01102pab a2200157 454500 180718b2002 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Entwistle, Tom Explaining the birth of the local government association 2002 p.91-102. Spring In the summer of 1995 the three local authority associations that had provided English and Welsh local authorities with their national representation voted to merge and form the Local Government Association. This article explains the merger as dependent upon the coincidence of three conditions. The first was a positive belief in the benefits of merger shared by the leaderships of the three associations. The second was a disruption of the status quo prompted by the Conservative government's proposals for local government reorganisation. The third was a change in Labour Party policy away from the defence of a dedicated metropolitan association to a preference for a unified cross-party association. Local government Local Government Studies 52285 52285 52285 0 0 0 0 IIPA IIPA 2018-07-19 Volume no: 28, Issue no: 1 AR52715 2018-07-19 2018-07-19 AR