Introduction

Abstract

This study, which is divided into two parts, discusses the nature and extent of the collapse of the coalition of interests within the Labour Party which led directly to the emergence of the Social Democratic Party whose initial bid to displace the Labour Party as the principal opposition party failed lamentably in 1987. The book is based on historical analysis and personal interviews with the leading political figures involved in the birth of the new party and the drama of its nemesis in 1988. The book examines in depth the stresses and strains which reduced the Labour Party to a shell of its former self and which, in turn, tore the original SDP to pieces. We seek to show that the bid to break the mould of British politics has, for the time being, failed.