In February 1974 Edward Heath called a snap General Election in response to a second miners’ strike in three years. Heath famously posed the election as a decision on ‘Who Runs Britain’.
Despite opinion polls suggesting he would be returned to office and polling the highest number of votes, the vagaries of our electoral system meant Heath’s Tories not only failed to win a majority of seats, but actually got less than Labour. Historians suggest that the miners’ peaceful pursuit of their pay claim and an independent inquiry finding that there was justification for their dispute, dealt Heath a devastating blow.
The other big story of the election was the surge in the Liberal vote. From just over 11% in 1970, the party increased its share to nearly 20%, but again because of FPTP they only won a few more seats.
We all know what followed.
A weak attempt by Heath to remain in office, followed by a minority Labour government, and then another election which returned Wilson a small majority, the Winter of Discontent, Thatcherism, and all that followed.
The election of February 1974 was the first in a generation to indicate a large section of the electorate were fed up with the extremes of left and right, preferring the moderation offered by the centre ground Liberal party of Jeremy Thorpe.
What if that vote for the Liberal cause had yielded a few more MPs at the expense of the Tories? That would have meant no prospect of Heath remaining in office and the possibility of a stable Lib/Lab coalition. Instead of talking to Ted, Thorpe could have been negotiating with Harold.
A Liberal Party more left of centre than right would have been likely to be much more disposed to this kind of arrangement and Wilson concerned about the left in his own party might have jumped at the chance to form a more moderate coalition administration. That arrangement may well have led to electoral reform and a long period of Lib/Lab government with Liberal ministers in key departments. Jeremy Thorpe at the Home Office perhaps.
With proportionate representation the Labour left might have broken away rather than take over the party as they did in the period following Callaghan’s defeat in 1979. Roy Jenkins might have succeeded Wilson meaning no SDP and better still no Prime Minister Thatcher.
If the February 1974 General Election and the days that followed had turned out just that little bit different Britain could well have avoided the confrontational politics that the Tories championed in the 1980’s and the country could have have moved forward by consensus.
* David Warren is a lifetime political activist for progressive causes and a liberal.