01-26-2017, 09:21 PM
(01-26-2017, 12:55 PM)SomeGuy Wrote: I think referring to the old UK Liberal Party as "libertarian" in the American sense might be a bit of a stretch, at least without clarifying when you were talking about. The Liberal Party started moving from Manchester style classic liberalism as early as the 1890s (Basically during the Great Power 2T).
I was actually thinking specifically about Nick Clegg, who was very much from the liberal/libertarian wing of the Liberal Democrats. While he was very much the junior partner in the coalition with the Conservatives, he was able to move some of their policies a little toward the libertarian end of the spectrum.
For example, the Conservatives' natural inclination was to impose austerity - higher taxes, lower spending - Clegg was able to get them to use supply side policies - lower taxes, lower spending. While a fully libertarian government would have cut taxes by 90% instead of by 10%, even a 10% cut was sufficient to ensure that the UK markedly outperformed the rest of the EU during his term.
Of course, the social democrat wing of the party hated the Conservatives and the coalition government, so Clegg didn't outlast the coalition.