Search results for ""Author Garry Tregidga""

The decline of the Liberal party is one of the most controversial subjects in twentieth-century British politics, and this book makes a distinctive contribution to the debate by focusing on the South West, where Liberalism remained a powerful force after 1918. During the 1920s it was one of the few areas where the party survived as a major force. By the early 1950s, when the Liberals were fighting for their very existence, it was their early revival in the far west which provided morale and purpose. Victories in Cornwall and Devon after 1958 improved the party's credibility and effectively heralded the national Liberal revival. In recent years the regional Liberal Democrats have built on these historic foundations to emerge on equal terms with the Conservatives at Westminster and as the dominant party in local government. By concentrating on one region, this book offers fresh insight into issues relating to the UK as a whole. It moves away from the conventional focus on urban Britain to the neglected world of rural and small-town politics, and explores differences within the South West itself, from Celtic Cornwall in the far west to modern 'Wessex' in the east. A study of one of the key regions of Britain for the Liberal Party's survival and revival Raises important questions about the nature of regional politics Includes the significant 1997 election when the South West went against national trends

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This volume edits the correspondence of Sir Francis and Lady Acland of Killerton, Devon. It brings together a unique collection of written sources for politics in the early twentieth century, ranging from the administrative worldof high politics to constituency electioneering in Cornwall and Devon. The Aclands made a prominent contribution to Liberal party politics in this period and their correspondence covers topics such as the pre-war campaign for female suffrage, the key events of the First World War and the party divisions that followed the fall of Asquith. These letters therefore offer fresh insight into the changing fortunes of Liberalism in this period. They also challenge the assumption that the South West of Britain was a political backwater, covering the remarkable rise and fall of Labour in Cornwall and the tensions generated in rural Devon by Lloyd George's land campaign in the mid-1920s. Notions of family tradition, territorial politics and constituency representation were played out against the competing influences of Devon, Cornwall and Westminster.

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