1976-1988
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Joint Statement on the Lib-Lab Pact: Steel and Callaghan
Joint statement issued by Prime Minister James Callaghan and David Steel on the aims of the Lib-Lab pact issued 23rd March 1977.
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Simon Hughes: Defence debate at Eastbourne, 1986
Simon Hughes in the debate on the Alliance defence commission report; Liberal Assembly, Eastbourne, 23 September 1986.
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Michael Meadowcroft on the merger negotiations
It is difficult to realise that it is now sixteen years since the trauma and angst of the merger negotiations. As far as factual accuracy is concerned the book by Tony Greaves and Rachael Pitchford is an excellent record of the proceedings. There were only a few points of difference that I took up with…
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Local history: Epsom & Ewell Social Democrats
David Gourley on joining the SDP in 1981 and working with the Liberals through the Alliance and merger.
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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 Party and general elections
Report of Liberal Democrat History Group meeting of February 2003, with David Butler and Neil Stockley.
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The SDP: Beginnings, 1981-83
Original cartoons from the Social Democrat illustrate the birth and first two years of the party.
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Alliance, Liberals and the SDP
1971 – 1985: the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland was born in the midst of the Troubles, in April 1970. This article looks back at the party’s history and its relationships with the Liberal Party and the SDP.
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Report: the Limehouse declaration and the birth of the SDP
Report of Liberal Democrat History Group meeting of January 2001, with speakers including Lord Oakeshott and Sir Ian Wrigglesworth.