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Tag Archives: tom mludzinski

10 Years on from The Orange Book: What should authentic liberalism look like?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th October 2014 - 8:55 am

“10 Years on from The Orange Book: what should authentic liberalism look like?” That was the title of a Lib Dem conference fringe meeting in Glasgow, organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), at which I was speaking alongside MPs Tim Farron and Jeremy Browne, Orange Book co-editor Paul Marshall, the IEA’s Ryan Bourne and ComRes pollster Tom Mludzinski. Here’s what I said…

I often describe myself as an Orange Booker. Like most labels it’s a short-hand. To me it simply means I’m a Lib Dem at ease with the role of a competitive market and who believes also in social justice. To many others in our party, though, Orange Booker is a term of abuse – Orange Bookers are thrusting, smart-suited, neoliberal Thatcherities, never happier than when mixing with red-blooded free-marketeers like the IEA.

What I want to do briefly is make a pitch for something that’s become quite unpopular among the party ranks: I’m going to make a pitch that the Lib Dems should be a party that’s unabashedly of the liberal centre.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alex marsh, anoosh chakelian, comres, featured, institute of economic affairs, jeremy browne, orange book, paul marshall, ryan bourne and tim farron | 75 Comments

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Recent Comments

GWYN WILLIAMS
A balanced and fair assessment of the Senedd campaign. Unlike in Scotland, Wales has not as yet polarised into for and against Independence camps. The Welsh Lib...
Jana
The logic of this article is that we should be rejoining the Single Market. That is different from signing up to complete political Union by joining the EU. ...
Pawel Urbanski
Good piece, Tom. I would just split it into two things 1/ The principle: someone living off their assets should not pay less tax than someone living off a wage...
Iain Donaldson
Matt, I think my article actually agrees with parts of what you are saying. In particular, I accept that housing policy operates over long timescales and that l...
Mohamed BENALIA
A thought-provoking article. The debate over greyhound racing raises important questions about animal welfare, public opinion, and how traditions should evolve...