The Lib Dems support political reform and cutting parliamentary expenditure, including capping donations to £25,000 to reduce the influence of rich donors,[9] and reducing the number of MPs by 150.[10]
Historically the Liberal Democrats have favoured higher taxes, but have also advocated "small-state" policies such as the abolition of some government departments. The most well-known Liberal Democrat policy for most of the 1990s was to increase the basic rate of income tax by one percent to fund public services (especially education). This proposal was abandoned after Tony Blair's Labour government increased national insurance contributions by the same amount, a policy with much the same effect. Other previous fiscal policy included increasing the top rate of income tax by ten percentage points to 50% for those earning over £100,000 to fund their increased public spending plans, but this was abandoned in 2006 after the party conference approved new tax policies which left the top rate at 40%.
The period following 2001 saw an internal discussion about the right policies for the party on economics and public spending: some party members advocated that the party position itself as a defender of the traditional welfare state in order to gain support from those who had previously voted Labour. Others, most notably David Laws, advocated a policy of smaller government and free-market liberalism (the Orange Book published in 2004 was an example of this wing of the Liberal discussion).
With a few exceptions (most notably Paddy Ashdown),[11] Lib Dem MPs opposed the 2003 Invasion of Iraq although with division over whether troops should be withdrawn immediately or not once the war had begun.[12] The party stated that they would support UK forces that had been ordered to fight while it was taking place; after the initial military action was completed, they renewed their political opposition. The party was the strongest advocate of the Kosovo War and before that, intervention in Bosnia.
The party announced its policy of abolishing the Department for Trade and Industry in 2004. The Lib Dems propose to replace Council Tax with local income taxes; in 2003 they started to make their long-held pledge to abolish Council Tax a centrepiece of their campaign. In February 2008 new leader Nick Clegg stated the party still advocated this, as part of devolving power to regional and local authorities, where they set their own tax levels.[13] Clegg said that the tax burden should not rise, but that the burden should vary within that ceiling, for example continuing the policy to "cut in income tax for low and middle income earners of 4p in the pound".[13] At the 2008 party conference Clegg said that tax cuts were possible policy for the next general election.[9]
At the conference, Nick Clegg announced a policy for reforming elections, parties and parliament, which would be a condition of forming a government in a hung parliament.[9] This included cutting expenditure by having 150 fewer MPs, by-elections for those who break MP's rules, having a £25,000 cap on donations to parties and a £10 million annual party spending limit, and including the option on ballot papers to donate £3 of funding to a party of the voter's choice.[10] Clegg also vowed to 'end two-party politics' with more protests against 'the establishment', such as Commons walk-outs and event boycotts.[14]
Current party policies can be found on the party website:
Proportional representation
Unlike the other main political parties in the United Kingdom, which have either opposed or merely paid lip service to the concept, the Lib Dems have always strongly advocated proportional representation. This has always been a cornerstone of the party's policies, and on many occasions has been cited as a key requirement of any Lib Dem involvement in a coalition government. Several deals have been struck with Labour and Conservative leaders in the past, promising Liberal and Lib Dem support in return for a commitment to consider the introduction of PR, but the two major parties have always found it more advantageous to stick with first-past-the-post.
Both the Liberal Democrats and its Liberal and SDP predecessors have suffered under the current first past the post voting system since the 1920s. They have maintained a substantial part of the popular vote while being unable to focus that support in specific constituencies. This has been less of a problem in the 2001 and 2005 general elections, as the party focused its resources on key winnable constituencies – many credit this to the party's chief election strategist Lord Rennard.[15]
There is currently a debate in the party as to whether this should remain such a high-profile issue. The party has usually advocated the adoption of the single transferable vote with multi-member constituencies. A common debate in the party revolves around whether or not to give support to other forms of proportional representation that the party regards as flawed, such as the closed party lists for the European Parliament, since it may make it harder to achieve the single transferable vote. Nick Clegg stated at the 2008 party conference that electoral reform and introducing PR was still party policy, as part of a wider scheme of reforming parliament and parties.[9]
History
Founding
The Liberal Democrats were formed on 3 March 1988[16] as a result of a merger between the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, as such the party has the legacy of both the Liberal Party and the old Labour right; the Liberals were themselves descended from the British Whig Party.
Having declined to third party status after the rise of the Labour Party in 1922, the Liberals found themselves challenged for their place as the centrist party of British politics in the 1980s. When the Labour Party adopted hard-line socialist policies, a group of moderate Labour MPs broke away and established the Social Democratic Party (SDP), claiming as their goal to preserve previous Labour Party traditions. The SDP and the Liberals soon realised that there was no place for two centrist political parties, and entered into the SDP-Liberal Alliance so that they would not stand against each other in elections. The two parties drew up their own policies and had different emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 General Elections. Initially the Alliance was led by David Steel (Liberal) and Roy Jenkins (SDP), the latter was later replaced by David Owen (SDP).
In 1987, following disappointing results in that year's general election, Steel proposed a merger of the two parties. Although opposed by David Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of each and the two parties formally merged in 1988, with David Steel and Robert Maclennan (who had become SDP leader in August 1987) as interim joint leaders. At the time of the merger, in 1988, the party took the name Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD). After briefly shortening its name in October 1988 to The Democrats, it changed to the current name of Liberal Democrats in October 1989, which is now frequently shortened to "Lib Dems".
The minority of the SDP who rejected the merger remained under David Owen's leadership. Some Liberals disliked the direction the party was going in after Paddy Ashdown's election as leader and created a new party which revived the name "Liberal Party".
Post-1988 history
Ashdown (1988-99)
The former Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown became leader of the new party in July 1988. The new party had a difficult birth and initially struggled to assert an identity, especially after the two name changes. At the 1989 European Elections the Liberal Democrats received only 6% of the vote, being beaten into fourth place by the Green Party.
By the early 1990s however, the party under Ashdown's leadership began to recover. The party saw a revival in fortunes at the 1990 Local elections. Several by-election victories in the early 1990s at Eastbourne (1990) Ribble Valley (1991) and Kincardine & Deeside (1991) improved the party's standing and morale.
The Lib Dems did not immediately manage to repeat the 20%+ shares of national vote which the SDP/Liberal alliance had achieved in the 1980s. The 1992 general election was the first general election contested by the Lib Dems; the result was disappointing, as the party won 17.8% of the vote and twenty seats. They did manage to more than double their representation in Parliament at the 1997 General Election, largely through tactical voting and concentration of resources on winnable seats, rather than increases in support. Throughout the 1990s the party became a major force in local government.
Following the election of Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party in 1994, Ashdown controversially pursued a policy of cooperation between the two parties (the two leaders allegedly agreed to form a coalition government). However this Lib-Lab pact failed to materialise when it became apparent to the Liberal Democrats that Labour would not introduce proportional representation and other key Liberal Democrat demands. Labour's massive majority after the 1997 general election also meant that Blair lost interest in pursuing the issue, and some senior Labour politicians (such as John Prescott) were strongly opposed to a coalition.
Kennedy (1999-2006)
Ashdown retired as leader in 1999[17] and Charles Kennedy was elected as his replacement. Kennedy was originally the only SDP MP who fully supported the merger. The party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, winning more seats and increasing their share of the vote.
During Labour's second term, the Liberal Democrats won support due to their opposition to the war on Iraq, and Charles Kennedy expressed his goal of replacing the Conservatives as the main opposition. The political magazine The Spectator awarded Kennedy the "Parliamentarian of the Year" award in November 2004 for his opposition to the Iraq War.[18] The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, and narrowly missed taking others in Birmingham Hodge Hill and Hartlepool.[19]
Generally the party's increased support in the early 2000s came from both former Labour and former Conservative voters, due to the Lib Dems' positions on issues that unite the Labour left with liberal Conservatives: civil liberties, electoral reform, the War in Iraq and matters of trust and open government. Although these two groups of potential supporters might agree with the party on these 'Lib Dem issues' (and disagree with the perceived authoritarianism of the government and main opposition), matters of economic policy presented an obvious gap between the two groups that the party are still debating how and whether to bridge.[citation needed]
At the 2005 general election, the Liberal Democrats gained their highest share of the vote since the days of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, receiving 62 seats. However, many had anticipated that this election would prove to be the Lib Dem's great breakthrough at Westminster; some party activists hoped to reach 100 MPs. From this perspective, 2005 could be considered a wasted opportunity for the Liberal Democrats, although many commentators point to the familiar problem with the first-past-the-post electoral system; the party got about one-quarter of the total votes nationally but only one-tenth of the parliamentary seats.
One of the more interesting trends observed at the election was the Lib Dems replacing the Conservatives as Labour's main opponents in several urban areas. Many of the party's gains came in previously Labour-held urban constituencies (e.g. Manchester Withington, Cardiff Central, Birmingham Yardley), and the party also notably achieved over 100 second-place finishes behind Labour candidates. The long-term implications of this trend in British politics could be profound, since the current British electoral system, if it is not reformed, makes it nearly impossible for the Conservatives to return a government without winning some city seats (such as the now Lib Dem Bristol West constituency, where the Conservatives placed third in 2005 after holding the seat until 1997).
Campbell (2006-2007)
The Conservatives' choice of David Cameron as leader in late 2005 led some senior Lib Dems to question whether Charles Kennedy was capable of dealing with the future challenges facing the party. In a personal statement on 5 January 2006, Charles Kennedy admitted to a long personal battle with alcoholism, and announced a leadership election in which he intended to stand for re-election. For several years rumours had occasionally surfaced alleging that Kennedy had problems with alcohol. The BBC's Nick Robinson called it "Westminster's worst-kept secret". However, Kennedy had on previous occasions denied this, leading some critics to suggest he had deliberately misled the public as well as his own party. His admission also attracted a degree of sympathy. He remains a popular public figure, and was widely thought to command enough support among grass roots Lib Dem members to win the leadership election. However, despite initially planning to stand as a candidate, Kennedy withdrew from the election citing a lack of support among Lib Dem MPs. Sir Menzies Campbell took over as acting leader.
Despite a barrage of negative press attention over Kennedy's departure, the leaderless party pulled off a spectacular electoral shock by winning the Dunfermline and West Fife seat from Labour in a by-election in February 2006. This was viewed as a particular blow for Gordon Brown, who lives in the constituency, represents the adjacent seat, and was featured prominently in the campaign.
Sir Menzies subsequently won the leadership contest, defeating rivals Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes, a race that saw Mark Oaten withdraw at an early stage due to a lack of support, Simon Hughes come under attack regarding deception about his sexuality and Chris Huhne accused live on The Daily Politics of attempting to rig polls. After Oaten had dropped out, it emerged that he had had a relationship with a rent boy.
Despite taking second place in the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, overtaking Labour, opinion poll trends since Campbell assumed the leadership have shown support for the Liberal Democrats to have declined to less than 20%.[20]
In July 2007, Sir Menzies announced that they wish to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p per pound to 16p per pound. This would be the lowest rate of income tax since 1916 and would be funded using green taxes and allowing money made from UK properties by non-UK residents to be eligible for Capital Gains Tax.[21]
Campbell resigned as leader on 15 October 2007; the announcement was made from the steps of Cowley Street by Party President Simon Hughes. Vince Cable became acting leader of the Liberal Democrats until a leadership election could be held.[22] Cable received significant acclaim during his tenure as acting party leader, with particular praise for his strong performances at Prime Minister's Questions, during the Northern Rock crisis, HMRC's loss of child benefit data, and the Donorgate funding scandal.[23]
Clegg (2007-present)
On December 18 2007 it was announced that Nick Clegg had won the leadership election, becoming the party's fourth permanent leader and the third in two years. Clegg won the leadership with a narrow majority of just 511 votes (1.2%) over his only opponent Chris Huhne in the poll of party members.[24] He is the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam, and was an MEP for the East Midlands from 1999 to 2004.[25]
In his acceptance speech upon winning the leadership contest, Clegg declared himself to be "a liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing" and that he believes "Britain [is] a place of tolerance and pluralism". He declared his priorities as: defending civil liberties; devolving the running of public services to parents, pupils and patients; and protecting the environment.[26]
Electoral results
In United Kingdom general elections from 1992, the Liberal Democrats have succeeded the Liberal-SDP Alliance and Liberal Party as the third most popular grouping or party behind Labour and the Conservatives. The party initially declined slightly from successes achieved by the Alliance, however it has now steadily risen in seat count for a decade to its current peak of 63 seats, despite never quite achieving the popular vote success of the Alliance; this has been largely credited to improved skill at targeting vulnerable seats. The Alliance vote percentage in 1987 and the Liberal Democrat percentage in 2005 is comparable, yet the Liberal Democrats won 62 seats to their predecessor's 22. (The House of Commons has 646 seats.)
| Election |
Name |
Share of votes |
Seats |
| 1983 |
SDP-Liberal Alliance |
25.4% |
23 |
| 1987 |
SDP-Liberal Alliance |
22.6% |
22 |
| 1992 |
Liberal Democrats |
17.8% |
20 |
| 1997 |
Liberal Democrats |
16.8% |
46 |
| 2001 |
Liberal Democrats |
18.3% |
52 |
| 2005 |
Liberal Democrats |
22.0% |
62 |
The British first past the post electoral system is not suited to parties whose vote is evenly divided across the nation, where their vote is less than a third of the vote. This results in those parties achieving a lower proportion of seats in the House of Commons than their proportion of the popular vote, and the Liberal Democrats and their forerunners have suffered in particular.[27] This was especially true in 1983 and 1987 when their popular electoral support was greatest; their increase in the number of seats in 1997 and 2001 is attributed to the weakness of the Conservative Party, and the success of the Lib Dem election strategist Lord Rennard, who's focused the party's resources on key winnable constituencies.[15]
The Liberal Democrats have generally performed better in local elections, and are a more significant force in local government: 27 councils are under Liberal Democrat majority control, and the party is in joint control of many others. They have generally performed more poorly in elections to the European Parliament: for example in local elections on 10 June 2004, the Lib Dem national share of the vote was 29% (giving them second place, ahead of Labour) but only 15% in the simultaneous European elections (putting them in fourth place behind the United Kingdom Independence Party).
They were coalition partners with Labour in the Scottish Parliament from its establishment in 1999 until 2007, when the Scottish National Party took power, and were also in coalition with Labour in the National Assembly for Wales from 2001 to 2003.
In the 2006 local elections across England, the Lib Dems beat Labour into second place on the national share of the vote gained when they won 27% of the vote. However, this only resulted in a net gain of two Councillors. The Liberal Democrats continued to make gains from Labour in many northern cities.
Structure
The Liberal Democrats are a central federal party comprising the state parties of Wales, Scotland and England, with around 72,000 affiliated members in total. Scotland and England are further split into regional parties. There are also Specified Associated Organisations (SAOs), representing particular groupings such as Ethnic Minorities (EMLD), Women (WLD), LGBT people (Delga), Youth & Student (LDYS, recently renamed Liberal Youth), Trade Unionists (ALDTU), Engineers & Scientists (ALDES), Parliamentary Candidates (PCA) and local councillors (ALDC) which formally review and input to party policy. Other groups can become Associated Organisations (AOs) as pressure groups in the party. One group notable by their omission are the Liberal Clubs (NULC), this may be because many liberal working-men's clubs formed in the 1800s have broken their ties with politics, or gone over to the more working-class based Labour Party.
The Parliamentary Parties – in the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly – form semi-autonomous units within the party. The leaders in the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament are the leaders of the federal party and of the Scottish Party; the leaders in the other two chambers, and the officers of all parliamentary parties, are elected from their own number.
The Liberal Democrats, like the Conservatives, organise in Northern Ireland; unlike the Conservatives, the Lib Dems do not contest elections in the province. Instead, they have opted to work with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, with the de facto agreement that the Liberal Democrats will support the Alliance Party in elections. Many individuals, including several notable parliamentarians and Alliance Party leader David Ford, hold membership of both parties. Alliance members of the House of Lords take the Liberal Democrat whip on non-Northern Ireland issues, and the Alliance Party maintains a stall at Liberal Democrat party conferences.
The Liberal Democrats are a member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and their 12 MEPs form part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament.
Internal factions
Liberal Democrats can be classified into two main factions:
Social liberals have dominated the party since its formation in 1988. Drawing inspiration from David Lloyd George, William Beveridge and John Maynard Keynes, individuals from this wing are advocates of the welfare state, higher taxation, and of government regulation to protect consumers, employees and the environment. Support for civil liberties and human rights is also fundamental. Examples of social liberals in the modern party include Paul Holmes, Norman Baker and Simon Hughes.
The market liberal or libertarian wing of the party shares with social liberals a belief in basic civil and political freedoms (negative freedoms). However, whereas social liberals further argue that the state should provide additional social and economic rights to its citizens (positive freedoms), market liberals take a non-interventionist approach and are critical of government's ability to increase freedom. This often manifests itself as support for greater economic freedom, causing some tension between the two wings of the party. Many MPs from this wing contributed to the Orange Book (2004), a collection of essays intended to spark debate on a greater role for free-market liberalism in party policy. Some party donors, elements of the media and many non-urban elected party officials are known to back this wing of the party.[28] Leading market liberals in the parliamentary party include Vince Cable, David Laws and Nick Clegg.
It would be easy, but misleading, to characterise these two wings of the party as consisting of former SDP members and former Liberal Party members respectively. Many prominent social liberals (including Paddy Ashdown) were former Liberal MPs, and some prominent market liberals (such as Vincent Cable) came to the Liberal Democrats from the SDP. Membership of these two wings is unrelated to former party affiliation, and the more ideological features of the wings could be said to have been stronger in the pre-1988 constituent parties.
Leaders of the Liberal Democrats
- See also List of United Kingdom Liberal Democrat leaders
- Further information: Social and Liberal Democrats leadership election, 1988
- Further information: Liberal Democrats leadership election, 1999
- Further information: Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006
- Further information: Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2007
Deputy Leaders of the Liberal Democrats
- Further information: Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election, 2003
- Further information: Liberal Democrats deputy leadership election, 2006
Leaders of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament
The Liberal Democrats did not have representation in the European Parliament prior to 1994.
Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
- Further information: Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
See also
References
External links
State Parties
Party sub-organisations
Historical information
Category listings
Miscellaneous
|
Political parties in the United Kingdom |
| House of Commons (646): |
Labour (355) • Conservatives (195) • Liberal Democrats (63) • DUP (9) • SNP (6) • Sinn Féin (5)# • Plaid Cymru (3) • SDLP (3) • Ind KHHC (1) • Independent (2) • Independent Labour (1) • Independent Conservative (1) • Respect (1) • UUP (1) |
| House of Lords (738): |
Labour (211) • Crossbencher (207) • Conservatives (205) • Liberal Democrats (77) • UKIP (2) • Greens (E&W) (1) • Bishops (26) • non-affiliated (12) • Conservative Independent (1) • Independent Labour (1) • Independent (1) |
| Scottish Parliament (129): |
SNP (47) • Labour (46) • Conservatives (17) • Liberal Democrats (16) • Scottish Greens (2) • Independent (1) |
| National Assembly for Wales (60): |
Labour (26) • Plaid Cymru (15) • Conservatives (12) • Liberal Democrats (6) • Independent (1) |
| Northern Ireland Assembly (108): |
DUP (36) • Sinn Féin (28) • UUP (18) • SDLP (16) • Alliance (7) • Greens (NI) (1) • PUP (1) • Independent (1) |
| London Assembly (25): |
Conservatives (9) • Labour (7) • Liberal Democrats (5) • Greens (E&W) (2) • One London (2) |
European Parliament
(78 of 732): |
Conservatives (ED, 28) • Labour (PES, 19) • Liberal Democrats (ELDR, 11) • UKIP (ID, 10) • Greens (E&W) (EGP, 2) • SNP (EFA, 2) • Plaid Cymru (EFA, 1) • Sinn Féin (EUL, 1) • UUP (ED, 1) • Independent (ADIE, 1) • Independent (NA, 1) • Independent (NA, 1) |
Notes:
#Although Sinn Féin have five elected members and have offices at Westminster, they are abstentionist and therefore do not take their seats |
| Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of the United Kingdom |
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