Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats (often referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom that was formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The two parties had previously formed the electoral SDP–Liberal Alliance for seven years prior.

From their first UK General Election in 1987 until the election of 2015, the Liberal Democrats were the third party in the House of Commons winning between 46 and 62 MPs. At the 2010 general election, under the leadership of Nick Clegg who had been elected leader in 2007, the Liberal Democrats won 57 seats, again making them the third-largest party in the House of Commons behind the Conservatives with 307 and Labour with 258. However, with no party having an overall majority, the Liberal Democrats agreed to join a coalition government with the Conservative Party with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats taking up ministerial positions.

At the 2015 general election, the party was reduced to just eight Members of Parliament, being replaced as third party by the Scottish National Party which had 56 MPs elected. Nick Clegg resigned as leader and Tim Farron won the subsequent leadership election.

Tim Farron

Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who is the Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005 and was the President of the Liberal Democrats from 2011 to 2015.

Early life

Farron was born in Preston, Lancashire, and educated at Lostock Hall High School and Runshaw College, Leyland, before going on to Newcastle University where he gained a BA in Politics in 1992. He was president of Newcastle University Union Society, the first Liberal Democrat to hold the position, in 1991, having joined the Liberal Party at the age of 16. In 1990, he was elected to the National Union of Students' National Executive.

Before his election to Parliament, Farron worked in higher education at Lancaster University from 1992 to 2002 and St. Martin's College, Ambleside, from 2002 to 2005.

Political career

Farron contested North West Durham at the 1992 general election, where he finished in third place, 20,006 votes behind the sitting Labour Party MP Hilary Armstrong.

The Liberal

The Liberal was a UK-based magazine "dedicated to promoting liberalism around the world", which ran in print from 2004 to 2009 and online until 2012. The publication explored liberal attitudes to a range of cultural issues, and encouraged a dialogue between liberal politics and the liberal arts. Ideologically, The Liberal challenged the concept of 'liberalisms', arguing for the continuity of the liberal tradition, which finds its modern expression in social liberalism.

The title claimed a lineage with The Liberal, a short-lived periodical founded in 1822 by the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt. The modern version was launched in July 2004 ‒ 180 years after the original ceased publication ‒ "to rehabilitate Romantic Liberalism and reinvigorate the public sphere".

Contributors to the print edition included Harold Bloom, Helen Suzman, Christopher Hitchens, Germaine Greer, Garry Kasparov, Robert Reich, Julia Kristeva, Liu Xiaobo, Johann Hari, Martin Rees, Wole Soyinka, Clive James, Slavoj Žižek and Simon Sebag Montefiore.