Jonathan Calder

Jonathan Peter Calder is a British Liberal Democrat writer and former elected Liberal Democrat Councillor. He lives in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. Descended from the old Scottish Liberal family of the Calders of Ballater in Aberdeenshire, he is also related to the Whig Campbells of Khantore, Crathie, also of Aberdeenshire.

Calder was educated at the University of York in the late 1970s and was Treasurer of University Radio York in 1979. Subsequently he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts in Victorian Studies by the University of Leicester in the mid-1990s.

His work has appeared in "The Guardian" and he writes the weekly column "House Points" for "Liberal Democrat News" as well as a regular column in "The New Statesman".

Calder is an internationally recognized authority on Richard Jefferies, and has given the prestigious Richard Jefferies Society's Birthday Lecture at Aldbourne in Wiltshire in the mid 1990s.

A well known expert on the thought of Karl Popper he wrote the Popper article in the "Dictionary of Liberal Thought", ed. Duncan Brack and Ed Randall with a foreword by Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat History Group, 2007. London.

Calder is a member of the "Liberator magazine" editorial collective and has written "Lord Bonkers' Diary" since 1990. This humorous column purports to be written by fictional peer, Lord Bonkers, who was apparently Liberal MP for Rutland South-West between 1906 and 1910.

He maintains a blog, Liberal England ("an amusingly eclectic mix of culture and politics"), and has also been published by "Clinical Psychology Forum" and "Spiked".

His other publications include:

*"Cohesive Communities" by David Boyle & Jonathan Calder in "Passports to Liberty" No 6. ed. Kiron Reid and Bill le Breton. Liberator Publications, 2005. London. ("Passports to Liberty" is an occasional series of essays discussing important issues in contemporary liberalism published by Liberator Publications.)

*Essay on transport in "Liberalism – something to shout about: Beyond Incrementalism. Can the Liberal Democrats meet the challenge?" ed. Graham Watson MEP and Simon Titley. Liberator Publications, September 2006, London. (This is a collection of essays written by leading Liberal Democrat thinkers at a time when the party was concluding its policy review, Meeting the Challenge. In a refreshing series of polemics, the authors, including Calder, argued that this policy review implied a srategic gearshift with profound implications for the party’s policy-making and campaigning, which required considerable courage if it was to be taken to its logical conclusion.)

In his day job he is Communications Officer for the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology.

Like all decent people Calder is well disposed to cats, and they to him. This is evidenced by his very important political intervention in the 2005 election - Whittington's Diary: A Liberal Democrat cat's account of the 2005 general election at http://libdemcat.blogspot.com/.

The political significance and importance of which is that it was the first ever feline/furchild first person blog dealing with UK politics. This blog has been regarded as being highly non-trivial and indeed as of great importance and significance by the British animal rights activist community.

External links

* [http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/ Liberal England]
* [http://www.bonkers.hall.btinternet.co.uk/calder.htm Archive of Calder's work]
* [http://www.liberator.org.uk/ Liberator magazine]