Beyond Westminster Lessons Learnt From Coalitions Past

Jan 7, 2025 10:00 PM

Author:Andrew Rawnsley,Andrew Rawnsley

The special New Year's Day 2011 edition of BBC Radio 4's 'Beyond Westminster', in which Andrew Rawnsley considers the lessons of history for Britain's coalition government - and its opponents. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are busily advancing their ambitious political and economic agenda - albeit amid parliamentary revolts and embarrassing comments to undercover reporters. Exactly a hundred years ago too, no party had an outright majority at Westminster, and a Liberal government relied on Irish Nationalists and a fledgling Labour Party to enact reform of Parliament, a radical budget and social changes. Lloyd George continued in coalition with the Conservatives after World War One only for peacetime tensions within the government to culminate in the ejection from Downing Street of Britain's last Liberal prime minister, amid mass disaffection with Liberal splits. Can Nick Clegg avoid a similar fate befalling today's Liberal Democrats? Seven months into 'new politics', Andrew Rawnsley explores with historians Juliet Nicolson and Martin Pugh the record of past coalitions. He also discusses with The Rt. Hon. David Davis MP, Simon Hughes MP and Tristram Hunt MP the lessons of the past and questions whether this coalition will re-shape British politics.

Reviews

Powerful and even emotional ... probably one of the best books about what it's like to be a Famous Person's Friend. And it's almost certainly the definitive Weller biography.

—— The Word

Fascinating... Hewitt pries into the dark corners of a personality that has long been kept under lock and key.

—— Guardian

A one-off... an intimate picture of a seemingly arrogant man

—— Metro

Entertaining insight and audacity - Dessau has been reviewing comedy for more than 30 years, and knows his stuff ... A fascinating look at the dark side of stand-up

—— Time Out, 4 stars

Its sporadic vulgarity leavened by wit and insight, the book mirrors the mood of a late-night gig.

—— Independent

Catching Mark Kermode in full rant is like witnessing an irate bloke slagging off an unfaithful mistress. Only funnier ... Disagreeing with Kermode is just as much fun as agreeing with him

—— Daily Telegraph

A spectacularly well-researched and vehement argument

—— Sunday Times

Combines historical context with hilariously barbed anecdotes

—— Total Film

The angrier Mark Kermode gets, the funnier he is; good news then that this book is FURIOUS

—— Empire

[A] laugh-out-loud account that will tickle the funny bone of any film fanatic

—— Star

Witty and incisive

—— Choice

Cutting and witty

—— Loaded

[Kermode] clearly has a profound love of film and the depth of knowledge to go with it

—— Jeff Dawson , Sunday Times

An angry blast about the state of cinema-going

—— Christopher Fowler, Books of the Year: Cinema , Independent

Kermode sits in the stalls peeking through his fingers at what we’re served up on the silver screen and motormouthing about bad cinema in a frank and funny counterblast to all the Hollywood hype

—— Saga

The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex is the film critic’s anguished cri de coeur against overpriced 3D film tickets and soulless cinemas ... often very funny and enlivened with wonderful digressions borne out of a lifetime’s movie-going

—— Books of the Year , Metro

Difficult to ignore

—— Good Book Guide

a spritely, spirited tome ... with welcome doses of spicy self-deprecation and fascinating cultural history.

—— The Big Issue in the North

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