This book is a short history of political Liberalism in modern Britain. It defines British “Liberalism” in terms of political practice rather than theory. Its subject is the British Liberal Party, and its successor the Liberal Democrats. It focuses on these parties’ public presentation of their aims – their policies, campaigns and arguments – rather than their mechanical aspects (their organization, electoral fortunes or voting base). In this book, “Liberalism” means the ideas and visions put forward by Liberal politicians and by those journalists and writers who advocated the party's causes. Liberalism is probably the most widely used word in the political lexicon. It has been defined in a dizzying variety of different ways. This reading of the term is appropriate because this book stands in a historical series on ideas in British politics.

Politicians are rarely abstract thinkers, and they almost never have the luxury of applying coherent principles to specific problems. They operate within very powerful constraints: of party pressure, popularity, precedent and cost. When we study the politicians of the Liberal Party, we cannot hope to find one single “Liberal” ideology, in the sense of a theoretically coherent set of principles. A party which agrees on everything will never collect enough electoral support to compete for power. The political historian must be sensitive to chronology and context: strategies go in and out of fashion, and opportunities and demands for political action are stronger at some times than others. When Liberals were in government, Conservative opponents tried to persuade voters that they were destroying the national fabric; as a result, Liberals often disagreed about how much reform was prudent. We can recognize the compromises of the political process but still think that ideas matter in politics. We can see recurring tendencies and patterns over time.