Shake-up in Britain

The future of the centrist Alliance, a confederation of Britain’s Social Democratic and Liberal parties, has been in question ever since its disastrous showing in the June elections. Now rank-and-file Social Democrats, ignoring the opposition of leader David Owen, have voted by a wide margin to merge with the Liberal Party. Assuming that the merger goes through, the question now is whether the combined party will be able to overcome the divisions that crippled the Alliance.

There is no question that Britain needs a strong centrist political force. The ruling Conservatives, under the leadership of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, have produced a more efficient and abundant economy. But they are insensitive to the human costs inflicted on those left out of the general economic revival. The opposition Labor Party, however, is simply too radical--especially in foreign policy, where it favors unilateral nuclear disarmament--to be a viable alternative.

It was this yawning ideological divide that led to the creation of the Social Democratic Party in 1981 by a group of disenchanted Laborites who could no longer stomach the Labor Party’s leftward drift. The new party has seemed at times to have great promise, frequently scoring well in the polls. However, loyalty to the traditional parties runs deep among the British voters. Also, the Social Democrats’ popular strength was not sufficiently concentrated to win parliamentary seats.

The Social Democrats and the small Liberal Party, which hasn’t been a major electoral force for many years, joined forces in an electoral alliance in the last two elections. But it didn’t work; their policy differences and a two-headed leadership situation confused the voters. The two parties combined won only 22 seats in the last election.

The terms of the merger must still be negotiated, and the Liberal Party must give its approval. But, assuming that the merger goes through, early indications are that the Social Democrats will be deeply split, with some disgruntled members insisting on retaining a separate identity while others are likely to rejoin the Labor or Tory party.

It would be nice if a combined centrist party would at least have the strength to nudge the Conservatives back toward the center in order to avoid losing strength in the next election, and to cause Labor to become less radical in order to attract disaffected Social Democrats. But political observers in Britain are skeptical.

A merger isn’t going to change the distaste of Social Democratic leaders for the anti-nuclear proclivities of the Liberals, nor is it likely to produce agreement on the proper mix of freemarket economic policies and state intervention. It’s hard to imagine that a merger will cause Thatcher to sleep any less comfortably.