The Progressive Consensus in Perspective

This paper explores the history of the progressive consensus, in particular analysing what happened to the 'progressive alliance' of the Liberal, Irish and Labour Parties which won an overwhelming electoral victory in 1906, only to be obstructed by the House of Lords and the First World War. At the end of that war, two of its three elements had been shattered and the Conservatives became dominant for most of the rest of the 20th century.