Thinking back to my (more) judgemental, opinionated and intolerant youth I recall my mental picture of members of what was then the Liberal Party in British politics; the two major parties, in terms of numbers, being the Conservative and Labour Parties. To me, at that age, a typical Liberal, if male¹, smoked a pipe (particularly when driving his pre-war Morris), had a beard, wore sandals over his socks and a tweed sports jacket with leather patches on the elbows, was probably a teacher² and drank rosé wine or cider.
For my own protection I must stress that I no longer hold that opinion. The Liberal Party no longer exists of course, it has become the Lib Dems, and the ‘type’ I have described has vanished.
1 - I suspect they nearly all *were male. We have a secret ballot after all; what you said to please your husband or father and what you did could be different.
2 – A few teachers at that time could not bring themselves to vote for a socialist party but could not naturally support a party of capitalists. The Liberal Party was the answer for them; radical without being too far left.
