Bale, Tim and Sanderson-Nash, Emma (2011) A leap of faith and a leap in the dark: the impact of coalition on the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. In: Lee, Simon and Beech, Matt (eds.) The Cameron-Clegg government coalition: politics in an age of austerity. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, pp. 237-250. ISBN 9780230290716

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Book Section
Schools and Departments:	School of Law, Politics and Sociology > Politics
Depositing User:	Tim Bale
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 20:44
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2017 13:23
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/27795

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