Has the Lib Dems ever been in Government?

[bloodycheap]

Have the Lib Dems or the Liberals ever held Government and if not don't you think we should give them a try?

[brachiopod]

Unless you count the Whigs....

They were set back, politically, by the Thorpe affair.

These days, perhaps they are set back by the word 'liberal' itself - since (well, according to a few here on AB),
liberal = loony, ultra-PC, immigrant-loving, Bah-bah-black-sheep-banning, wishy-washy-let's-send-offenders-on-holiday.

But still, who needs a Party that proposes Proportional Representation when you have a 'choice' between Right-wing Blair or Right-wing Cameron????

[zara 4]

Personally i'd vote for a limpet if that got rid of blair and his cronies!!!!

[kempie]

A list of Liberal (not Whig!) Prime Ministers

Earl Russell ... 1846-51 1865-6
Viscount Palmerston ... 1855-8 and 1859-65
William Ewart Gladstone ... 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886 and 1892-94
The Earl of Rosebery ... 1894-5
Henry Campbell-Bannerman ... 1905-8
Herbert Henry Asquith ... 1908-16
David Lloyd George ... 1916-22

http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page123.asp

[brachiopod]

If the limpet had personality, zara, then, with a few spin doctors, it might well get in at the next election !!

These days, it's about personality rather than political agenda.....

[brachiopod]

Hi kempie, haven't seen you around much in my trawling-round-the-topics tonight. (I'm doing my late-night ramblings early tonight - Missus Pod is out,,,,)

[kempie]

Wotcha brachi!

My postings are rather few and far between at the moment, mainly due to a fractured scapula putting a distinct crimp in my typing and mousing ability.

[zara 4]

If its about personality how the HELL did blairs crones get in?????

[brachiopod]

Hmmmm.......... I know how those "String 'em up and castrate them" threads used to get me hitting the keyboard with vigour-enough to shatter a few shoulderblades, elbows, and ...

oops, heres the missus - see you all later !!

[jno]

These days it's Labour and Tories but until less than 100 years ago it was Liberals (aka Whigs) and Tories. They were in power many times - see kempie's list. But they lost leading party status when Labour came through and are now more or less permanently the third party. There was another third party, the Social Democrats, formed by centrist Labour MPs about 20 years ago, when Labour was much further to the left than it is now and looking unelectable; they faded away, and then combined with the Liberals to form the Lib Dems.

[brachiopod]

David Owen - the best Prime Minister we never had..

[madein1978]

Why not, Labour and the Tories are bloody useless! Although I think Cammy is worth listening to, I wouldn't write him off just yet!

[madein1978]

Doesn't need to be a Limpet, A Broomstick could win an election in Lanarkshire if it had a Labour rosette glued to it!