Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1988 by the merger of the Liberal Party and the short-lived Social Democratic Party; the two parties had already been in an alliance for some years prior to this.

The Lib Dems are the third-largest party in the UK Parliament, behind Labour and the Conservatives, with 63 Members of Parliament (MPs) - 62 elected at the general election of 2005, they held Cheadle in the Cheadle by-election (July 2005) and gained one at the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election (February 2006). In the last Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Liberal Democrats formed part of the coalition Scottish Executive with Labour, with the Lib Dems supplying the Deputy First Minister, Nicol Stephen. The party's leader is Sir Menzies Campbell, elected in March 2006 (see Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006). Campbell was acting leader prior to his election.

Generally promoting social liberalism, the Liberal Democrats as a principle seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs in the United Kingdom and throughout the world, with many Lib Dem MPs criticising such intervention as symptomatic of a "nanny state", but unlike some other liberal parties, the Liberal Democrats were not founded on an explicit doctrine of economic liberalism instead favouring combining a commitment to social justice and the welfare state with a belief in economic freedom and competitive markets wherever possible. The party's Presidential Book of Office, passed between outgoing and incoming Presidents, is John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, a tradition that originated with the Liberal Party.

The party is traditionally supportive of a multilateral foreign policy, and opposed British participation in the War in Iraq and now support a swift withdrawal of troops in Iraq by October 2007. They are considered the most pro-European party in British politics.

In the past decade the party has adopted a strong sense of environmentalist values - favouring taxing high polluters more so than at the moment. Since the 2006 Liberal Democrat Party Conference, in Brighton, the party has switched to favour cutting the basic rate of income tax by 'two pence in the pound' while proposing raising tax rates on annual earnings above £100,000, a significant alteration of their policy towards fiscal neutrality and away from increasing tax revenue for purposes of redistribution that had previously been considered an "Old Labour" position.