Liberal Party

The Liberal Party (Doggish: Livrel Partij, LP) is a liberal political party in Doggerland, currently led by The Shunk. It is both socially and economically liberal, and has been described as being in the center of the political spectrum, with factions ranging from center-left to center-right.

Currently, the Liberal Party is committed to maintaining a social market economy, free trade, a point-based immigration system, fully legalising cannabis and sex work, holding a referendum on legalising euthanasia, abolishing the death penalty, universal free at the point of use healthcare, and fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate change emergency. The party has changed considerably but not majorly from its original stance remaining a strong supporter of a social market economy and social progressivism.

As of December 4th, 2021, it had 22 registered members. It was the largest party in the National Assembly during the February 2021 Doggerland legislative elections, June 2021 Doggerland legislative elections, and July 2021 legislative election. It is headquartered in Leestrom. The LP was the leading party in the Together Democratic Alliance before becoming a member of the United Progressives

In server
The Liberal Party has had many highs and lows during its tenure. Starting as the second-largest (January), to largest (February), and consistently staying the fourth-largest party after March struggling to regain its vote share before becoming the largest party again in the June and July elections, but has since struggled to retain a voter base it lost to 3P in September. It has had two Prime Ministers: Triangle and Saber.

On 1 July the Together Democratic Alliance was formed alongside the Humanist Center and Volt Doggerland.

On 23 July, Saber announced his planned resignation in late August to make way for fresher leadership after his tenure lasted 5 months. He also cited the exhaustion from being leader for an extremely long time. Saber has since been given the role of Emiratus Liberal

Baal Moss won the Liberal Party leadership, but resigned soon after the Late August Legislative elections due to poor election results, and made his deputy leader The Shunk its new leader.

On September 28th, following the Liberal party's worst election result in Doggerlands history, the Liberal Party joined United Progressives. This prompted backlash from right wing server members, which only increased following Solidarity joining UP. The Liberals went on to preform their best since Saber, but preformed worse in November. The Liberals are members of the Civic-Progressive government.

Overview
The ideology of the Liberal Party has been labelled as being socially centre-left and economically centre by its previous leader Saber, and its frequent motto during the May election was "Freedom and Altruism" believing in individual liberty and assisting those lacking opportunity. The party has never shown any major divisions or factions forming within the party, although recently major divergences arose. This is due to everyone in the party maintaining a broadly progressive stance in Dogger politics often exhibiting culturally liberal values and sharing positions ranging from centre-right to centre-left stances on economic issues. This tended to result in the Liberal Party's greatest strength as it rarely shows major divergences in policy.

If two major factions can be labelled it would be discerned between more left-leaning social liberals and right-leaning classical liberals. Individuals like InsertUsernameHere can be considered to belong to the more left-leaning wing, while Baveland and Malarkinator can be considered belonging to the more right-leaning wing, with Baveland Moss notably having been a notable classical liberal in Dogger politics. Early on in politics some members were more open than most to work with right-wing parties like the Lbt. Recently, a new centrist faction of the liberal party has emerged with the intent of unifying the left and right, although the right-wing faction of the Liberal Party is essentially gone following the retirement of Saber and Baveland from the party.

The former leader Saber is considered more centrist than most leaning left and right on several occasions expressing both more left-leaning social liberal views and right-leaning classical and conservative liberal views. Overall the party remains united over the core ideals of liberalism, particularly cultural liberalism. Closest comparisons to other parties can include Dutch parties like the D66 or VVD.

Recently, a new conflict emerged between what Baal Moss described as "neo-Triangleites" and the "Old Guard" with a new conflict arising between those who are firmly centre-left and even social democratic and centre-right.

Following the retirement of Saber and Baal Moss from the Liberal Party, the Liberals became more left leaning.

Social policy
The Liberal Party is consistently socially progressive. Officially supporting euthanasia, LGBTQ+ rights, anti-discrimination against all minorities, and has a pro-choice stance on abortion. Although these are official stances and likely shared by most other members, some members have reservations, however, this has never resulted in any major conflict within the party.

Centrism
Although not an official ideology its members have consistently shown a centrist approach to politics preferring to find middle ground and working with parties from both the right and the left. Its centrist nature has also led the party to do its best in its rejection of working with extremist or more radical parties, albeit the party itself is not above cooperating with parties like the NCU, and USF. After joining United Progressives, the Liberals are more open to working with the left, although they are still open to working with the right. The Liberals prefer centrist government above all else.

Economic policy
The Liberal Party has consistently maintained firm support for a market economy opposing anti-capitalist measures of punitive taxation and high spending on welfare. Its main approach to the economy can be summarised in elevating social status by providing more opportunity for those in poor socioeconomic status and supporting businesses, big and small to foster competition. Although not always to the extent of the CU or Lbt it favour keeping taxation low and is opposed to high levels of deficit spending. Its approach to UBI is to not provide a living wage but rather to help citizens have a reduced burden on finances and increase spending to spur the economy.

The party also consistently supports long-term supply-side policy favouring investment in human capital such as education and healthcare coupled with innovation.

Europe
The party used to be neutral or pro-European in its stance, and has now fully transitioned to being fully pro-European.

Senate
After the Senate was established the party initially remained ambivalent towards it but after the death of Triangle the party vehemently opposed its existence. The party was one of the main proponents of its abolishment. Recently it has trended towards the support of its return with some changes to the Senate's powers.

Environment
The Liberal Party maintains a firm environmentalist stance favouring carbon neutrality and making Doggerland more green.

Overview
Almost all parties are ultimately required to work with the LP as it always makes it to the top 4 parties during elections meaning that the probability of parties approaching the LP to form a government is always high. It also consistently serves as a key party in both the opposition and government due to the high performance. This has led to the LP being the party that most other parties (at least those who are moderate and right-wing) are required to approach after every election either to form a government or an opposition coalition. Conversely, this has frequently made the LP be the party that is certain to be hated no matter the decision it makes.

Labor Workers' Party
The LP was originally most open to working with the LWP due to the LWP's centre-left social democratic status which made it more appealing for the LP to work with due to the strong left-leaning sentiment between January to February under Triangle's leadership. However, after March and the LWP's increasing tendency to work with the Doggerland Left and Communist Party showed that the LWP now had an increasing preference to work with more radical left and extremist left forces the LP turned towards more right-wing parties.

The LP still remains very open to working with the LWP, consistently approaching them first after a new election, but the open vitriol some LWP members showed against even liberal policy itself particularly in economics has led to additional doubt, albeit never to levels that prevent cooperation.

Civic Union
Although very different with regards to social policy the Liberal Party tends to be the closest party to the CU with regards to economics and general handling of affairs. And after the entrenchment of 'Forward!' the CU and LP grew significantly closer in cooperation with regards to government formation. Even after a centrist coalition was pursued the LP and CU worked together, and later the Conservative Alliance.

USF
The LP is extremely rare to even consider cooperating with USF on matters of government formation or even providing confidence-and-supply. This strong sense of opposition stems from the LP's centrist roots and particularly after the Socialist Reform Bill it grew to oppose working with the USF in any government coalition. Although never outright ruling out cooperation, on matters of economics the two parties can be considered irreconcilable. Liberals were in government with the predecessors to the USF in October, but have since used their role in the UP to try and prevent left wing governments from occuring, or becoming too left wing if they do occur.

Freedom Alliance, NCU
The Liberals Party is open to working with the Freedom Alliance, although its right wing platform varies substantially from that of the LP. The NCU is almost completely off the table for any Liberal Led government due to its opposition to basic euqality rights, although the LP remains open to working with every party.

ACU
The ACU is still new and the Liberal Party does not have any significant relationship with it as of yet

3P
Many in the Liberal party consider 3p to be the closest party ideologically, however there are differences between the parties that cause 3p to be further to the left, and open to joining left wing coalitions where Liberals would have not considered it due to vast ideological differences. 3p and the Liberals are often fighting over swing voters in legislative elections. Recently the line between the two parties has blurred following the LP joining UP.

Electorate
(all in-lore so subject to change)

The Liberal Party rarely has a fixed level of support from any group but its strongest support comes from young adults and the middle-aged with moderately strong support from businesses. It gets its strongest support in high population areas across the country such as Leestrom and areas in Brun-Nord, albeit in close competition with other left-wing parties. University-educated and wealthy residents tend to hand their support over to the LP partly being the reason why the LP can still perform fairly well in some wealthy-rural areas.

Advantages
The LP overall has a broad level of support across the nation particularly in the south and moderate support in the north. It has a particularly high support rate from men and women in their 30s and 40s, and among youth it has been gaining in levels of support. They also do well among business owners particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.

Disadvantages
The party suffers within the age group of 50s and above especially within the north due to its stronger conservative stance. The LP also struggles to gain a foothold within left-wing youth particularly in the urban areas of the west and the staunch left-wing provinces of the south. This difficulty to break through the populism has at times been the bane of the party.