Events

Law and order has long been a major issue in British politics.

The Blair Government brought in legislation to introduce national identity cards; ministers claimed that this measure will make UK citizens more secure from the threats of international terrorism and domestic crime.

Especially since 9/11, how to strike the correct balance between protecting the state and promoting the liberties of the citizen has been the subject of heated political debate.

This meeting examined how Liberals over the last 200 years have responded to repressive measures taken in the name of security.

Reforming Home Secretary, successful Chancellor of the Exchequer, principled European, groundbreaking President of the European Commission and distinguished man of letters, Roy Jenkins had a deep impact on British politics and inspired generations of liberals.

This meeting marked the publication of Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective (Oxford University Press), a collection of essays by friends and associates from every stage of his life, edited by Andrew Adonis and Keith Thomas.

Liverpool has been a Liberal Democrat success. Why?

Trevor Jones and Mike Storey outline the pioneering campaigning that took the city from Labour and its continuing legacy.

It is often forgotten that Winston Churchill served in four different governments as a Liberal minister, between 1905 and 1922. Indeed, the year 2004 was the centenary of his joining the Liberal Party, when he crossed the floor of the Commons in protest at the Conservatives lurch away from free trade. This meeting examined Churchill’s Liberal legacy.

The speakers nominated the women from history who inspired them most, and explained why.

With David Butler, longstanding co-author and author of the acclaimed Nuffield General Election studies, and Neil Stockley, former Director of Policy, Liberal Democrats.

David Butler assessed the continuities and differences, strengths and weaknesses of Liberal campaigns and their contributions to the partys fortunes.

Neil Stockley talked about the role of Liberal election manifestos.

There were many at the Brighton Conference who were in no doubt that if it wasn’t for a young, charismatic party leader they would have no party at all.

In 1956 Jo Grimond took over the reigns of the Liberal Party and, as many will argue, he saved it from death.

He was responsible for the Liberal Party’s first post-war revival the highlight of which was the capture of Orpington in 1962.

It was his radicalism, enthusiasm and personal charisma that tempted the likes of Menzies Campbell and David Steel to get involved in Liberal Politics. Part of the attraction for Menzies Campbell was that Grimond “was arguing for a non-doctrinaire, non-socialist party in the centre-left,” whilst David Steel was attracted by Grimond’s personality and his power of argument.

Grimond was associated with the strategy of realignment of the left, which would bring together the nations radical, progressive forces into one effective political movement.

It is a strategy that remains very much in play today, most obviously in the devolved Parliaments of Scotland and Wales, but also at the highest level within the Liberal Democrat and Labour Parties in Westminster.

At their Autumn Conference, the Liberal Democrats debated their core values and principles in detail for only the second time since the party was formed in 1988.

Some saw the party as a largely a continuation of the Liberal tradition, which has been based primarily on a commitment to the rights of individuals. Others said that the influence of Social Democratic thinking, which has tended to emphasise the importance of greater equality as a central goal, was too often overlooked. But they may really be the political heirs of the socially reforming New Liberals who came to prominence in the early twentieth century. Such thinkers and politicians as J.M. Keynes, William Beveridge, Jo Grimond and E.F. Schumacher have undoubtedly been influential.

The History Groups summer meeting tried to shed some light on who are the Liberal Democrats philosophical antecedents.

Globalisation and its costs and benefits are at the heart of much of todays political debate. But intense debates on the liberalisation of international trade are by no means new. Free trade was one of the great rallying cries of the Victorian Liberal Party.

In the 1840s, the Anti-Corn Law League successfully campaigned for abolition of the high duties on the import of grain established after the Napoleonic Wars to protect British agriculture from foreign competition. Manchester, the centre of the cotton industry, whose products were denied access to overseas markets because of continental grain-growers inability to export to Britain, became the headquarters of the League. The radical Liberals Richard Cobden and John Bright were its leaders.

Our meeting at Manchester Conference looked at the work and legacy of Cobden, Bright and the Manchester School of Liberalism.

This meeting was held at the Peoples History Museum in conjunction with its current exhibition, “Reforming Manchester: Liberals and the City.”

People are concerned as never before with the deterioration of the NHS, the quality and safety of rail services and the standard of education. With Labour’s promises of big improvements, its controversial solutions in some areas and the debate that is developing inside the Liberal Democrats, public services are sure to stay at the top of the political agenda.

Ever since Joseph Chamberlain, as Mayor of Birmingham, purchased two gas companies and a water works, established public transport and embarked on slum clearance programmes, Liberals have claimed a proud record as innovative champions of public services.

Is there a Liberal tradition in the public services that we should carry on today? Was the work of Chamberlain and others an essential aspect of Liberalism? Or was it simply local politics?

The official launch of the Liberal Democrat History Group’s new book, Great Liberal Speeches, published by Politicos Publishing.

In the run-up to the 2001 general election, the issues of asylum and race relations moved to centre stage, with Liberal Democrats winning plaudits for their firm stand against discrimination.

But the arguments are not new. Race relations and immigration were a major phenomenon of post-war politics. From the Macmillan Governments “voucher” system for would-be immigrants to Labours 1968 legislation to end the passport privileges of Kenyan Asians, both major parties sought to pander to white prejudice. The late 1960s also saw Enoch Powells infamous call for the repatriation of black and other Commonwealth immigrants and the rise of the National Front.

Where did Liberals stand? And what impact did racial politics and immigration have on Liberalism?

On the eve of the first general election campaign of the twenty-first century, this meeting examined the development of campaigning techniques since the Great Reform Act of 1832.

From the introduction of electoral registers, the gradual elimination of corruption, and the appearance of new forms of communications – railways, the telegraph and newspapers – to the computerised and direct-mail based innovations of the SDP, had campaigns changed out of all recognition, or did they remain the same at heart?

In a US Presidential election year, we examined the history of the Liberal tradition in North America. The Canadian Liberal Party is one of the most successful liberal parties in the world, in terms of winning elections – why? And who were the liberals in the United States?