Orange bookers beware: Liberal Futures publishes The Little Yellow Book

First, there was the Orange Book. Then Liberal Democrat Voice published the Tangerine Book. Now, tomorrow, Scottish based Liberal Futures will publish The Little Yellow Book, a collection of essays on Liberalism in Scotland today edited by former MSP and Education Minister Robert Brown and Nigel Lindsay (no relation). It aims to move beyond the Orange Book of 2004, and to articulate a Liberalism of the people that speaks to modern Scotland with a mission to make our country a more equal and buoyant one. 

Liberal Futures was established last year to promote thought and policy development among Scottish Liberal Democrats in 2012 and beyond. It was originally called Liberal Vision but recently changed its name to avoid confusion with the English organisation which has quite different aims. 

The Little Yellow Book was developed out of ideas discussed at a conference last June and contains essays by prominent and academic Liberal Democrats currently working in Scotland, including former MSP Elspeth Attwooll, John Aldridge, Ben Colburn, Murray Leith, Ross Finnie, Gillian Gloyer, Denis Sullivan and Paul Coleshill, as well as the editors themselves. It is deliberately named after the famous Liberal Yellow Book of 1928 which did so much to reinvigorate the Party before the 1929 election. It calls for a more rigorous sense of public and personal ethics and for a strengthened concept of the public interest, ideas that are central to Liberalism. Itdiscusses ways in which these ideas can be applied in practical politics today.

Essay subjects include:

·         Liberalism for the people – the Orange Book challenged

·         A New World Order – lessons from the Arab Spring

·         Crisis in Ethics – the failure of leadership

·         Effectiveness in the public sector

The Little Yellow Book runs to 176 pages and includes a Foreword by Willie Rennie MSP.  It can be ordered from booksellers or through Amazon (quoting ISBN 978-178035-266-4) at the cost of £9.50. 

For a limited period including the Inverness conference, The Little Yellow Book is available at the special launch price of £8.00. It can be bought during the Inverness conference, and at the Social Liberal Forum / Liberal Futures fringe meeting in Inverness where it is to be launched. It can also be ordered by post prior to the conference at this price, plus 50p p & p per copy, (cheques made payable to "Liberal Futures") from Nigel Lindsay, 4 Church Road, Bo'ness, West Lothian, EH51 0EL

This book aims to shape thinking on how Liberalism in Scotland should develop over the coming decade but with its range of subjects it will be of interest to many south of the border as well.