GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE U.K OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHREN IRELAND

Liberal Democrats were formed in the late 1980s from a union of the Liberals, who developed from the Whigs in the early nineteenth century, and from the Social Democrats. They can be regarded as centre or slightly left of centre. They put more emphasis on the environment than other parties, they believe in giving greater powers to local government and in reform of the electoral system. There exist some smaller parties, but it is very difficult for them to challenge the dominance of the bigger ones. If any of them seem to have some good ideas, these are adopted by one of the big parties, who try to appeal to as large a section of the population as possible.