Liberal Campaigning
The Liberal Party's leading pioneer of organised campaigning had been Joseph Chamberlain. In 1885, he put forward The Radical Programme, unauthorised by the party leadership, as an election manifesto for using the constructive power of the state but Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone subverted Chamberlain's efforts, co-opting the NLF for mainstream Liberalism. By adopting Home Rule for Ireland as his banner, Gladstone trumped The Radical Programme, driving Chamberlain out of the party to form the Liberal Unionists. In the great schism of 1886 over Home Rule, the NLF deserted Chamberlain to remain loyal to Gladstone.
Read more about this topic: The Newcastle Programme
Famous quotes containing the word liberal:
“Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two—a proof of the decline of that country.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)