Liberal Democrats Totally Explained

Everything about Liberal Democrats totally explained

ť This article refers to the British political party. For similarly named parties in other countries, see Liberal Democratic Party.

The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by merging the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; the two parties had been in alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of the SDP. The party's leader is Nick Clegg.
   The Lib Dems are the third-largest party in the UK Parliament, behind Labour and the Conservatives. There are 63 Lib Dem Members of Parliament (MPs) – 62 were elected at the general election of 2005, and one in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, 2006. The Scottish Liberal Democrats formed a coalition Scottish Executive with Labour in the first session of the Scottish Parliament, and the Welsh party were in a coalition with Labour in the National Assembly for Wales from 2001 to 2003.
   Promoting social liberalism, Lib Dems seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs; criticising it as that of a 'nanny state'. Their president's book of office is John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, which defined the harm principle of law. The party wasn't founded on a doctrine of economic liberalism, instead favouring social justice, the welfare state, and economic freedom where possible.
   The party wants to cut the level of taxation for people on low and middle incomes, including cutting the basic rate of income tax by 4%. They support multilateral foreign policy; they opposed British participation in the War in Iraq and support withdrawal of troops from the country, and are the most pro-European party in the UK. The party has strong environmentalist values – favouring taxing polluting industry and transport more than cleaner forms, and commitments to deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Since their foundation, Lib Dems have advocated reforming elections to use proportional representation, replacing the House of Lords with an elected chamber, and removing government departments.

Ideology

The Liberal Democrats describe their ideology as giving "power to the people"; they're against the concentration of power in unaccountable bodies. They propose decentralisation of power out of Westminster, and electoral and parliamentary reform, to create a system of tiered government structures to make decisions at what they see as the right level, including regional assemblies, the European Union, and international organisations. Lib Dems want to protect civil liberties, and oppose state intervention in personal affairs.

Position

At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP-Liberal Alliance (22.1%), receiving 62 seats. 2005 could be considered a wasted opportunity for the party; but there was the problem with first-past-the-post elections: the party got almost a quarter of the total votes nationally but only one-tenth of the seats in the Commons.

Campbell (2006-2007)

The Conservatives' choice of David Cameron as leader in late 2005 led senior Lib Dems to question whether Charles Kennedy was capable of dealing with future challenges facing the party. In a statement on 5 January 2006, Charles Kennedy admitted to a long battle with alcoholism, and announced a leadership election in which he intended to stand for re-election, while Sir Menzies Campbell took over as acting leader.
   For several years there were rumours 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: some suggested that he'd deliberately misled the public and his party.
   There was negative press over Kennedy's departure, however the leaderless party shocked 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 featured in Labour's campaign. The party came second place by 633 votes in the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, overtaking Labour. In July 2007, Sir Menzies announced that the party wished to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20 to 16p per pound – the lowest rate since 1916 – which would be funded using green taxes and making money made from UK properties by non-UK residents eligible for Capital Gains Tax.
   Opinion poll trends during Campbell's leadership showed support for the Lib Dems decline to less than 20%. Campbell resigned on 15 October 2007, and Vince Cable became acting leader until a leadership election could be held. Cable received acclaim during his tenure, with praise for his performances at Prime Minister's Questions, during the Northern Rock crisis, HMRC's loss of child benefit data, and the Donorgate funding scandal.

Clegg (2007-present)

On December 18 2007, Nick Clegg won the leadership election, becoming the party's fourth leader. Clegg won the leadership with a majority of 511 votes (1.2%) over his opponent Chris Huhne, in a poll of party members. Clegg is the youngest party leader in the UK, the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam, and was an MEP for the East Midlands from 1999 to 2004.
   In his acceptance speech, Clegg declared that he was "a liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing" and that he believes "Britain [is] a place of tolerance and pluralism". His priorities are: defending civil liberties; devolving the running of public services to parents, pupils and patients; and protecting the environment, and that he wanted to forge a "liberal alternative to the discredited policies of big government".
   Shortly after election, Clegg reshuffled the party's Frontbench Team, making Chris Huhne the replacement Home Affairs spokesperson, Ed Davey the Foreign Affairs spokesperson, and keeping Vince Cable as Shadow Chancellor. His predecessors were also given roles: Campbell joined the all-party Commons foreign affairs select committee, and Kennedy is to campaign nationwide on European issues, as president of the UK's European Movement.
   The British first past the post electoral system isn't suited to parties whose vote is evenly divided across the nation, resulting in those parties achieving a lower proportion of seats in the House of Commons than their proportion of the popular vote (see table and graph). The Lib Dems and their Liberal and SDP predecessors have suffered in particular, particularly in 1983 and 1987 when their electoral support was greatest; the increase in their number of seats in 1997, 2001 and 2005 was attributed to the weakness of the Conservatives, and the success of the Lib Dem election strategist Lord Rennard, who focused the party's resources on winnable constituencies. Lib Dems state that they want 'three-party politics' in the Commons; Party leaders often set out their terms for forming a coalition in such an event – the party has supported introducing proportional representation since its foundation, |- | 1987 | SDP-Liberal Alliance | align=right|22.6% | align=right|22 | align=right|3.4% | align=right| In the 2008 local elections they gained 25% of the vote (ahead of Labour), increasing their total control by 34 to more than 4200 council seats (21%). They have performed more poorly in elections to the European Parliament, particularly before the change to proportional representation in 1999. In 2004 local elections, the Lib Dem national share of the vote was 29% (giving them second place, ahead of Labour) and 14.9% in the simultaneous European Parliament elections (putting them in fourth place behind the United Kingdom Independence Party).

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