1976-1988
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…
Biography: David Owen
The political career and record of Dr David Owen.
… and decline: the SDP 1985-87
Original cartoons from the Social Democrat illustrate the run-up to the 1987 election.
What went wrong at Darlington?
Original memo on the 1983 by-election disaster, plus commentary.
One of nature’s Liberals
Biography of Sir Clement Freud, Liberal MP 1973-87.
The flawed strategy of the SDP
Argues that the SDP ultimately failed because its strategy was fundamentally flawed.