r/LibDem • u/Metropolitan_Line • 10d ago
Your favourite liberal policies through time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_Act_1908I want to find out what Lib Dem/Liberal policies through time liberals in this sub like the best. It doesn’t necessarily have to have been an act of parliament, it could have been a manifesto pledge for example, or a policy adopted by the party membership.
One of my favourites (though I know this example is a little old) is the Children Act 1908 - an important milestone in the rights of young people, introducing Juvenile Courts (as they were back then), restricting capital punishment and giving other protections to children. Though these might not seem revolutionary by today’s standards, they would have been significant for the time, and I think is an excellent example of the liberal tradition.
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u/coffeewalnut08 10d ago
Their pushing through a 2011 alternative vote referendum. Was a rare opportunity for healthy democratic renewal and reform.
Also they’ve been consistently the most serious and ambitious on climate and environmental reform.
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u/Grantmitch1 9d ago edited 9d ago
Hmm.
From an actual Liberal politician I would say a series of bills by David Lloyd George's government that introduced the precussor to the modern welfare state. Lloyd George's government introduced medical and unemployment insurance, pensions, minimum wages for certain jobs, among other things, paid for through taxes on high incomes and land.
Gladstone had a number of important reforms as well including secret voting, expanding the franchise, creating a national education system, moving toward a meritocratic civil service, establishing a legal framework for trade unions, among other things.
A liberal policy from a Conservative prime minister: Sir Robert Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws and the movement towards free trade.
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u/FitPerspective1146 10d ago
1911 House of Lords reform, great step towards (or further into depending on who you are) democracy
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u/CarpeCyprinidae (Labour supporter) 9d ago
The first iterations of the welfare state came under a Liberal government and changed the landscape for poverty in the UK. Old Age Pensions Act 1908 was one of the first steps and the most influential.
National Insurance Act 1911 put a lot more of the modern approach into place for the first time.
Everyone credits (Liberal economist) Beveridge's 1940s report for the postwar welfare state but a lot of it was set in place 35 years earlier.
Basically everyone in this thread is talking about Lloyd-George's administration
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u/Stoatwobbler 5d ago edited 5d ago
Parliamentary Reform back in the 19th century. Transforming Britain into a parliamentary democracy without the need for a revolution.
I honestly don't think that the great Reform Act of 1832 is anything like as well regarded as it should be. It remains the best and most important act in the history of Parliament.
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u/Parasaurlophus 10d ago
Plastic bag minimum pricing. It might seem trivial, but plastic bags used to just drift around in the wind around town centres and clog up waterways. All gone now. It turns out that it wasn't that hard to get rid of them.