(9) Liberal Democrats and Labour have they moved away from their principle?

(9) Liberal Democrats and Labour have they moved away from their principle?

1. Liberal Democrats

   • The liberal Democrats have clearly associates with liberalism, their liberalism encompasses both a classical liberal belief in minimal state and the free market and a modern liberal belief in social and economic intervention that sometime resemble social democracy
   • Fused ideology orientated around the individual and freedom with on that traditionally favour equality and social justice
   • Breaking the political mould by providing a centrist alternative however Lib Dem are more centre left party due to Labour liberal party "progressive alliance".
   • Indeed 1997, Labour power continued to move to the centre- ground, some in Lib Dems sought to out flank Labour on the left
     • Reflected commitment to increase tax by one penny in the pound in order to better fund education and abolish tuition fees for university students, as well as in opposition to the 2003 Iraq War
   • The liberal Democrats were shifting more to the right with growing support for free-market economic strategy
   • Clegg was elected leader (part of the centre-right wing), apart from plan to increase income tax which was drop (endorested by the centre-right wing), they failed to have much influence over the party policy for 2010 GE
   • During the 2010 campaign the Lib Dem's advocated a broadly Keynesian approach to the budget deficit, Lib Dem's warned of a"double-dip" recession with Conservative robusted spending cuts
   • Con and Lib Dem may have moved closer to one another as the GE approached, but they still represent competing political traditions
     • A variety of "wedge" issues therefore persist, having the potential to destabilize the coalition.
       • University fee's
       • bankers bonues
       • Future control of terror suspects
       • Disagreement over range of other issues:
         • Education - free school
         • Europe
         • Trident
         • Defence generally
         • Traditional morality
         • multiculturalism
         • NHS reform
         • Nuclear power
         • Civil liberties

2. Labour

   • Labour Ideas and policy under Ed miliband have been understood in context to the Brown government
     • Brown re-capitailisted the UK's bankign system by pumping £37 billion of taxpayers money into HBOS, RBS and Lloyds TSB, which were each part-nationalized
     • Interest rates were reduced virtually zero in what came to be called "monetary stimulus"
     • most controversially was a reliance on "fiscal stimulus". The last policy was dictated by Keynesian thinking.
   • The use of nationalization as a political tool, encouraged some to argue that New Labour was on the wane as Old Labour ideas and policies was returning
     • Nationalization was in all cases used reluctantly and only a temporary device
   • Brown's government also practised neo-Keynesianism, it recognized that the budget deficit could not simply be allowed to sure it self
     • 2010 manifesto thus contained proposed tax increases and spending cuts in 2011-12 aim to half the budget by end of parliament
   • Ed Miliband announces that "new Labour was dead" meaning a shift way from New Labour
   • Challenge for Ed was to establish an alterntive programe with out labour being attavk as "deficit deniers"
   • Labour positions was that the coalition have gone too far and too fast on cuts
   • A particular criticism leveled at the coalition has been that its strategy views budget cuts as a panacea in themselves
     • Milliband alternatives to this appears to be an emphasis on restructuring the economy to reduce its dependence on finance and to expand its manufacturing base