ABSTRACT
THE party system that unfolded in the months following the ‘coupon election’ was barely recognizable in terms of pre-war politics. The absence of the Prime Minister himself at the Paris peace conference until July 1919 added to the air of unreality. There seemed little purpose in day-to-day controversy in the absence of the one figure who lent cohesion both to the supporters and to the opponents of the administration. Everyone seemed to be conducting a holding operation until Lloyd George’s return, with occasional interludes such as his brief and majestic flying visit to Westminster in April to flay ‘die-har’ critics of the peace negotiations. 1 In parliament many detected a new mood of cynicism that boded ill for the evolution of post-war politics. Among these anxious observers was Edwin Montagu (Doc. 60), who viewed the capitalist supporters and the trade union opponents of the administration with equal contempt. Like many other Liberals at the time, he was tom by a kind of schizophrenia, lamenting the departure of Asquith and other old comrades, yet anxious to cling to the ‘national’ government, seeking to be both Liberal and Coalitionist at the same time. The result was to drive him to a kind of paralysis of despair. Meanwhile at Westminster, the relation between the Coalition Liberals like Montagu and their Unionist allies remained unclear. Bonar Law had argued at the outset of the new parliament that all the Coalitionist members should sit together as a homogeneous whole, irrespective of party, and that they should have joint whips. But as long as separate Liberal and Unionist organizations continued, this could not be achieved, and in practice the two parties continued to work in parallel rather than in unison, eyeing one another with wariness, both treasuring their independence.
