The greatest Liberal

10.33.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 12th Oct 2007

John Stuat Mill born 20 May 1806

Liberal Democrats have voted for the philosopher John Stuart Mill as the greatest British Liberal in history. Party members at the Brighton Conference, together with subscribers to the Journal of Liberal History, took part in the poll, which ended at the Liberal Democrat History Group's fringe meeting on the last night of Conference.

The poll took place in two stages.

In July, the Journal of Liberal History readers voted from amongst a longlist of 15. The four to emerge were Gladstone, Keynes, Lloyd George and Mill, with Asquith a fairly close runner-up. Voting amongst these final contenders was brisk at the History Group stand throughout the Conference, with, as far as unscientific exit polls could tell, a two-horse race developing between Gladstone and Mill.

At the packed and lively fringe, leading Liberal Democrats and historians presented the case for each of the four.

Tom McNally, leader of the Liberal Democrat peers, started off with the case for Keynes, the most influential and important economic thinker of the 20th Century. He showed how governments were not impotent in the face of depression and mass unemployment, and how economics could be used to help create and maintain the conditions in which human beings could live civilised, creative and passionate lives.

Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat leader 1988-99, made out the case for Gladstone, four times Prime Minister, the embodiment of Victorian Liberalism. Accepting that perhaps Gladstone might not always have been much fun to spend time with ("Oh William dear", as his wife once exclaimed, "if you weren't such a great man you would be a terrible bore"), his belief in politics as about great moral causes, not selfish interests, his deep-rooted trust in the people, and his love of liberty, which deepened as he grew older, surely marked him, out as the greatest Liberal.

The Labour peer and historian, Kenneth 0 Morgan, biographer of Lloyd George, agreed with Paddy that the greatest Liberal ought to be a doer, not just a thinker, 'but argued for Lloyd George as the man who brought Liberalism into the 20th Century, adjusting successfully to the new politics of a mass industrial democracy and introducing the major social reforms of the New Liberal government before the First World War. Unlike the other three candidates, he did not have the benefit of a privileged background, embodying Liberalism's belief in opportunities for all in his own career.

Former Guardian journalist Richard Reeves made a powerful case for John Stuart Mill, philosopher, economist, journalist, political writer, social-reformer, and, briefly, Liberal MP, the greatest of the Victorian Liberal thinkers. He is best known for his masterpiece, On Liberty, the symbol of office of the President of the Liberal Democrats, which emphatically vindicated individual moral autonomy, and celebrated the importance of originality and dissent. Reeves put the case for the relevance of Mill's thinking to the present day, arguing that to choose any of the others would be to celebrate Liberalism's glorious past, but to vote for Mill would be to look to a no-less glorious future.

Speakers showed an enjoyable willingness not just to defend their own candidates but to attack the others - Gladstone's early support for slavery, Lloyd George's sale of honours ('well at least it raised money for the party', as Kenneth Morgan remarked) and Keynes's penchant for silk dressing gowns all featured.

The results of the vote, announced at conference just before the Leader's speech, saw Mill well ahead on first preferences, Gladstone just pip Lloyd George to second place, and Keynes trailing.

After two round of eliminations, John Stuart Mill emerged the clear winner - the greatest British Liberal in history.

(For more information on the Liberal Democrat History Group, see www.liberalhistory.org. uk. The meeting will be fully written up in the next edition of the Journal of Liberal History. Anyone who would like to see a free sample edition of the Journal should send their name and address to journal@liberalhistory.org.uk)