Decline and Fall of the Liberal Party

Abstract

This book manages to convey a great deal of useful information in short, if costly, space; no less noticeable is its stolid accuracy, if written without elegance, and its admirable objectivity, without partisanship.¹ These qualities make it a reliable record, mostly of the decline and decay of the Liberal Party after the First German war of 1914–18. Mr Cook gives us a persuasive new reading of the Cabinet crisis of 1916,from which Lloyd George emerged as Prime Minister, and also of the ‘Coupon’ Election of 1918 which registered the split between the two wings of the Party. Another good point ‘dispels the myth’ that the great victory of 1906 ‘represented left-wing reforming radicalism… The Party was dominated by centre Liberals. Its social composition [in Parliament] was preponderantly middle-aged men from the commercial and professional middle class. The real Radicals were few and far between.’