Having recently finished reading a biography of Charles Kennedy, which covered the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP in detail, I pondered for some time on the controversy surrounding the names and philosophy of political parties.
In the late 1980s the Social and Liberal Democrats or SLD were lampooned as the Salads, the use of the shorter Democrats was unpopular because it omitted the word liberal, so we ended up with the Liberal Democrats – a title that is now long established.
If you look beyond the UK though, the confusion really begins.
Japan has a party called the Liberal Democrats but they are very definitely a conservative party and have been in government for most of the post war period.
In Australia there is the Liberal party who are a pretty conservative bunch and again have been in power for long periods of that nation’s history alternating with Labor.
Australia also has the Democrats who are social liberals and since 2001 the Liberal Democrat Party who describe themselves as classical liberal or libertarian. The latter won a senate seat in last year’s Federal Election. That Senator, David Leyonhjelm, is currently sponsoring a private members bill legalising same sex marriage against fierce opposition from conservatives and some religious groups. The Liberal Democrat Party is also campaigning against the Abbott government’s version of the Snoopers Charter.
The Democrats, founded in 1977 by a former Liberal cabinet minister with the very Aussie slogan ‘ Keep the Bastards Honest’, once achieved votes in excess of 10% and a high of 7 senate seats. They have a proud record of championing civil liberties particularly focusing on the rights of aboriginal people, but their support for a controversial goods and services tax led to electoral meltdown in the 2004 election. Sadly they have never recovered.
New Zealand has a party called the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers or ACT for short, who are usually described as being economically liberal. They have one MP who supports a right of centre government led by the conservative National Party on a confidence and supply basis. ACT combine free market economics with support for a more liberal drugs policy.
Finally, Canada has a Liberal Party who are more of the social liberal variety and have been arguably the most electorally successful of those affiliated to the Liberal International. As a majority governing party they have been able to put liberal policies into law.
Coming back home, the Lib Dems include liberals of both the economic and social variety. Of course our First Past The Post voting system encourages this unity. It’s a unity that has enabled us to get into government, giving us the ability to stop things like the introduction of ID cards and to block plenty of other illiberal Tory proposals.
Authentic liberalism endures worldwide because of its unique belief in freedom of the individual and the steadfast commitment to civil liberties. Those values bring economic and social liberals together in opposing authoritarianism in all its forms here in the UK, as well as internationally.
The name of a party isn’t that important. What matters is what it stands for.
* David Warren is a regular reader of Lib Dem Voice and is currently campaigning with the Guildford Lib Dem team.