The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism

The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism
Author(s)	Paul Marshall and David Laws (editors)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject(s)	Politics, Liberalism
Publisher	Profile Books
Publication date	2004
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	302
ISBN	1-86197-797-2
OCLC Number	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, the contributors include Vincent 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.

Six years after the book's publication, the Liberal Democrats joined with the Conservatives to form a coalition government. Three of the five Liberal Democrat members of the current Cabinet were contributors to this book i.e. Vince Cable, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne.

David Laws was involved in the negotiations to form the coalition, and was in the initial line up of the coalition Cabinet from 12th May to 29th May 2010.

Chapters and contributors

• Reclaiming Liberalism: a liberal agenda for the Liberal Democrats - David Laws
• Liberalism and localism - Edward Davey
• Europe: a Liberal future - Nick Clegg
• Global governance, legitimacy and renewal - Chris Huhne
• Liberal economics and social justice - Vince Cable
• Harnessing the market to achieve environmental goals - Susan Kramer
• UK health services: a liberal agenda for reform - David Laws
• Tough Liberalism: a liberal approach to cutting crime - Mark Oaten
• Children, the family and the state: a liberal agenda - Steve Webb and Jo Holland
• Pension reform: a settlement for a new century - Paul Marshall

External links

• Review by Jonathan Calder, originally published in Liberator 298, September 2004.
• Liberator 298 The complete September 2004 edition of Liberator, containing three contrasting reviews of the Orange Book written by leading party commentators at the time the book was first published.
• Guardian (2006): The future's bright, but is it orange?
• BBC (2008): Clegg's orange revolution