Under the Labour government of 1974 to 1979, the approach of the British state to the Northern Ireland conflict underwent a significant change. Key ministers and civil servants began to accept that a constitutional solution was unachievable in the short term and that violence would continue for many years.

With No solution, S. C. Aveyard sheds new light on this difficult period. Using a wide range of archival correspondence and diaries, he reconstructs private discussions and policy formulation under Labour. He considers the collapse of power-sharing in May 1974, the...