Ups and downs in the European Parliament

Maelo Manning "joined the Lib Dems at the age of 10, I am now 14, and never have I questioned my belief in the party until now. In these four years I have seen the party go from having no chance of being in power, to being in Government and reverting back to having no chance again."

While I joined the (Social and) Liberal Democrats at a greater age than Maelo, I have seen greater vicissitudes for Liberals and Liberal Democrats in my lifetime.  In the 1950s, it was said that the parliamentary party could go to work in Westminster in a taxi, a gift for cartoonists.

This all serves as an introduction to my recent ferreting in UK-Elect (recommended for political anoraks - and it's British). That confirmed that having minuscule UK Liberal Democrat representation in the European Parliament is nothing new. This is the table for mainland Great Britain:

Year of election	Labour	Conservative	Liberal Democrat	Green	Plaid Cymru	SNP	UKIP
1979	17	60	0	0	0	1	0
1984	32	45	0	0	0	1	0
1989	45	32	0	0	0	1	0
1994	62	18	2	0	0	2	0
1999	29	36	10	2	2	2	3
2004	19	27	12	2	1	2	12
2009	13	25	11	2	1	2	13
2014	20	19	1	3	1	2	24

Notes:

1. Member countries had to use a form of proportional representation from 1999 onwards. In the UK, the government decided that this should be by closed party lists in mainland Britain and single transferable vote in Northern Ireland.

2. BNP gained two seats in the 2009 election, but lost them again in 2014

3. Data for 1979 and 1984 taken from House of Commons Research Paper 99/57.