The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism


The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism 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.
The term Orange Bookers refers to those in the party who subscribe to the book's emphasis on greater personal choice and possible market solutions.
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

Orange Book liberalism is a Whiggish 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 Book liberalism is represented within the Liberal Democrats by the pressure group Liberal Reform.
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 centre-left beliefs such as members of the Social Liberal Forum or the Beveridge Group. Many Orange Bookers were prominent figures in the 2010–2015 Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg.

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 book who were elected MPs, one resigned before the 2010 election, one 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 Democrats 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 book authors.
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.
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 Thomas Hill Green, Leonard Hobhouse and the economist John A. Hobson; therefore, The Orange Book writers were seeking to overturn nearly a century of Liberal party history.