1976-1988
Sir Clement Freud, 1924-2009
Clement Freud was one of the best-known faces on TV, and best-known voices on radio, when he became Liberal candidate for the Isle of Ely in the 1973 by-election. ‘Freud has them rolling in the Isle’ ran one tabloid headline. Those who did not know him were surprised that, even during a promising run of…
Bill Rodgers (Lord Rodgers), 1928-
Bill Rodgers – one of the Gang of Four who founded the SDP, and now (as Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank) the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords – was born in Liverpool on 28 October 1928 and named William Thomas Rodgers. His father was employed for forty years by the…
Michael Meadowcroft, 1942-
Michael Meadowcroft was Liberal MP for Leeds West from 1983 to 1987, confounding sceptics to win a solidly inner-city seat by using the community politics approach which he had helped to develop over the preceding fifteen years. He was the main, indeed very nearly the only, philosopher of applied Liberalism within the old Liberal Party…
Jo Grimond (Lord Grimond), 1913-1993
Regarded by many contemporary Liberals as their spiritual leader and mentor, Jo Grimond was a figure of great magnetism and intellectual originality. He was once described as a politician on whom the gods smile, and inspired a rare degree of public affection. Within the Liberal Party, neither of his successors, Jeremy Thorpe nor David Steel enjoyed the…
The Limehouse Declaration and the birth of the SDP
On 25 January 1981, four former Labour cabinet ministers – Roy Jenkins, David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams – published the Limehouse Declaration, publicly signalling their intention to quit the leftward path that the Labour Party had taken. The Declaration advocated a classless society and called for the realignment of British politics. After an…
Policy and ideology
Review of Tudor Jones, The Revival of British Liberalism – From Grimond to Clegg (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Consolation government?
Review of Bernard Donoughue, Downing Street Diary Volume Two: With James Callaghan in Number 10 (Jonathan Cape, 2008).
Helen Suzman: An Appreciation
Personal recollection of the life of South Africa’s first anti-apartheid MP. To access this content, you must purchase Annual subscription (digital) – unwaged rate or Annual subscription (digital) – standard rate.