I was talking to Alex Sokoloff in our kitchen here in Amsterdam, over a cup or two of Mu tea. We were talking about some of the ideas connected to a globalising world. Alex pointed out that the basic perspectives of the progressive and the conservative movements have histories that go way back. Today's Left and Right have a historical framework.
One of the things I immediately tumbled to was that the language I use needs refining. The type of thinking that I think of as 'conservative' Alex called 'Neo-Liberal'. I laughingly told Alex that it was only a few days ago that I looked up the word 'Liberal'. In my country the Liberal party is the conservative party, so it seems that different countries can have quite different uses of the word.
'A Dictionary of Political Thought' by Roger Scruton defines the terms 'liberal education', 'liberal individualism', 'liberalism' and 'liberal parties'. Looking up 'liberalism', he basically said it was 'contemporaneous with the history of limitted goverment. That is with the sucessful attempts of those subject to Governement to curtail its powers, and to secure for themselves charters, statutes, and institutions and forms of representation that will guaruntee the individuals rights against the sovereign power.'
This is the bit I tried to retain as the core of idea:
'It is almost impossible to reduce liberalism to single theoretical position, although the following ideas are fundamental to most forms of it:
(i) Belief in the supreme value of the individual, his freedom and his rights
(ii) Individualism, in its metaphysical variant
(iii) Belief that the individual has natural rights, which exist independantly of government, and which ought to be protected by and against government. '
So I guess that inherently the idea if liberalism is closely concerned with the rights of the individual. At a social level, this would naturally need to be tempered by the ideas of responsibility to the community. In fact, its a bit worrying that there is no mention of social responsibility in the essential tenents of Liberalism.
1:15:43 PM 
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