Since the 1679-1680 succession to the throne controversy the British political scene hs been dominated by a constant number of major political parties: two.
First of all were the Whig and the Tory, political group having opinions about Charles II's brother, James, Duke of York, right to succession. The problem consisted in James being a Roman-Catholic subject.
The Popish Plot became an attempt to use Parliment to exclude James from the succession and to weaken Charles" government; its leading advocate, Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury, created what has been seen as the first English political party, the "Whigs", an abusive term referring to Scottish Presbyterian rebels, though the party should be seen as a faction held together by informal ties, ambition and ideology, not by party discipline and central control. The Whigs produced a mass of propaganda like an unlicensed newspaper, " The Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome". The name Whig soon lost its derogatory sense and was supressed by the term "Liberal" in the mid-19th century.
As a reaction to the "Whigs", the "Tories" developed as a conservative and loyalistic group, devoted to royalism and Catholicism. They finally won the controversy and the result was that James became later on James II. The trem "Tory" was suspended by "Conservative" in the 1830s.
Starting at the end of the 18th century a new political current, the liberalism became very influential in England, mostly due to John Locke's philosophy. The liberals pleaded for Rationality-reliance upon supporting evidence for ideas rather than assertions, on Liberty-the belief that each citizen is entitled to certain liberties, the independence of the main government institutions, and the Rights-the idea that the people have rights which are personal and independent of the state.
The classical liberals, those forming the Liberal party in the 19th century, pleaded for a minimal government: socially ("to protect people from the consequences of their own folly is to people the world with fools" - Herbert Spencer) and also economically.
