September 1982 - The dream of the SDP faces a critical question
Having bought into their own hype given their explosive poll ratings during the meteoric year of 1981, the SDP-Liberal Alliance entered the 1981 Campaign with much hope and with heavily optimistic forecasts, at one point even expecting to surpass 200 seats. When the smoke clear and the size of the Labour landslide became clear, the Alliance had only reached 22 MP's, from which 21 were Liberals (most of them defeating Conservative MP's) and a single SDP MP in Shirley Williams as the rest of the Gang of Four fell to their Labour challengers. The SDP had been utterly humilliated, and Jenkins immediately stood down to give way to Williams.
The next question was were to go next following the Labour supermajority in the House of Commons, and after a series of preliminar talks both Williams and Steel (who stayed on as Leader given the strong Liberal showing) decided that there was little point for their parties to be divided against the newfound strength of Foot's Labour. Thus the idea of a merger was formed, and despite heavy opposition by the likes of David Owen and Michael Meadowcroft, their absence from parliament meant that the talks managed to reach an ultimately successful end: the Liberal and SDP parties proposed to their membership to merge into a new party, called the
Democrats.
The question was put to the membership of both parties, with a second ballot arranged to choose a single leader should the Democrats be formed as united party: both Steel and Williams resolved to stand.
The Candidates:
David Steel:: The young Liberal Leader David Steel has managed to garner some significant experience, having already propped the Callaghan government through the Lib-Lab pact of 1977-1978. The stronger supporter of the merger, Steel is determined to see the Democrats as a strong voice for change that is different from the Conservatives and Labour, and personally supports social liberal policies, a dovish foreign policy and a pragmatic form of Liberalism which leans towards the center-left.
Shirley Williams: Charismatic, media savvy and respected across the board, SDP Leader Shirley Williams is fully on board with the Social Democratic mold of her new party, and she is determined to see that either the SDP (if no merger) or the Democrats run as the center-left alternative to the Labour Party (which she believes to be hopelessly radicalized after their recent victory), running with a strong pro-middle class message.
Poll
