Liberal

Jo Swinson’s Liberal landslide

Jo Swinson was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats on Monday. She took more than 47,000 votes while her rival Ed Davey secured 28,000.

How did the Cyril Smith MP abuse dossier go missing?

Did the security services cover up for a child-abusing MP? Tony Robinson was a special branch cop in the 1970s. He said he saw a police dossier "thick" with allegations from boys claiming they had been abused by Cyril Smith, the former Liberal MP for Rochdale.

Lib Dem conference in land of political make-believe

Imagine for a moment being a Liberal Democrat. No wait, come back—you can scrub yourself later.

Muslims have reason to be angry

The world’s liberal press has gone into overdrive attacking Muslims for protesting against an anti-Islam film.

Both coalition parties are haemorrhaging members

The coalition has a hidden crisis. The membership of both its parties is in freefall. The Liberal Democrats have lost a quarter of their members in just one year.

Drop the dead Liberals

The Liberal Democrats’ vote crashed in local elections this month. Their candidates lost their deposits in several seats—as well as in the high-profile London mayoral election.

Right plots attack on abortion rights

28 February 2012
There is a propaganda campaign underway over abortion access in Britain. Right wing bigots are trying to create the impression that the law is too liberal and access to abortion is too easy.

Lib Dem donor Michael Brown gets nicked

10 January 2012
The Liberal Democrats’ biggest ever donor has been arrested while on the run dodging a seven-year jail sentence for fraud. Michael Brown bankrolled the party’s lies with £2.4 million of stolen money.

Birmingham council strikers rain on Clegg’s parade

21 September 2011
Striking Birmingham council workers took their fight to the Liberal Democrats today (Wednesday)—on the day of Nick Clegg’s keynote speech defending cuts.

Lib Dems' rhetoric can't hide their hypocrisy

20 September 2011
The lying Liberal Democrats were desperate to wear their "left" mask as they met for their conference this week. Axe-wielding Lib Dem ministers ratcheted up the rhetoric.

Danes take left turn against cuts

20 September 2011
The centre-left "red bloc" narrowly won Denmark’s election last week—throwing out a decade-long Liberal government propped up by the far right Danish People’s Party.

David Steel faces lobby questions

23 August 2011
Former Liberal Party leader David Steel was hired to lobby on behalf of a businessman who is now under investigation for allegations of corruption.

Chris Huhne frames pictures of himself and takes our money

17 May 2011
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat environment minister, states clearly that he did not ask someone to fiddle his speeding penalty points. Perhaps.

Bring down the coalition

03 May 2011
The Tories and the Liberal Democrats dreaded voters giving them a hammering in this week’s elections for their vicious attacks on working people over the past year.

Fighting homophopia: Attacking one form of bigotry with another is a dead end

02 March 2011
It was shocking to read the response of liberal gay journalist Johann Hari to the recent appearance of "gay free zone" stickers carrying slogans from the Koran in Tower Hamlets, east London.

March for education on 10 November

12 October 2010
Many students will have been shocked to see that the Liberal Democrats leaders have abandoned their pledge to oppose a rise in tuition fees.

Lib Dem conference: Thousands protest at the Tories’ friends

21 September 2010
Around 2,000 protesters marched on the Liberal Democrats’ conference in Liverpool last Sunday.

We need to crush, not cuddle, Lib Dems

21 September 2010
"There were some people, particularly around the height of the Iraq war, who gave up on the Labour Party and turned to the Liberal Democrats," said Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg last week at his party’s conference.

Voters reject government neoliberalism in Japan’s Upper house elections

13 July 2010
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DJP), whose election last year ended a 50 year dominance by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), lost control of the upper house of Parliament in last Sunday’s election. The DJP lost because it had gone back on promises to remove US military bases and create a fairer society.

Class rule hiding behind austerity

15 June 2010
We live, we are constantly told, in a liberal pluralist society. Unlike the totalitarian states of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, information and ideas aren’t monolithically controlled from above in these societies.