Serpents, Goats and Turkeys

Thedefinitive, insider history of the often turbulent political relationshipbetween the Liberals and Labour.

Naturalallies or fierce competitors? For the past century, Britain’s two majorcentre-left parties have co-existed in sometimes harmonious but more oftenfraught duopoly, from the 1903 agreement that a prominent Liberal complainedwas ‘nursing into life a serpent which would sting their party to death’ to the1976–77 pact that gave us the phrase ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ and beyond,to the failed negotiations that led to the controversial 2010–15 LibDem–Conservative coalition.

Charting100 years of British political history, Serpents, Goats and Turkeys exploresthe formal and informal arrangements that have existed between the parties,covering electoral deals, support for minority governments, formal pacts andfull coalitions. What have been the overlaps of policy and ideology, and wherehave the parties been most divided? What explains the periods of co-operationbut also the unwillingness or inability to work together for any significanttime?

Inthe wake of the 2024 ‘Loveless Landslide’, former coalition Cabinet ministerDavid Laws also draws on unpublished records and private diaries from the pastthirty years of Lib–Lab wrangling to consider the likely options in the eventof a future hung parliament. Should the parties work together? Would they beable to? And what are the prospects for voting reform? The answers to suchquestions will have major implications for British democracy and the future ofour politics.