Liberal Democrats (UK)

The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a social liberal political party based in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1988 by the merger of the Liberal Party and the short lived Social Democratic Party (the two parties had already been in an alliance for some years).

Ideology

The Liberal Democrats claim that their ideology is about giving "power to the people"

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The Liberal Democrats state they are fundamentally against the undemocratic concentration of power in unaccountable bodies. They propose radical decentralisation of power, out of Westminster and into the hands of the people. They would also create a system of tiered government structures to make decisions at what they see as the appropriate level, including regional assemblies, the European Union, and international organisations.

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In keeping with the principle of decentralisation of power, the Liberal Democrats are keen protectors of civil liberties and oppose intervention of the state in personal affairs. For this reason, the Liberal Democrats are popular amongst gay rights campaigners and campaigners for the decriminalisation of recreational drugs.

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Their opponents point to their support for the European Convention on Human Rights, even when its theories on separation of powers leads to more power being given to judges and regulatory bodies rather than elected politicians. They point to the Lib Dem desire for local decision making, and their complaints that different decisions in different locations can lead to a "postcode lottery" in the provision of public services. They also express surprise that the Lib Dems are so supportive of the European Union, even when that results in decisions being taken at a higher rather than a lower level. They are also criticised for not calling for reform of the European parliament despite the fact that different countries are not represented equally, which contradicts their ideology of 'giving power to the people'.

Related Topics:
European Convention on Human Rights - Separation of powers - Postcode lottery - Supportive of the European Union - European parliament

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Left wing or right wing?

Since the governments of Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George the Liberal Democrats and their precursor Liberal party have been seen as the centrist party of British politics. However, with Tony Blair's repositioning of Labour towards the right, some now view the Lib Dems as being the most left-wing of Britain's mainstream parties and many classify the Lib Dems as centre left. Lib Dems opposed the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, although they were the strongest advocates of the Kosovo War and before that, intervention in Bosnia. They favour a higher top rate of tax, but have also advocated 'pro-market' policies such as post office privatization and banning strikes in emergency services.

Related Topics:
Herbert Henry Asquith - David Lloyd George - Tony Blair - Centre left - 2003 Invasion of Iraq - Kosovo War - Bosnia - Post office - Privatization - Strikes - Emergency service

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Some claim that attempting to place the Liberal Democrats within the 'left wing'-'right wing' model does not accurately represent their ideology. For example, when Lib Dems oppose the power of the trade unions, they are seen as right wing. When they oppose the power of the corporations, they are seen as left wing. Whilst these positions are consistent with an opposition to unaccountable power, it is sometimes argued that they do not fit well inside the left-right axis of 20th century British politics.

Related Topics:
'left wing'-'right wing' - Power

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However, others argue that these positions are consistent with both 20th and 21st century British politics, which is in turn a valid example of the traditional left-right spectrum of political analysis. When the Lib Dems oppose the trade unions, they do so from the centre of the political spectrum with the trade unions being to the left of them. When the Lib Dems oppose the power of the large corporations, they still do this from the centre of the political spectrum with the difference being that the corporations are to the right of them. According to this view, liberalism or political centrism is consistent with a left-right analysis of politics, and denial of this is to claim that we live in a post-modern world where nothing can ever be known and nothing is as it seems.

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In regard to the claim that the Lib Dems are to the left of New Labour, this is borne of the fact that the New Labour hierarchy have deliberately courted Conservative voters and even Conservative politicians on the basis that if they take the centre ground from the other parties, they gain power. They do this in the knowledge that their own core voters have nowhere realistic to the left of Labour to turn, so the Lib-Dems have tried to accommodate these people to a degree (e.g. celebrity "Marxist" Tariq Ali implored Londoners to vote Lib Dem before the 2005 general election over the Iraq war). However, this has led to massive voter disillusionment and the lowest percentage General Election turnouts in the last two elections (2001 and 2005) since universal suffrage in the 1930s. This is mainly caused by previous Labour voters staying at home. This shift in the political direction of Labour was begun in the 1980s but accelerated by the catastrophic fourth election defeat in a row in 1992.

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There is a current discussion in the Liberal Democrat Party at their conference in September 2005 as to whether the social liberal ideals have taken them as far as they can go, and whether they should now move back to the right in order to court Tory voters. This would involve things like abolishing their policy of a 50% tax rate for those who earn over £100,000. Policies like these make for bad publicity with the Tory press who cater for the middle-class voters of middle England. It is these people who the Lib Dems must appeal to if they are to fulfil their ambition of becoming the new opposition to a Labour government. Unfortunately for the Lib-Dems, it is likely they will only ever see power if a proportional representation voting system is brought in, where they would be in a permanent coalition with Labour. This is the arrangement that Paddy Ashdown agreed with Tony Blair before the 1997 election, until Blair discovered he could win huge landslide victories under first-pass-the-post without any need for sharing power with the Lib-Dems.

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Policies

The Liberal Democrats' constitution speaks of "a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals". To this end:

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• They support civil liberties, and have opposed the more authoritarian of Labour's anti-terror laws (e.g. detention without trial).
• They support more open government, including substantial reforms to increase parliamentary oversight of the executive.
• They are federalists and support the decentralisation of power to the lowest possible level.
• They support "free education for all" and propose to abolish university tuition fees and set up a system of Government grants for university students.
• They propose a substantial non-means tested increase in pensions.
• They are in favour of a new 50% rate of income tax on incomes over £100,000 per year, the revenue from which would be used to abolish tuition fees, restore student maintenance grants and provide free personal care throughout the UK; the balance would be used to keep the rate of local taxation down.
• They support anti-discrimination laws.
• They are in favour of introducing a local income tax in place of the current council tax, which is collected based on the value of the taxpayer's house.
• They are in favour of full UK participation in the European Union and an early referendum on joining the Euro, which they support.
• They are in favour of proportional representation for elections to both the House of Commons and a second chamber to replace the House of Lords, preferably by the STV system.

The most well-known Liberal Democrat policy for most of the 1990s was to increase the basic rate of income tax by one percentage point to fund key public services (especially education). This proposal was recently abandoned after Tony Blair's Labour government increased national insurance contributions by the same amount, a policy with much the same effect. Their current fiscal policies aim at increasing the top rate of income tax by 10 percentage points to 50% for those earning over £100,000 to fund their increased public spending plans, and to replace Council Tax with local income taxes. In 2003 the Liberal Democrats started to make their long-held pledge to abolish Council Tax a centrepiece of their campaign.

Related Topics:
Income tax - Tony Blair - Labour - National insurance - Council Tax

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In relation to the 2003 Iraq war, the Liberal Democrats opposed UK participation prior to the conflict, but 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.

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The period after 2001 saw an internal discussion about the right policies for the party on economics and public spending, with some party members advocating 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 Mark Oaten, advocated a stance in favour of smaller government and laissez-faire (the "Orange Book" published in 2004 was an example of this wing of the Liberal discussion). The party announced its policy of abolishing the Department for Trade and Industry in 2004.

Related Topics:
2001 - Welfare state - Labour - Mark Oaten - Laissez-faire - Orange Book - Department for Trade and Industry - 2004

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Current party policies can be found on the party website:

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• Most recent manifesto (external link)
• Detailed policy papers (external link)

The Liberal Democrats are a member party of the Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and their 12 MEPs form part of the ALDE group in the European Parliament.

Related Topics:
Liberal International - European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party - ALDE - European Parliament

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Green liberalism

Green Liberalism is a term used to refer to liberals who have incorporated green concerns into their ideology. Within Liberal Democrats, this streaming is represented by Green Liberal Democrats.

Related Topics:
Green Liberalism - Liberals - Green - Ideology

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