1929-1956
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Liberals cheer Mr Churchill
Speech: Winston Churchill at the National Liberal Club, 22 July 1943.
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Liberal unity frustrated
Why the Liberal Party failed to patch up effectively its first major post-war split, between the supporters of Asquith and those of Lloyd George.
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Holding the balance
The record of the Liberal Party in hung parliaments in 1924, 1929-31 and 1977-78.
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The Liberal predicament, 1945-64
How, despite the desperate state of their party, many Liberals kept the faith going at the nadir of the Liberal Party’s fortunes.
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Liberal Party funding between the wars
One of the major problems facing the Liberal Party in the inter-war period was the lack of funds that they had at their disposal. As the Party became increasingly defunct, so it became impossible to attract the wealthy donors, who formed the foundation of the Liberal finances.
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The 1931 general election
The National Government was formed in August 1931, following the failure of Ramsay Macdonald's minority Labour administration to deal with the mounting unemployment that was paralysing Britain. The Conservatives had been pressing for the adoption of protection throughout the proceeding period and the public were becoming increasingly frustrated by the apparent ineffectiveness of the free…
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Inter-war decline
The Liberals were a political casualty of the Great War – emerging from the conflict as a divided party, whose key ideological beliefs had been sacrificed to meet the needs of modern warfare.
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Sir John Simon (Viscount Simon), 1873-1954
Though he never rose to the premiership, John Allsebrook Simon’s collection of the highest offices of state – the Home Office (twice), the Treasury, the Foreign Office and the Woolsack – is unique in twentieth-century history. He played a major role in British politics over more than three decades, while also enjoying a distinguished legal…