Tag Archives: future of liberalism

Roz Savage MP writes: Liberalism is having a Moment. But does it have a future?

By Roz Savage MP | Sun 23rd August 2026 - 10:58 am

Liberalism seems to be going through an identity crisis. Within a few months, three very different thinkers have published books asking the same question: what has happened to Liberalism, and what would make it relevant again?

Adrian Wooldridge has given us Centrists of the World Unite!, David Howarth Being Liberal, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu What Happened to Liberal Democracy?

We are halfway through this parliament, barring Andy Burnham calling an early election. So it’s a good time to search our collective Liberal soul in a quest for clarity of purpose.

We have 72 MPs, our largest parliamentary party in a century, yet remarkably little influence over the national conversation. If people still struggle to say what Liberal Democrats are for, perhaps we haven’t told a sufficiently compelling story.

I approached Wooldridge’s Centrists with some scepticism. To me, “centrists” implies the mushy middle between left and right, administered by nice people who want to be everybody’s friend/tactical voting choice.

Fortunately, that isn’t Wooldridge’s Liberalism. His is restless and insurgent. Historically, Liberals challenged aristocratic privilege, monopolies and inherited hierarchies. His complaint is that this bold tradition became associated instead with a cautious, managerial establishment.

His challenge is worth hearing. We are good at being reasonable, evidence-led and practical. But competence is not a destination. Liberalism should feel radical.

David Howarth’s Being Liberal explores the Liberal disposition: open-minded, suspicious of abuses of power, uncomfortable with hierarchy, treating people as individuals rather than categories, and accepting that reasonable people can disagree.

It captures something policy programmes miss. Liberalism isn’t only about what government does. It is about how we treat other people – and how we behave when given power ourselves.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured and liberalism | 30 Comments

Beyond Neoliberalism: Rethinking freedom to create a post-growth liberalism fit for the 21st Century

By Rodrigo Palmer | Mon 7th July 2025 - 1:37 pm

The year is 1906. With the Conservatives failing to implement social reforms, people were desperate for change. Life under the Conservative government had significantly worsened – Booth’s study found that at least 30% of London’s population was living in poverty. Therefore, the British electorate responded with a landslide Liberal victory. But what sort of change would the New Liberal government bring?

The New Liberal government recognised that the only way to move the country forward was to embrace radical change. Thus, New Liberalism was born. It was a philosophy which for the first time recognised that the state could have a positive role, acting as a safety net for the most vulnerable. New Liberalism laid the foundations for one of our country’s proudest achievements: the welfare state. Free school meals in 1906, National Insurance in 1911 – these welfare reforms were only possible thanks to New Liberalism.

Liberalism laid the foundations for a new paradigm before, and it is now time for Liberalism to do so again. Climate change is the biggest issue that humanity has ever faced, and such a pressing issue requires a radical response. Just as New Liberals realised that classical liberalism was failing them, we must realise that neoliberalism is failing us. If neoliberalism had the answer, then why is inequality the highest it has been in 30 years, why are ecosystems being pushed to collapse, and why are global temperatures still rising? The only way we can progress is if we recognise the obvious – neoliberalism is dead. It must be stopped dead in its tracks and consigned to history.

Posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments

Is this a Liberal moment?

By Jonathan Parry | Tue 8th April 2025 - 10:03 am

Can the election of Donald Trump be a major opportunity for Liberal Democrats? Quite possibly, though the jury is still out. In fact I’ve just written a short history of British Liberalism which ends with that question.

I’ve argued in the book that British Liberalism has made the political weather when it has mobilised public opinion in favour of a political reset, or against a particular threat. Liberals have campaigned best when they have attacked powerful vested interests and damaging concentrations of power – when they have urged constitutional reform (the nineteenth-century Reform Acts) or stood against tariffs and sectional economic policies (the Corn Laws; Tariff Reform). But it’s not always easy to convince voters that constitutional and structural issues should matter to them. Timing is always central to political success.

In the nineteenth century, Liberals’ favourite slogan was ‘Reform’, which was shorthand for changes to the distribution of parliamentary seats and to the franchise. Reform was demanded for several reasons, particularly to stop high taxes and government oppression of minorities. It was a call for a new, more responsive politics.

Posted in Op-eds | 15 Comments