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To What Extent Are The Ideas Of Liberalism Evident In British Politics?

In order to answer this question we must first look at the different strands of Liberalism. If we look back to the 17th century with the ideas of Hobbes and Locke we can see the building blocks that began classical liberalism. They made advances to the traditional view that everyone had natural rights, to determining that not only this but people should also have equal rights and equal potential. From here classical liberalism stood for individual liberty with the state playing a minimal role. They believed that inequality within society is part of nature and that allowing a state too much power to interfere would disrupt this balance. However, this led to a large rich poor divide within the country, to the point where the deprivation forced the Liberals to rethink their ideals.

The New liberal thinkers began exploring how best to alleviate poverty without affecting the state's natural inequality. They began exploring the ideas of a welfare state where freedom and opportunity are increased through state promises of a decent standard of living and a right to work, as well as compulsory education and the increased role of local government. The moral philosopher T. H. Green said during the 19th century that we are not truly free if we do not have a sense of caring for others. This was the first step away from the individualism of classical liberalism, and is still very much evident in today's politics. In modern British politics Liberalism is a very important factor which we can see evidence of in the 3 major parties, although there are differences as to which strand of Liberalism they agree with. Despite the fact that the Liberal Democrats have not had electoral success for almost a century, Liberal views are still at the forefront of politics today.

Firstly, all three major parties are fighting for social justice in their most recent manifestos. The Labour manifesto for the 2005 election states: "Let's make the values of social...

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