Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the Liberals were first taking off in Rayleigh, that’s who we were, the Liberal Party. It was the same party that had Gladstone, David Lloyd George and Jo Grimond. Then in the late 1980s we merged with the SDP to form the Liberal Democrats.
But a small element of the party in the UK decided to stay as they were, and so the Liberal Party still exists today, with about 30 councillors around the UK and no MPs. Some of their policies include – dismantling our nuclear weapons, returning the water and rail industries to public ownership and opposing the common agricultural and fisherishes policies of the EU.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, a Lib Dem councillor in Southend , Ric Morgan, has just quit the Lib Dems to join the Liberals.
Southend Lib Dem blogger Neil Monnery writes about it here.