The British Political Map Needs to Be Redrawn

Recent comments from a British legislator have
highlighted an ideological conflict within the Liberal Democrats.
Jeremy Browne, a member of parliament, has written a book called
Race
Plan, which outlines policies that he believes will
prepare the U.K. for “the Asian Century.”

In a review of the book for the
Liberal Democrat Voice, Nick Thornsby outlines Browne’s
proposals, most of which sound sensible to me: cuts to government
spending, a school voucher system that allows parents and teachers
to make decisions, a reduction in the top tax rate. Browne
reportedly wants the British state to be equivalent in size to
between 35 and 38 percent of GDP—still too high for my liking, but
a definite improvement on the
current situation. Thornsby notes that on the day of Race
Plans‘ publication (yesterday) he saw Browne described as a
“Thatcherite” and “neoliberal,” terms that are not meant as
compliments by many Liberal Democrats.

According to
Patrick Wintour, The Guardian‘s politics editor,
Browne criticizes both Prime Minister David Cameron and the leader
of his own party, Nick Clegg, for failing to defend markets in the
face of criticism from Labour Party leader Ed Miliband:

He writes: “Both the governing parties have agonised over
whether to ridicule or match Miliband’s ideas, usually before
trying to do both and while achieving neither. The result is a
shortage of politicians who are prepared to bang the drum for free
markets or to call the bluff of those that constantly wish to
distort them.”

It’s great that Browne is calling out Clegg and Cameron for
failing to stick up for markets when Miliband, who will prime
minister if Labour wins the next general election, says that he
would “bring
back socialism” to the U.K. However, it is worth remembering
that there are plenty of Liberal Democrats who are not fans of
markets and may well vote for Labour in the next election, which is
due to take place next year.

How can a pro-market, pro-tax-cuts liberal be in the same party
as people such as Tim Farron, the president of the Liberal
Democrats, who said Thatcher’s government was “organized
wickedness“?

The Liberal Democrats was
founded in 1988, the result of a merger of the Liberal Party and
the Social Democratic Party, which had been in alliance since 1981.
The Liberal Party was “liberal” in the classical sense, backing
limited government spending and free trade. The Social Democratic
Party was founded by four former members of Labour cabinets
dissatisfied with how left-wing the Labour Party had become. It
formed the alliance with the Liberal Party shortly afterwards.
These two camps are still on display today.

Browne’s comments in Race Plan prompted David
Priestland to write in
The Guardian that the Liberal Democrats’ dilemma shows why
the U.K. needs four political parties:

In many countries, the forces of “liberalism”—meaning support
for individual rights against authoritarian states and socially
liberal causes (the environment, women’s and gay rights)—have
already split into two: one more economically liberal and
suspicious of the state (like the German Free Democrats), and the
other more sceptical of markets (such as the German Greens, or D66
in the Netherlands).

Britain, however, with its hopelessly antiquated electoral
system, forces both types of liberal into three party blocs:
free-market liberals are spread between the Tories and Lib Dems,
while leftwing liberals are divided between Labour and the Lib
Dems. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems themselves are condemned to
continuous civil war between the two camps and, most seriously, the
electorate is denied a clear choice.

Tim Montgomerie, who used to edit the blog Conservative Home
and now writes for The Times,
wrote last December about the theoretical political parties

that reflect contemporary Britons’ attitudes: the Solidarity
Party, the Liberals, the Nationals, and the Freedom Party. Under
Montogerie’s proposal the different factions of the Liberal
Democrats would be split:

It’s unlikely that a party system like the one Montgomerie
envisions is going to emerge anytime soon, but it would be nice for
classical liberals in the U.K. to have a home again.