Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats (Dutch: Liberal Democrats, Y Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol: Welsh, Scottish Gaelic: na Libearalaich Dheamocrataich) is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is a social-liberal party, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Until 1989 the party was called Social and Liberal Democratic Party . The party is currently in a British Government coalition.

The Liberal Democrats occupied 57 seats in the House of Commons. At the House of Commons 2005 elections the LibDems got 22% of the vote. But this result by the past-the-post system translated in only 10% of the seats, namely 62 seats. The current party leader is Nick Clegg. He retired in May 2010 to a Coalition with the David Cameron'sConservative Party, giving the party for the first time since David Lloyd George in power again.

The Liberal Democrats have great difficulty with the United Kingdom in the past-the-post system applies. The candidate who gets the most votes in a district is chosen and that is usually a candidate of one of the two major parties (Labour and the Conservatives). This gives the LibDems always less members than they would receive on the basis of proportional representation .

In the Scottish Parliament, though according to proportional representation is chosen, the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition Government from 1999 to 2007 with Labour.The LibDems also formed a coalition with Labour in the National Assembly of Wales from 2001 to 2003.



Content
[hide] *1 History  ==History[ Edit] == During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the Liberals and the Conservatives were the largest parties of the United Kingdom, but in the 1920s the party lost the position of second party to Labour, and in the 1950s they fell back to a low of 6 of the 630 seats and about 3% of the vote.
 * 2 Current leadership
 * 3 Ideology
 * 4 Views
 * 5 Wings within the party
 * 6 election results
 * 7 external link

The recovery started in the 1980s, when a number of right-wing Labour members separated and founded the SDP. The SDP and the Liberals joined together for the elections (the ' Alliance '), which meant that they supported each other's candidates. The Alliance took out almost as many votes as Labour in 1983 (25.4% by 27.6%), but saw that but moderately translated into seats, because the SDP candidate often with quite a number of second votes had become. The parties grew from 9 to 23 seats (of the 550).

The Alliance, and later the Liberal Democrats remained at this level until the elections of 1997, in which a slight drop in the percentage of votes occurred, but the number of seats was nearly doubled to 46. Cause of this paradoxical situation was ' strategic ' voting behaviour: Labour supporters in districts where the Conservatives were the largest party and the Liberal Democrats were second, gave their vote to the Liberals to ousting the Conservatives. With this result were the Liberal Democrats finally established as the third party of the United Kingdom, and subsequent elections (in 2001 and 2005), the party again clear victories on, making it now is greater than it has been since the 1920s.

Paddy AshdownFrom the conception of the Liberal Democrats, up to August 1999 was party leader Paddy Ashdown . He was succeeded by Charles Kennedy, who by internal pressure and a scandal over alcohol problems was forced to step down as party leader in January 2006. Foreign Affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell MP and follows Kennedy temporarily as leader. In March 2006, elected a new leader of the Liberal Democrats. This turned out to be Menzies Campbell, colloquially known as ' Ming '. He got a lot of criticism, because his age gave him a little vigorous image. On 18 december 2007, he was succeeded by Nick Clegg. ==Current leadership[ Edit] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">As in January 2006 Charles Kennedy resigns as party leader are internal elections for his post. There are four candidates. Foreign Affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell, Interior spokesman Mark Oaten, finance spokesman Chris Huhne and party President Simon Hughes. The first Oaten pulls itself back out of the race if it turns out that he can count on little support within the party. Hughes is popular in the left flank of the party. Huhne laid much emphasis on green politics and reduction in charges for the poor; also he participated in the libertarian Orange Book. Campbell was the Center candidate who was seen as the candidate who could maintain unity in the party. On 2 March, Campbell was elected party leader. He gets 45% of the vote, Huhne and 23% 32% supports supports Hughes.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">During Campbell's leadership, which was characterised by a public action which was regarded as weak, got the party leader with groeidende criticism in the own ranks to do, mainly because they regarded him as too old. On 18 december 2007 Campbell was succeeded by Nick Clegg. ==Ideology<span class="mw-editsection" len="333" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The LibDems is a social-liberal party, which stands for greater personal freedom and social justice. It wants to minimize government interference in private business, but points economic laissez-faire liberalism of the hand. Instead, the LibDems want a strong welfare State and a free market, as much as possible, combine. With the move by Labour to center-right, the LibDems in the United Kingdom as the most left-wing of the large parties considered.<sup class="noprint nopopups" len="311" style="line-height:1;"> [source?] ==Views<span class="mw-editsection" len="335" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Wings within the party<span class="mw-editsection" len="349" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p lang="en" len="57" style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Within the Liberal Democrats, there are two main currents:
 * The LibDems are great champions of civil rights. The party wants to promote gay rights and legalize soft drugs . Also opposes restrictions of civil rights by anti-terror measures.
 * The LibDems campaign for free education. The party wants to abolish tuition fees. (Although they do have supported the Government in a decision to raise student fees for higher education strongly. Liberal Democrat MP's voted against and 8 abstentions, 27 for 21.)
 * The LibDems are in favour of as proportional representation electoral system.
 * The LibDems want to devolve power to local authorities.
 * The LibDems want to increase the highest tax rate by 10%.
 * The LibDems want pollution more taxing.
 * The LibDems want to abolish the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
 * The LibDems are pronounced pro-European and want to enter the euro in the United Kingdom.
 * The LibDems were against the invasion of Iraq.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The social liberal wing has dominated the party since its founding in 1988. Inspired by social-Liberals as David Lloyd George, William Beveridge and John Maynard Keynes, wants to strengthen the welfare Statethrough this flow higher taxes and regulation of the market. The social-liberals are also big supporters of civil rights. Members who belong to this movement include Paul Holmes, Norman Baker and Simon Hughes.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The free market, or libertarian wing, shares the views of the social-liberals on civil rights. But this wing is for little State intervention in the socio-economic level. This view is at odds with the opinions within the social liberal current. A number of House of Commons members from this wing contributed to the "Orange Book" from 2004, a collection of essays that should encourage the debate within the party about a possibly more libertarian stance of the party. Members who belong to this school include Vincent Cable and Chris Huhne, David Laws. ==Election Results<span class="mw-editsection" len="344" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">See the LibDems from 1992 the seat number of increase steadily. This is the position of the third party ever strengthened. <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In the British elections to the European Parliament by 2004 the LibDems got 15% of the vote. That supplied the LibDems 12 MEPs on. the delegation of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament is part of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.