Emma Sanderson-Nash

From Sandals to Suits: Professionalisation, Coalition and the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have traditionally been viewed as a ‘bottom-up’ party with a relatively high degree of influence open to grass-roots members and party activists. However, following the dramatic increase in the number of Liberal Democrat MPs at the 1997 election the party has increasingly tried to professionalise its operation, leading to a more top-down approach. This article argues that the professionalisation process has not only changed the dynamics within and between the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary party, but has also paved the way for the party, more usually identified as being on the centre-left of British politics, to enter into coalition government with the Conservatives. Analysing changes to the federal conference structure and to policy-making processes, the article explores the ways in which the party has professionalised, both within the parliamentary party and at party headquarters, and assesses the potential impact that this may have upon the role of the partys grass roots.

A Leap of Faith and a Leap in the Dark : The Impact of Coalition on the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats

The parties which, in May 2010, formed Britain’s first peacetime Coalition Government since the 1930s had both undergone considerable change during Labour’s 13 years of office under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. David Cameron’s Conservative Party had done much to move on and to move on out of the populist cul-de-sac into which it had been driven under the leadership of William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, none of whom managed to do much to alter the negative perceptions of the party that had hardened during Margaret Thatcher’s and John Major’s time in Number Ten. Likewise, Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats were a very different party from the one Paddy Ashdown attempted to lure towards Labour in 1997, and different again from the one Charles Kennedy led in opposition to Blair’s war in Iraq in 2003. Indeed, it was the changes to both parties, as well as the parliamentary arithmetic, which meant they were able to come to an agreement in May 2010.

THE ORANGE BOOK – TURNING RIGHT OR CHANGING GEARS?

The Liberal Democrats becoming kingmakers in 2010 did not depend solely on the numbers adding up on May 5th. Did The Orange Book pull the party to the right, making coalition with the Tories a meeting of minds? Or was it better viewed as an element in an overall strategic shift towards greater professionalism, making a deal with either of the major parties more likely?