farron promised to fight the next election on the basis that the UK would be better off inside the EU. Later, the party enthusiastically backed the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign for a second referendum on the final Brexit deal.
The Liberals’ and Liberal Democrats’ involvement in cross-party campaigns for Europe was discussed with Dr Robert Saunders (Queen Mary, University of London and author, Yes to Europe! The 1975 Referendum and Seventies Britain), Morgan Jones (author of a forthcoming book on the post-2016 People’s Vote campaign) and Dr Nicholas Alderton (Welsh historian and author, Deputy Editor, Journal of Liberal History).
A new economic policy for the Liberal Party?
March 21, 2025 / 20:00
Meeting Room 2, Harrogate Convention Centre
In the 1929 election campaign, Lloyd George, as leader of a Liberal Party reunited after years of dissension and decline, put forward the eye-catching slogan: ‘We can conquer unemployment’.
The slogan was backed by the ‘Yellow Book’ (Britain’s Industrial Future) with its new and distinctive approach to policy based on the ideas of the famous economist John Maynard Keynes. Those economic ideas provoked much debate and controversy within the Liberal Party, both at the time and afterwards. What are the lessons for today?
Speakers: Professor Peter Sloman (Cambridge University), author of The Liberal Party and the Economy, 1929 – 1964, and Richard Walker, expert on Keynes and speaker to the Lloyd George Society. Chair: Daisy Cooper MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Treasury spokesperson.
Breakthrough: the Liberal Democrat performance in the 2024 election
January 27, 2025 / 18:00
David Lloyd George Room, National Liberal Club
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
The outcome of the general election on 4 July 2024 was extraordinary. Compared to the 2019 election, the Liberal Democrats’ share of the vote rose by less than 1 per cent, to 12.2 per cent, but the number of MPs jumped from 11 (plus 4 by-election gains) to 72, the highest number since 1923.
Highly effective targeting of campaigning resources and a narrowly focused message, combined with an unprecedented collapse in the Conservative vote and a high degree of tactical voting by anti-Tory voters meant that, for the first time ever, the first-past-the-post electoral system did not seriously disadvantage the party. With 10.9% of the total number of MPs, the discrepancy between Liberal votes and seats is the smallest since 1910. Traditional areas of strength in south-west and northern England and northern Scotland lost in 2015 were regained, and joined by new seats in East Anglia and, especially, in southern England.
The Liberal Democrat campaign and what the result means for the party was discussed with Professor Paula Surridge (Bristol University) and Dave McCobb (Director of Field Campaigns, Liberal Democrats). Chair: Lord Wallace of Saltaire.
Friends or Enemies, Allies or Competitors? Liberals and Labour 1903–2019
September 15, 2024 / 11:30
Empress Room, Grand Hotel
97–99 Kings Road, Brighton BN1 2FW
The history of the association between the Liberal Party / Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party features electoral pacts (both formal and informal), support for minority governments, participation in coalitions – and periods of bitter enmity. So are Liberals and Labour friends or enemies, allies or competitors?
The long and complex relationship between Liberals and Labour is discussed with David Laws (MP for Yeovil 2001–15 and minister in the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government 2010 and 2012–15) and Jim Wallace (Lord Wallace of Tankerness, Deputy First Minister of Scotland in the Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition government, 1999–2005). Chair: Wendy Chamberlain MP.
The meeting also marked the launch of David Laws’ new book, Serpents, Goats and Turkeys: 100 years of Liberal-Labour relations.
Lloyd George, Herbert Samuel and Palestine: background and legacy
July 25, 2024 / 18:30
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 / 20:15
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