Who is the Liberal Democratic Party?
The Liberal Democratic Party is one of the three prominent political parties in Great Britain. The Liberal Democrats embrace an ideology that can be described as giving the power to the people. Liberal Democrats believe in protecting individual rights and civil liberties and are against any government intervention into personal affairs.
The Lib Dems, as they are called, are for decentralizing the power by moving it out of Westminster, where the Parliament resides in Great Britain. They seek to bring electoral and parliamentary reform to create a tiered government structure that includes regional assemblies, the European Union, and other International Organisations.
Like the party it evolved out of in 1988, the Lib Dems are considered a left wing party. It favours welfare programmes and promotes taxation. While leadership has claimed it is a party that is neither to the left or the right, most pundits agree the Lib Dems are slanted towards the left side of politics.
It is widely believed the Liberal Dems moved towards the centre in their policies when Tony Blair was elected and led Britain’s Labour Party toward the tag New Labour. The Lib Dems worked to accommodate the Labour Party with its liberal social policies and this did positively impact the Lib Dems.
The Lib Dems opposed the Iraq War, and while at first their opposition was not popular, it did become representative of the general public opinion against the war. Some Lib Dem policies, such as a 50% tax for people making over £100,000, have been changed to more reflect a tax policy review to be fair and equitable, and in line with the Lib Dem platform. |