Wednesday, February 11, 2009  What’s the difference between a
Liberal and a Social Democrat ?  Charlotte Gore's question
prompts me to republish an old Liberator article.  Why I am
still a Liberal  I met a lesbian on a train to Brussels. I met
her because she sat right opposite me and started reading Paddy
Ashdown's diaries. I took pity and rescued her and we had a
conversation. She had, she told me, been a Euro-Communist as a
student but having met lots of Liberals, she had now become a
Liberal. This was not easy, she confessed. It had actually been
harder to come out as a Liberal than as a lesbian.  I came out
as a Liberal in 1974. I came out of the Labour Party, because of
Europe, because of incomes policy, because of the environment,
because the Chief Whip of the Liberal Party (David Steel)
attended late-night Young Liberal caucuses whereas the Chief
Whip of the Labour Party (Bob Mellish) only mentioned the Young
Socialists when he wanted to swear. It was Brighton - the
Liberal Assembly of 1974 – heady da