lib dem

• when were the lib dems founded?

  march 1988 as the social and liberal democrats
• when did the social and liberal democrats become just the democrats?

  september 1988 - a conference
• when did the democrats become the liberal democrats?

  october 1989
• when did the lib dems start using the bird of liberty?

  1989
• why was the bird of liberty called out by Thatcher?


  for being too plain or 'dead'
• what are birds usually associated with?

  freedom, liberalism and development
• why is the colour of the lib dems orange?

  • they are the product of a merger between the liberal part (yellow) and the SDP which was rooted in socialism (red)
  • intended to show that the lib dems had moved away from their old emphasis on trade and markets
  • freedom of wealth
• when was the liberal party formed?

  1959 from the old Whig party and the Peelites who had split from the tories
• what did the Whigs represent?

  old aristocratic families and religious dissenters
• what did the liberal party establish themselves as?

  the party representing the rising industrial class of factory owners and thus espoused the virtues of the free market
• what events preceded the downfall of the liberal party?

  war, split over home rule in ireland, rise of labour, 1918 representation of the people act
• who were the social democratic party (SDP)?

  a splinter group from the Labour Party who disagreed with labour's move to far left with Micheal Foot in 1979
• who did the SDP form an alliance with?

  the liberal party to become the social liberal democrats
• lib dem ideology

  • fair taxes
  • democracy
  • basic rights shared by all
  • to fight poverty
  • party of the centre -> not accepting socialism or conservatism
  • welfare for those who need it
  • constitutional reform -> elected HOL
  • tackling climate change