Date: Wednesday 25 March 2015
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: CLM 4.02, Clement House
Speakers: Dr Rosie Campbell, Dr Michael Finn, Sir Anthony Seldon
Chair: Tony Travers

The British General Election of May 2010 delivered the first coalition government since the Second World War. David Cameron and Nick Clegg pledged a 'new politics' with the government taking office in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Five years on, a team of experts drawn from academia, the media, Parliament, Whitehall and think tanks assesses this 'coalition effect' across a broad range of policy areas.

Adopting the contemporary history approach, this pioneering book addresses academic and policy debates across this whole range of issues. Did the coalition represent the natural 'next step' in party dealignment and the evolution of multi-party politics? Was coalition in practice a historic innovation in itself, or did the essential principles of Britain's uncodified constitution remain untroubled? Fundamentally, was the coalition able to deliver on its promises made in the coalition agreement, and what were the consequences - for the country and the parties - of this union?

This book, The Coalition Effect, 2010-2015, was edited by Anthony Seldon and Mike Finn.

Rosie Campbell is a Reader in Politics at Birkbeck University of London. Rosie has research interests in British politics; particularly political representation, political careers, political participation, and women and politics. She is the principal investigator of the ESRC funded Representative Audit of Britain, which will survey all candidates standing in the 2015 British General Election, and co-investigator of a Leverhulme funded study of parliamentary candidates and MPs from 1945-2015.

Michael Finn is Director of the Centre for Education Policy and Lecturer in the History of Education at Liverpool Hope University. He has taught history and politics extensively in universities, including as a Research Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and as a Bye-Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 2006 he was Head of Research and political speechwriter to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats during the transition from Charles Kennedy to Ming Campbell.

Sir Anthony Seldon is a leading contemporary historian and political commentator, and the 13th Master of Wellington College. An alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Fellow of King's College London, he is an expert on political leadership and has authored or edited over 35 books on contemporary history and politics.

Tony Travers is a visiting professor at LSE, and is a specialist in issues affecting local government. He is Director of the Greater London Group and British Government @ LSE.

British Government@LSE is an initiative currently based in the Government Department to promote and develop research on British Government being conducted at the LSE. So far world class speakers have attended our events, talking on a range of topics.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSECoalition

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