“Every boy and every gal that’s born into the world alive is either a little Liberal or else a little conservative.”
That is what W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, two famous musical empresarios in Victorian Britain, declared in their 1882 light opera “Iolanthe.” Great Britain was predictable and stable politically, dominated by two well-established political parties.
The surging Labour Party replaced the Liberal Party in the early decades of the 20th century, reflecting the new class consciousness fostered by the challenges of the Industrial Revolution. The Liberal Party survived near extinction, however, and since the 1960s has enjoyed long-term if highly uneven revival. Liberal history and outlooks help in understanding the turmoil and change that is redefining British politics into the multiparty system of today.
The Liberal Democrats, successor to the Liberal Party, just completed their annual conference, held Sept. 19-22 in the seaside town of Brighton, a traditional venue.
Party leader Ed Davey and other speakers have emphasized established party themes, including local government activism and community service, care for those in need, electoral and financial reform of politics, and support of Europe — this last especially noteworthy since Britain’s difficult and painful departure from the European Union at the end of January 2020.
The Liberal Party and now Liberal Democrats have been early and sustained supporters of European integration and wider international involvements, from the creation of the initial European Economic Community in 1957.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the Conservative Party was in office from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to become prime minister, though by no means the last, and also a distinct departure from the established aristocratic and big-business sources of earlier party leaders.
She carried out a radical reform program to emphasize free markets, break up both government ownership in the economy and powerful union influence, and attract foreign investment. She was also the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century.
In a generally comparable manner, Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, in office from 1997 to 2007, modernized his party by moving away from nationalization of industry and doctrinaire socialism. His “New Labour” leadership returned the Labour Party to a position of electoral strength.
Yet broader trends were undercutting both parties.
In the 2010 general election, neither major party won a clear majority in the House of Commons, unusual in British politics since World War II. The result was a coalition government from 2010 to 2015 involving the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, the first formal coalition since the special all-party government during the ordeal of that war.
Liberal Democrats suffered election defeat in 2015, reflecting alienated supporters opposed to cooperation with major parties, yet the party continued gaining. The 2024 general election resulted in a Labour landslide, but the Liberal Democrats won 72 seats in the House of Commons, a truly dramatic gain and a postwar peak.
British politics today is fracturing into multiple parties, no longer two or even three. Brexit, the agonizing effort to break free of the controversial European Union, splintered the governing Conservative Party and then divided the Labour Party as well.
The British government made institutional changes. Regional assemblies for Scotland and Wales are a result, reflecting the growth of nationalist parties in each of these regions.
The current rise of Reform UK under colorful, controversial Nigel Farage is the latest change in once predictable British politics.
Stay tuned.