50 Douglas Liberal Predicament

THE LIBERAL PREDICAMENT, 1945 – 64 For most of the twenty years from 1945 to 1964, it looked as if the Liberals were finished. They were reduced to a handful of MPs, most of whom held their seats precariously,. They were desperately short of money and organisation, and were confronted by two great parties, both seeking to look as ‘liberal’ as possible. For the ambitious would- be Liberal politician, there was practically no prospect of a seat in Parliament, or even on the local council. Roy Douglas examines why, despite the desperate state of their party, many Liberals kept the faith going, and not only carried on campaigning, but also laid the foundations for long-term revival. Liberal election poster, 196 1 Journal of Liberal History 50 Spring 2006 THE LIBERAL PREDICAMENT, 1945 – 64 he great Liberal vic- It wasn’t at all like 1874, when a failed. At the general election of tory of 1906 had been Liberal government had more or that year, the Liberal Party won won, more than any- less worked itself out of a job, or a little under 5.3 million votes, thing else, by the party’s 1886, when a Liberal government against well over 8 million each devotion to free trade was divided on a major issue of for the other two parties; but Tand its resistance both to the policy, or 1895, when a Liberal they only obtained fifty-nine protectionist campaign of ren- government collapsed in chaos. MPs, one of whom promptly egade Joseph Chamberlain and Wisely or (to the author’s mind) defected to Labour. Liberals to the temporising of Tory Prime unwisely, the controversial ele- were conscious that they had Minister Arthur Balfour. In that ments in the immediate Liberal scraped the bottom of the barrel election the Labour Representa- programme were thrust aside in By the of their resources, and there was tion Committee (the incipient the interests of ‘national unity’. no prospect of them mounting Labour Party) showed as much Irish home rule was put in cold end of the a comparable campaign in the concern for free trade as did the storage, while the land valuation war, Liber- foreseeable future. Liberals themselves. This was not which was to be the foundation So what were Liberals to do? surprising. In the great battles of of land value taxation was sus- als were In the 1920s and 1930s, many the nineteenth century, free trade pended and other social reforms decided that the logic of the had been perceived to be at least were set aside. profoundly situation prescribed that they as much in the interest of work- By the end of the war, Liberals should shift either to Labour or ing people as of any other class were profoundly split by issues split by to the Conservatives, perhaps via in society – more so, perhaps, which had little to do either issues the ‘Liberal Nationals’. Others because the poorer people were with the radical programme on refused to do so. They continued the more important it was that which they had been engaged which had to preach pre-1914 Liberalism, they should be able to buy things in 1914 or with the long-term with adjustments for changed as cheaply as possible. aims of liberalism. Most crucial little to do conditions. These included some The new government which of those issues was whether Lib- significant additions wholly con- was triumphantly confirmed in eral aims could best be attained either with sistent with the pre-1914 tradi- office in1906 set a pattern which through complete independence the radi- tion, notably an active programme would dominate Liberal thinking or by cooperation with others, to conquer unemployment, poli- for a great many years to come, and specifically the Conserva- cal pro- cies designed to spread the own- and is not without influence to tives, in a coalition. This dispute ership of property much more this day. In the next few years it among Liberals opened up a gramme on widely, and support for electoral was proved that a free trade econ- great opportunity for the Labour reform through proportional rep- omy was wholly consistent with Party to seize leadership of the which they resentation. In the closing years of a vigorous programme of social forces of reform. After the gen- had been the 1930s, however, international reform which laid the founda- eral election of 1924 there was questions subsumed all others. tions of the welfare state, with little doubt in most people’s engaged major constitutional changes in minds that the immediate future the direction of democracy and lay between the Conservative in 1914 or 1945 and after with radical economic reform and Labour Parties. There fol- When the Second World War pivoting on the taxation of land lowed a serious, but foredoomed, with the came to an end in 1945, the values. attempt by Liberals to recapture long-term familiar inter-war policies When war was declared in their party’s historic role as the remained the objective of active 1914, there was a universal senti- mainspring of political change, aims of lib- Liberals, with important wartime ment among Liberals that the gov- but by the middle of 1929 it additions bearing the stamp of ernment’s work was unfinished. was plain that the attempt had eralism. Sir William Beveridge – notably Journal of Liberal History 50 Spring 2006 1 THE LIBERAL PREDICAMENT, 1945–64 further policies to eradicate The Lib- won a great majority, while Lib- By 1950, however, this pros- unemployment and a greatly eral representation in the House pect seemed excessively unlikely extended programme of social eral pro- of Commons crashed to twelve, to most objective observers, but welfare. No important Liberal the lowest figure ever. The the leadership could not be seen saw any inconsistency between gramme, major Liberal personalities were to resile from its optimism. Cer- these various policies. The Lib- defeated: the leader Sir Archibald tainly there were shades of opin- eral programme, as presented to as pre- Sinclair, the chief whip and sole ion visible in the Liberal Party at the electorate in anticipation of sented London MP Sir Percy Harris, this time, as in any other demo- the 1945 general election, looks even Sir William Beveridge. So cratic party, but the whole raison like a document which would to the were long-serving MPs like Gra- d’etre of the party was to present a have received the eager approval ham White, Sir Geoffrey Mander distinctively Liberal point of view, of Campbell-Bannerman, electorate and Dingle Foot. Not a single and most of the Liberal notables Asquith and Lloyd George in the Liberal seat was held in or near avoided meticulously any sign early years of the twentieth cen- in antici- any large town. The Liberal MPs of leaning towards one or other tury.1 Liberals believed that this pation of who had somehow survived the of their opponents. This impar- programme also corresponded maelstrom were largely unknown, tiality did not satisfy all Liberals, much more closely with the the 1945 even to each other, and the choice not even the MPs. Long before needs and wishes of the British of Clement Davies as their chair- 1950 Tom Horabin (who had people than did the programme general man in the aftermath of the elec- briefly been chief whip) defected of any other party, and they were tion was by no means a foregone to Labour, and Gwilym Lloyd- probably right. election, conclusion.4 George was regularly voting with The Liberal election manifesto looks like For Liberals, the natural the Conservatives. The general of 1945 was designed for a Lib- response was to reform the party election manifesto of 1950 nev- eral government. Unfortunately, a docu- machinery. In the later 1940s, ertheless began with the words, a Liberal government was not a under the inspiration of very ‘The Liberal Party offers the serious possibility at that election. ment which active, relatively young and hith- electorate the opportunity of The party still had an impressive erto unknown men like Frank returning a Liberal Government list of leaders. Lord Samuel and Sir would have Byers, Philip Fothergill and to office’.6 Like that of 1945, it Archibald Sinclair had served in received Edward Martell, they devised a was a programme designed for a cabinets – Sinclair very recently as programme for improving the Liberal government to follow, and Secretary of State for Air. Sir Wil- the eager organisation and finances of the traditional policies like free trade liam Beveridge was universally party at all levels. Martell’s later featured prominently. known as the author of famous approval peregrinations should not blind But the Liberal organisation of and popular reports on social pol- Liberals to the immensely valu- 1950, though considerably better icy. Dingle Foot, Graham White of Camp- able services he rendered to the than in 1945, was vastly inferior and Gwilym Lloyd-George had bell-Ban- party at this stage. To a consid- to that of the other two parties held ministerial office. It is likely erable extent they succeeded. in nearly all constituencies, and that Clement Davies had been of nerman, Liberal Associations were set up hardly anybody took the prospect crucial importance in the chain almost everywhere, and most of an immediate Liberal govern- of events which led to Win- Asquith of them acquired some idea of ment seriously. At the same time, ston Churchill becoming Prime the sort of organisation that was most people, however they voted, Minister in 1940.2 Lady Violet and Lloyd necessary to get their message perceived the gap between the Bonham Carter was undeniably George in over to the electorate.

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