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Full Description
The
definitive, insider history of the often turbulent political relationship
between the Liberals and Labour.
Natural
allies or fierce competitors? For the past century, Britain's two major
centre-left parties have co-existed in sometimes harmonious but more often
fraught duopoly, from the 1903 agreement that a prominent Liberal complained
was 'nursing into life a serpent which would sting their party to death' to the
1976-77 pact that gave us the phrase 'turkeys voting for Christmas' and beyond,
to the failed negotiations that led to the controversial 2010-15 Lib
Dem-Conservative coalition.
Charting
100 years of British political history, Serpents, Goats and Turkeys explores
the formal and informal arrangements that have existed between the parties,
covering electoral deals, support for minority governments, formal pacts and
full coalitions. What have been the overlaps of policy and ideology, and where
have the parties been most divided? What explains the periods of co-operation
but also the unwillingness or inability to work together for any significant
time?
In
the wake of the 2024 'Loveless Landslide', former coalition Cabinet minister
David Laws also draws on unpublished records and private diaries from the past
thirty years of Lib-Lab wrangling to consider the likely options in the event
of a future hung parliament. Should the parties work together? Would they be
able to? And what are the prospects for voting reform? The answers to such
questions will have major implications for British democracy and the future of
our politics.
