During and immediately after the First World War the question of party affiliation assumed an importance unprecedented in the history of the progressive tradition. We have seen the beginnings of the process whereby the bulk of progressive intellectuals changed their party allegiance from Liberal to Labour, or, more precisely, to the ILP. The process, which did not merely continue but accelerated in the years immediately after the war, was both cause and effect of the larger process of Labour replacing the Liberal Party as the leading anti-Conservative force. The disgust which led many Liberal progressives to leave the Liberal Party stayed with them afterwards and was powerfully reinforced by the hostility which necessarily prevailed between two parties competing for one position. The decade following the war is soaked in inter-party spleen to which former Liberals contributed at least their fair share.

Given that pre-war progressivism was characterised by the lack of importance its adherents placed on organisational affiliation, it would be easy to conclude that progressivism itself did not survive the war. This chapter will show that such a conclusion would be mistaken.