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A leap of faith and a leap in the dark: the impact of coalition on the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats
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posted on 2023-06-08, 07:35 authored by Tim Bale, Emma Sanderson-NashThe 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.
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Publication status
- Published
Publisher
Palgrave MacmillanExternal DOI
Page range
237-250Pages
291.0Book title
The Cameron-Clegg government coalition: politics in an age of austerityPlace of publication
Basingstoke, UKISBN
9780230290716Department affiliated with
- Politics Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
Simon Lee, Matt BeechLegacy Posted Date
2012-02-06Usage metrics
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