Parties and Party System: Prospects for Realignment

This review of the current state of British party politics considers the prospects for realignment of the Westminster party system. In view of the problems that Labour faces in office and the continuing entrenched crisis which confronts the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats have been presented with historically favourable conditions in which to break into the citadel of major party politics, though realignment is far from inevitable. In 2002, evidence emerged that the strategy of the Liberal Democrats to achieve their goal would consist of distancing themselves from Labour in order to replace the Conservatives as the most credible party of opposition.