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a tale of two coalitions
May. 12th, 2010 06:59 amHow do prospects look for the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the UK? Not very good, judging by 20th-century experience. Peacetime coalitions in the UK have had a tendency to have the Conservative Party turn into the python that swallowed the pumpkin.
Wartime is different. "Britain's last coalition government in some ways had the simpler task: it just had to fight the Nazis," wrote the Guardian. "The new Liberal Democrat-Conservative government, however, has no such existential threat to concentrate its mind."
That World War II coalition actually broke up immediately after the Nazis surrendered, while the war against Japan was still going on. The World War I coalition, however, lasted four years after the war ended.
That coalition had been formed in 1915, less than a year after the war started, with the opposition Conservatives joining the government Liberals. A year and a half later, a government crisis occurred. The incumbent Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith1, was slow, methodical, and judicious. These had been perfect qualities to calm down overheated peacetime flurries, like the constitutional crisis of 1910,2 but not so desirable under wartime pressure, and many members wanted to replace Asquith with his dynamic deputy (great phrase, no?), David Lloyd George. Asquith, however, was loath to move, largely, he said, because, after having been PM for eight years, a supporting role would be too degrading.3 At the end of 1916, Asquith was finally kicked out in a palace coup, and flounced out of the government entirely - taking half the Liberal Party with him.
Lloyd George was now Prime Minister of a government with only half of his own party, with the other half in opposition, and the minority Conservatives now outnumbering his own Liberal supporters within the government. This peculiar line-up lasted not only the rest of the war, but beyond. Lloyd George was determined to win the peace, and spent most of the next year in Versailles negotiating with Wilson and Clemenceau.4
And then they just kept on going, because if there wasn't one crisis to deal with, there was another. The Russian civil war, the war between Greece and Turkey ... somewhere Britain had to have its hand in, and Lloyd George was so deft, and so popular, that his Conservative ministers didn't feel they could do without him.
The Conservative backbenchers, however, got restless, and resentful of the PM's rather sordid ways. (Among other things, he sold titles of nobility for cash.) Was Lloyd George a prisoner of his Conservative followers, or were they the prisoners of him? Nobody was quite sure which. Finally, in October of 1922, the backbenchers, led by a then-obscure junior cabinet minister named Stanley Baldwin, staged another coup, and voted against continuing the coalition.5 The ground was cut out from under not only Lloyd George, but the leading Conservative ministers, and they all resigned. A new, all-Conservative government was formed out of what was rather nastily called "the second eleven"6, Baldwin and others highly disgruntled at Lloyd George - notably a fellow named Neville Chamberlain - prominent among them. Ever since, a committee consisting of all the Conservative backbenchers7 has had the power to call the leadership to account for itself, and it is known as the 1922 Committee.
And that was the end of the first coalition. Tomorrow, the second coalition.
1. Great-grandfather of Helena Bonham-Carter, by the way. I like pointing that out, for some reason.
2. Which had set the Liberals and Conservatives against each other so viciously that their cooperation merely five years later was really rather surprising.
3. An odd position for him to take, given that there was already another former Prime Minister in a subordinate cabinet post.
4. The Conservative leader ran the government in Parliament for him, thus offering a precedent for a positive answer to the question, "Will Clegg stand in at Prime Minister's Question Time when Cameron is away?"
5. Baldwin's extraordinary political success, then and later, puzzled some of his contemporaries, who did not find him especially prepossessing. Part of his secret was his ability to make extremely powerful political speeches, some of which were written for him by his cousin, whose name was Rudyard Kipling.
6. i.e. the backup cricket players.
7. Backbenchers - who in the British Parliament literally sit on the back benches - are those members of a party who do not hold government posts, when the party is in power, or the equivalent opposition spokesmanships, when it is not.
Wartime is different. "Britain's last coalition government in some ways had the simpler task: it just had to fight the Nazis," wrote the Guardian. "The new Liberal Democrat-Conservative government, however, has no such existential threat to concentrate its mind."
That World War II coalition actually broke up immediately after the Nazis surrendered, while the war against Japan was still going on. The World War I coalition, however, lasted four years after the war ended.
That coalition had been formed in 1915, less than a year after the war started, with the opposition Conservatives joining the government Liberals. A year and a half later, a government crisis occurred. The incumbent Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith1, was slow, methodical, and judicious. These had been perfect qualities to calm down overheated peacetime flurries, like the constitutional crisis of 1910,2 but not so desirable under wartime pressure, and many members wanted to replace Asquith with his dynamic deputy (great phrase, no?), David Lloyd George. Asquith, however, was loath to move, largely, he said, because, after having been PM for eight years, a supporting role would be too degrading.3 At the end of 1916, Asquith was finally kicked out in a palace coup, and flounced out of the government entirely - taking half the Liberal Party with him.
Lloyd George was now Prime Minister of a government with only half of his own party, with the other half in opposition, and the minority Conservatives now outnumbering his own Liberal supporters within the government. This peculiar line-up lasted not only the rest of the war, but beyond. Lloyd George was determined to win the peace, and spent most of the next year in Versailles negotiating with Wilson and Clemenceau.4
And then they just kept on going, because if there wasn't one crisis to deal with, there was another. The Russian civil war, the war between Greece and Turkey ... somewhere Britain had to have its hand in, and Lloyd George was so deft, and so popular, that his Conservative ministers didn't feel they could do without him.
The Conservative backbenchers, however, got restless, and resentful of the PM's rather sordid ways. (Among other things, he sold titles of nobility for cash.) Was Lloyd George a prisoner of his Conservative followers, or were they the prisoners of him? Nobody was quite sure which. Finally, in October of 1922, the backbenchers, led by a then-obscure junior cabinet minister named Stanley Baldwin, staged another coup, and voted against continuing the coalition.5 The ground was cut out from under not only Lloyd George, but the leading Conservative ministers, and they all resigned. A new, all-Conservative government was formed out of what was rather nastily called "the second eleven"6, Baldwin and others highly disgruntled at Lloyd George - notably a fellow named Neville Chamberlain - prominent among them. Ever since, a committee consisting of all the Conservative backbenchers7 has had the power to call the leadership to account for itself, and it is known as the 1922 Committee.
And that was the end of the first coalition. Tomorrow, the second coalition.
1. Great-grandfather of Helena Bonham-Carter, by the way. I like pointing that out, for some reason.
2. Which had set the Liberals and Conservatives against each other so viciously that their cooperation merely five years later was really rather surprising.
3. An odd position for him to take, given that there was already another former Prime Minister in a subordinate cabinet post.
4. The Conservative leader ran the government in Parliament for him, thus offering a precedent for a positive answer to the question, "Will Clegg stand in at Prime Minister's Question Time when Cameron is away?"
5. Baldwin's extraordinary political success, then and later, puzzled some of his contemporaries, who did not find him especially prepossessing. Part of his secret was his ability to make extremely powerful political speeches, some of which were written for him by his cousin, whose name was Rudyard Kipling.
6. i.e. the backup cricket players.
7. Backbenchers - who in the British Parliament literally sit on the back benches - are those members of a party who do not hold government posts, when the party is in power, or the equivalent opposition spokesmanships, when it is not.
