The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain: Politics and Power Before the First World War

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Brexit, declared Labour pro-European, Roy Jenkins, during the first European referendum campaign in 1975, would put Britain into “an old people’s home for fading nations”. He added, “I do not think it would be a very comfortable old people’s home. I do not like the look of some of the prospective wardens”. Of the three wardens since 2016, Theresa May fell because her Brexit deal was unacceptable to Conservatives, and replaced by Boris Johnson to “get Brexit done”. Then Trussonomics sought to prove the viability of Global Britain outside the EU. That people do not appreciate the energy and initiative of the Edwardians in seeking to resolve these new problems. Masterly. The debate over the tumultuous years before 1914 has occupied historians ever since George Dangerfield published The Strange Death of Liberal England in 1935. Vernon Bogdanor gives a magisterial rebuttal, demonstrating the robustness of Britain’s institutions at a time of political change. He provides a fascinating tour d’horizon of the Edwardian political scene. This must be a definitive account.” Professor Jane Ridley, author of George V: Never a Dull Moment A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere. The LSE School of Public Policy( @LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

It is a law of economic gravity that we trade more with nearby countries than with those more distant. As David Cameron pointed out during the referendum campaign, we trade more with Ireland than with Brazil, Russia, India and China combined. Joseph Chamberlain – to ask what he would do today to modernise Britain. Winston Churchill – because, like Chamberlain, he had such energy and originality. I would ask him too how he would modernise Britain. But 2022 could end that civil war, for it is now the hard Brexiteers and the free marketeers who have been de-legitimised. The demise of Trussonomics has proved, once again, that we live in an interconnected world. While of course Brexit is yesterday’s argument, it is now clear that we cannot hope to prosper without a better relationship with the EU. The collapse of Trussonomics is a devastating blow to the cheerleaders of Brexit (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

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Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget. Vernon Bogdanor believes the turbulent years of 1895 to 1914 changed Britain’s political landscape and delves in to the reasons why in his wide-ranging and sometimes controversial book The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain. Here is a flavour of what is to come in a short Q&A with Vernon himself. I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions. The Cloud is only intended for guest and visitor access to wifi. Existing LSE staff and students are encouraged to use eduroaminstead. A. Odendaal, The Founders: The origins of the ANC and the struggle for democracy in South Africa, Jacana Media, 2012.

Most bishops took party whips in the late Victorian House of Lords. “The Conservative Party was in fact more statist at the end of the 19th century than it was to be at the end of the 20th,” the author writes, earlier stating that “many rhetorical flourishes around the idea of the racial unity of the Anglo-Saxons, and its civilising mission, particularly by Chamberlain” provided “ideological cover for British accommodation to the United States”. There could be no more complete and comprehensive political history of the two decades before the Great War than he has compiled … A crucial and fascinating period in British history made intelligible.” Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph M. Plaut, Promise and Despair: The first struggle for a non-racial South Africa, Jacana Media, 2016.

Nor did the red wall voters seek a smaller state. They wanted more state intervention not less, especially after Covid so starkly revealed the inequalities which still disfigure Britain. A country in which financiers rake in millions amidst queues for food banks was not one of which they could feel proud.

I would have advised the Liberals to put more emphasis on technical education and to create further education colleges specialising in technical education.

P. Kerr, Foreign Affairs: Anglo-German Rivalry, The Round Table, November 1910, p. 7 – 40, quoted in John Kendle, The Round Table Movement and Imperial Union, p. 108 I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.