18/Spring 98

Merger Hopes and Fears Were They Realised? Alliance into merger: how has it worked? Rt. Hon. Alan Beith, MP examines the myths and the realities. It seems an age since a number of us were the Tories at the one after. The Social Democrats who backed merger, condemned to endless meetings in often miserable and had to put up with undisguised bitterness – but never smoke-filled – rooms for the merger and calumny from others in their party as a negotiations between the Liberals and the SDP. Was result, saw merger as essential to the continu- ance of their mission to provide an electable it really only ten years ago? Were we once in separate and responsible alternative to the Tories. They parties? Did the process of merger really have to be realised that what they had achieved in detach- so painful and damaging, given that the party which ing so many from the Labour Party and at- tracting significant new support would not last emerged became, after the first couple of years, a if they remained in competition with the Lib- very congenial party to be in and one which is now erals. They hoped to advance many policies enjoying well-deserved success? which they found they shared with Liberals. Then there were the fears which made the It is instructive to look back to the hopes negotiations so difficult. Liberals feared that and fears which surrounded the Alliance and Liberal identity in the minds of voters would the merger. Liberals hoped to prevent the dis- be lost, and that Liberalism itself could be dan- sipation and division of their potential support gerously diluted in the philosophy and poli- which resulted from competition between the cies of the new party. They feared that the SDP two parties. (The effect of such division was was not committed to grassroots campaigning. vividly displayed in the later election of William They feared that the new party would be cen- Hague to the House of Commons. Either the tralised and undemocratic in its internal struc- SDP or the Liberals could have won that tures. Liberal critics of the merger package byelection if both had not been standing.) Most feared that ‘the real Liberal legacy of over , Liberals shared the SDP mission to ‘break the councillors and a local campaigning force’ mould’ and draw new support from alienated might ‘just melt away’. voters, although they believed that many in the Social Democrats feared that the new party SDP underestimated the campaigning task and might retain what they saw as an amateur ap- romanticised the prospects of early success. proach, a disorderly method of policy-making Some Liberals hoped that the central organi- and a tendency for a limited number of activists sational skills and presentational flair shown in to have disproportionate influence. And even if the SDP launch could be productively mar- they did not themselves have these fears, they ried with Liberal experience in grass-roots knew that others did and were anxious not to campaigning. They hoped to release energies lose too many people to the Owenite camp. At wasted in the duplicated processes of the Alli- times they feared that the vote for merger at ance. Some Liberals – although I was not one the SDP conference could be lost, although in of them – believed that the merged party would reality the Owenites had accepted that merger replace the Labour Party, by pursuing a strat- was going to happen and seemed to be looking egy which would fatally wound Labour at the forward to being left on their own. Key battles next election and move into position to tackle in the negotiations, such as the ill-fated deci- journal of liberal democrat history 18: spring 1998 43 sion on the party name, were haunted positioning Labour. Liberal identity not shone through, for some Social Democrats by the Success for the Liberal Demo- confounding the fears of many Lib- ghostly apparition of the dreaded crats was slow to come, but it was erals at the time of merger. Doctor holding a sign pointing his painstakingly built at grassroots level, Those key SDP members who way for ‘Social’ Democrats and the while a more professional approach have contributed most to the Lib- other way for ‘Liberal’ Democrats. It to national organisation was devel- eral Democrats are the ones who was that perception rather than mere oped simultaneously. , council- seemed most at home in it. Their stubbornness which led SDP nego- lors and campaigners did not disap- instincts were Liberal and they had tiators to insist on the inclusion of a pear. The party organisation did not confidence that the new party they reference to NATO in the party’s prove to be an undemocratic mon- had helped to design was serious about winning power and modern- ising its methods. Bob Maclennan is Success would not have been possible, an example: at times he was a mind-numbingly intransigent nego- however, had the party’s Liberal identity tiator in the merger process, but in not shone through, confounding the fears the new party he has been largely responsible for ensuring that we are of many Liberals at the time of merger. close to the achievement of a series of key Liberal policies on constitutional issues. As Party Presidents, original constitution and on a name ster – a more orderly conference and both he and Charles Kennedy have for the party so unmemorable that policy-making structure has largely understood and fostered the inter- most people have now forgotten proved its value. It was particularly nal democracy of the party which is what it was. It probably contributed necessary in setting out a full range now unique among the three main to the near-fatal decision of the lead- of policies in the party’s early years, parties. A few careerists in the SDP ers of the two parties to promote the although the policy-making ma- ranks who did not feel at home in ‘dead parrot’ policy document Even chinery now appears to have been the Liberal Democrats are now David Owen found it rather too rather too cumbersome and not suf- Blairites, but the others have main- right-wing, at least at the time. ficiently geared to campaigning. tained and in many cases helped to So, were these hopes and fears Now at last, however, the new shape a genuinely Liberal identity for realised? The main political hope was party’s hopes are being realised. It has the new party. certainly not realised at the begin- a record number of MPs and is over- Alan Beith has been MP for Berwick- ning. A combination of the disunited shadowing the official opposition in on Tweed since . Liberal Chief Whip picture presented by the merger ne- effectiveness in the House. The Lib- –, he is currently Deputy Leader gotiations and public confusion over eral Democrats are the second party of the Liberal Democrats and spokesman the party’s name and identity meant in local government. The party has on Home Affairs. that it was in no position to with- set much of the policy agenda for stand what turned out to be very un- the new parliament, particularly but Notes: favourable political circumstances. not exclusively on constitutional is- Rachael Pitchford and Tony Greaves, The new party had disastrous Euro- sues. Success would not have been Merger: The Inside Story (Colne: Liberal pean election results and hit % in possible, however, had the party’s Renewal, ), p. the opinion polls. Liberal fears of a loss of identity were briefly realised when the new party, in defiance of Gladstone Lecture the cumbersome negotiated settle- ment on the name, resolved to call by Roy Jenkins itself the Democrats. It took a re- 6.30pm, Thursday 14 May versal of that decision in October to restore damaged morale, and Strathclyde University, Richmond Street, Glasgow the climb back to viability began with successful local elections in Followed by dinner at Ingram Hotel May , followed by the East- David Steel bourne byelection success. Speakers include The idea that the new party Tickets for lecture free; dinner £20+wine; contact would replace the Labour Party became clearly unsustainable even dur- Judith Fryer, 0141 423 0336 (after 6.00pm). ing John Smith’s leadership, and was Organised by Greater Glasgow Liberal Democrats buried when Tony Blair set about re- 44 journal of liberal democrat history 18: spring 1998.

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