| ID | 152560 |
| Title Proper | Some lessons of the SDP for labour's present predicament |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Liddle, Roger |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Jeremy Corbyn's election and re-election as Labour leader, together with the emergence of a new Conservative Prime Minister committed to Brexit, has led to renewed speculation about the possibility of a new party appealing to the ‘politically homeless’ in the centre and centre-left of British politics. This article draws lessons from the SDP experience in the early 1980s. Are the structural conditions more favourable to the progressive centre-left now than they were then? Is there the sociological, electoral and ideological space for a new party? Does first past the post remain an insuperable barrier to an electoral breakthrough? From whom and in what circumstances might the leadership for a new party come? For all the depth of Labour's current problems, a new party seems an unlikely immediate prospect. In 1981, the SDP made a major miscalculation about the irreversibility of Labour's decline. However, the process of fragmentation in British politics seems set to continue. |
| `In' analytical Note | Political Quarterly Vol. 88, No.1; Jan-Mar 2017: p.76–86 |
| Journal Source | Political Quarterly 2017-03 88, 1 |
| Key Words | Labourism ; SDP ; Jeremy Corbyn ; Roy Jenkins ; Gang of Four ; Political Fragmentation & Fluidity |