The Liberal

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The Liberal is a UK political magazine, originally founded in 1822 by Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Leigh Hunt to challenge the perceived contemporary consensus of conservative publications with a selection of original poetry, prose fiction and reviews. Contributors to the short-lived publication included the three founders along with Mary Shelley and William Hazlitt; together, some of the foremost influences of the Romantic movement.

The Liberal was relaunched in 2004 by a group of recent UK graduates, drawing contributions from several international literary and cultural figures as well as UK politicians. Contributors have included Noam Chomsky, Michael Foot, Seamus Heaney, Martin Rees, Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg. It briefly enjoyed notoriety when distributors were prevented from entering the 2005 Liberal Democrat Party Conference.

In late 2005 and early 2006 the magazine received press coverage for its launch of a web-based petition to oust Charles Kennedy as leader of the Liberal Democrats. The petition required only a name and email address, was not made public and was therefore unverified, leading to allegations that few of the alleged signatories were genuine.

[edit] External links

• The Liberal - Website for the Magazine.