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From the SDP to the Independent Group: the importance of politics from below
KEITH FLETT wonders how Labour's centrist split intend to function with no membership, structure or policies
oy Jenkins (left) and Dr David Owen at the launch of the new Social Democratic Party, March 1981

A FEW days after the Independent Group (TIG) of MPs formed in the Commons, the Liberal Democrat strategist Mark Pack tweeted “who will be TIG’s Bill Rodgers?” It was an interesting question.

Despite having spent a year in formation with meetings at luxury hotels the breakaway MPs appeared without a proper name, no policies, no membership and no structure. Their cheerleaders in the media argue all these will appear over time.

The SDP which was formed in 1981 was a rather different and more substantial matter. On its founding day the Limehouse Declaration was published outlining its basic principles. Its roots went back much further than that though.

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