At the various think tanks and other events I attend in London, I often meet young people who are libertarian and in the Conservative party, claiming it is the ‘only’ option if you are pro liberty. Reading articles like “Facebook libertarians need to grow up” on the Telegraph site  is a good example of that, though I always find this thinking fallacious. It seems that no matter how good your intentions are, spending any serious amount of time in the Tory party seems to morph people into middle of the road career politicians (especially if you are ambitious – look at Alan Duncan)

‘On first joining Facebook in 2006, I decided that libertarianism embodied everything I believed’ A quick Wikipedia search told me that libertarians supported individual liberty and political freedom. What is more, they campaigned for the radical redistribution of power from the state to the people.

So what changed they Guy?

‘Guy Stagg is Online Lifestyle Editor at the Telegraph Media Group and is a former researcher for the Conservative Party.’

Ohhh…. So what other pearls of wisdom does this former researcher have for us?

Dominic Raab, one of the brightest and best of the Tory’s 2010 intake, recently described himself as “on the libertarian wing” of the Conservative Party. No he isn’t. There is no libertarian wing of the Conservative Party.

Try telling that to Steve Baker, Douglas Carswell etc and see that they have to say

There is no libertarian wing of any political party.

Again, am sure these guys will disagree with you. Sure there are some Libertarians who think party politics is a waste of time (and after all the LPUK stuff I sympathise with this position!), but to say that there are none active in any party is a serious misrepresentation.

It’s an oxymoron, like saying you work in the anti-war section of an arms factory. Raab may be in favour of decentralisation, and rolling back the state, but that does not make him a libertarian.

And nor should he want to be. Libertarianism is an immature and incoherent philosophy.

Oh really? What happened to all those great things individual liberty you were into 5 years ago?

First, it is an intellectual non-starter: even founder Robert Nozick changed his mind about the perverse form of liberty, which it fostered.

Not this again, Nozick (who certainly isn’t the founder of libertarianism)  has been misquoted on this repeatedly, as David Boaz makes clear.

Second, you have to be very naive to think that letting everyone take heroin and own shotguns would really make them freer.

Ah the other classic straw man, that liberty= shotguns and heroin for all. There is a great deal more to libertarian thought than these two issues, yet conservatives always seem to obsess over them. Please tell us why, wise master, why we can’t have these things by the way?

 Third, the idea that deregulation would solve all our problems is, given the current economic crisis, frankly a joke.

I doubt there are any serious thinkers who say this, but considering how much of the crisis was caused by regulation getting rid of the bad ones would be a great boost, as would a lot of the red tape that costs business a fortune in compliance costs.

Finally, there is a reason that libertarianism is kept alive by social media and university common rooms. These places are both at one remove from the real world. They are full of people trying to live without responsibilities. But Facebook libertarians need to realise: it’s time to grow up.

It is true that libertarians tend to be found more online, that is because they have been shut out of the public discourse by the MSM, which is what we are trying to change with sites like this (and previous efforts like LPUK) Also, I think you’d find that most libertarians are very much aware of the link between freedom and responsibility.

Overall Mr Stagg comes across as some desperately trying to bury a ‘radical’ past to ease his future career in the Tory party. Which, to get back to my original point, is what seems to happens to most who join said party. No matter how much of a Randian/Monetarist/Austrian you start out, the party machine will turn you into a member of the hang-em-and-flog-em brigade

Seriously, I hope he not being paid for this crap.