ABSTRACT
In the immediate aftermath of the war, the dominant mode of resistance to socialism was embodied by Lloyd George's attempt to transform the wartime Coalition into a permanent method of government based on a more formal realignment of the centre-right and 'sane' Labour in opposition to socialist extremism. Certainly the political drive and economic stability necessary to achieve these domestic objectives were both present in abundance during the first eighteen months of the Coalition. In March 1920 the Coalition Liberals had demonstrated the critical importance attached to party labels by vetoing 'fusion' although it offered them electoral salvation. Conservatives were not turning their backs upon the possibility of any future anti-socialist combination, but the Carlton Club revolt was an unequivocal rejection of Lloyd George's dream of making his particular brand of coalitionism the dominant mode of resistance to socialism.
