The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism

The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism
Author Paul Marshall and David Laws (editors)
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject Politics, liberalism
Publisher Profile Books
Publication date
 2004
Media type Print (paperback)
Pages 302
ISBN 1-86197-797-2
OCLC 59265240
Followed by Britain After Blair

The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism (ISBN 1-86197-797-2) is a book written by a group of prominent British Liberal Democrat politicians, and edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall in 2004. Beside Laws and Marshall, contributors include Vince Cable, Nick Clegg, Edward Davey, Chris Huhne, Susan Kramer, Mark Oaten, and Steve Webb.

In the book the group offers liberal solutions—often stressing the role of choice and competition—to several societal issues, such as public healthcare, pensions, environment, globalisation, social and agricultural policy, local government, the European Union and prisons. It is usually seen as the most economically liberal publication that the Liberal Democrats have produced in recent times.

Chapters and contributors

Ideology

Orange Book liberalism is a liberal ideology, mostly within the Liberal Democrats, which seeks to balance the four main strands of liberal thought—social liberalism, economic liberalism, cultural liberalism, and political liberalism.

"Orange Booker" is now a well-used term for identifying Liberal Democrats who adhere more strongly to economic and personal liberal principles, compared to those who more strongly identify with left-wing beliefs, such as members of the Social Liberal Forum or the Beveridge Group. Many "Orange Bookers" were, or are currently, in key leadership roles within the Liberal Democrats, including former leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.[1]

Reception

Six years after the book's publication, the Liberal Democrats joined with the Conservatives to form a coalition government. Of the nine authors of the Orange Book who were elected MPs, one (Mark Oaten) resigned before the 2010 election, one (Chris Huhne) resigned in 2013 having been in the cabinet, and the remaining seven were all members of the government in 2015. Edward Stourton from the BBC radio show Analysis argued that the Orange Book movement within the Liberal party was important in the founding of the Coalition government with the Conservatives. Conservative MP David Davis found a number of "areas of overlap" between Conservative policies and the views of the Orange Book authors.[2]

Historian and Labour politician Tristram Hunt said that the Orange Book debate was a revival of the debates in Liberal circles between the classical liberalism of William Gladstone and politicians like David Lloyd George.[1] Richard Grayson, a member of the Social Liberal Forum, said that such Gladstonian liberalism was replaced in the early 20th century with a commitment to the welfare state because of the work of T.H. Green, L.T. Hobhouse and the economist J.A. Hobson; the Orange Book writers were seeking to overturn nearly a century of Liberal party history.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Lammy, David (20 January 2012). "Cameron and Clegg's dilemma". New Statesman. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  2. ↑ Stourton, Edward (23 February 2011). "Did Lib Dem Orange Book lead to coalition with Tories?". BBC News. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
  3. ↑ Grayson, Richard (12 July 2010). "Yellows in peril: the struggle for the soul of liberalism". New Statesman.
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