Blog archive from the golden age of London libertarianism
John Watson has been in touch to tell us that his new Party is beginning to get off the ground north of the border and has announced the initial leadership team.
Leader: Logan Scott
Chairman: Barry Lyndon
Treasurer: John Watson
Communications: Indie Venture
Membership: Nicholas Kriisa
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Next , South Ease England Libertarians! Anyone?
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All of England please.
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Might I humbly suggest that if anyone wants to start a new Party they should cover no larger area than they can reasonably expect to cover properly.
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Not sure what you mean by that, I personally can cover my local street? But there are plenty of ex-members across the country who would surely like to cooperate regardless of whether they share the same local pub.
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I was just thinking that if is was focused on working in the areas in which it had support, that might work better. If it has support throughout England then I guess that’s fine by definition.
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@Simon I do know what you are getting at, there was a strange fetish in LPUK for drawing up arbitrary regions containing approx one member each. Hopefully any future regional groups will grow organically.
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We could all join UKIP (?)
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UKIP is not a libertarian party despite its assertion of libertarian policies in some areas. It is essentially an anti EU pressure group whose members include people of all kinds of politics and none. I am opposed to the state interference we suffer at the hands of Brussels, but no more so than that emanating from Westminster and the idea that the UK can secure independence from the rest of the world is a delusion.
The minimal state that I favour needs to function predominantly at a very local level where the human scale of operation does not require alienating bureaucracy.
I think that political parties as they have operated in this country are oppressive organisations themselves and I do not regard them as appropriate in an era of electronic communication and Internet based networking. Rather than building memberships and having authoritarian structures we would do better by gaining acceptance of our ideas within our own communities.
Of course we should learn from each other and offer mutual support on regional, national and international levels, but there is nothing magical about the nation state and I see no need to organise around its boundaries.
In my own area we have a small movement which I hope will grow and may be joined by similar movements in other communities.
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Yeah, but sooner or later whatever you want to do to change the state of the nation towards liberty, you will run into the EU. You could scarcely drop a penny from a packet of fags before someone calling on the goons of Brussels, so it can’t really be bucked.
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It is the British government that just increased the price of a pack of fags by 37p and they can be bought much more cheaply in many EU states.
The reality is that the organisations intruding into my life and picking my pocket to do it are multifarious and the EU is only one element. From my Borough Council to Westminster, Brussels, NATO, The UN and all its agencies and thousands of QuANGO’s and NGO’s, the parasitic and intrusive state is multi-layered. The EU is a relatively minor player in all of this and it is a serious political mistake to fetishise it in the way that UKIP does.
It is fundamentally wrong to suggest to people that our problems would be resolved if only we were to leave the EU. Undiluted sovereignty is unachievable (and in my view undesirable), but why is sovereignty being demanded for the UK anyway? The UK is just as much an artificial construct as the EU. The UK only came into existence in 1927 as the remnant of Empire which had to be established to acknowledge the fracture of Ireland and to hang on to dominance of Scotland, Wales & the 6 counties of northern Ireland from the palace of Westminster.
Now that devolution has established itself and the release of more powers to the British nations will continue, it is time to press for the return of self governance to the English localities rather than whipping up nationalistic attitudes focussed on the UK.
Some will think that I am unrealistic, but 40 years ago Scottish independence was regarded as a joke. Nobody is concerned that the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are tiny, self governing units outside the EU and the UK. Ken Livingstone will be campaigning for many more powers to be devolved to London from Parliament and I support that.
My part of England has just as distinct an identity as the Isle of Man and we just as entitled to govern our own affairs.
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I’ll join UKIP when they make a major issue of monetary reform and agree to let the johnny foreigners in.*
*IE: I will never join UKIP 🙂
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Malpoet,
the power that the EU wields is the power the British government gave them – it is the same power! If your enemy is the British government, then the EU is a weapon in its hand.
Fundamental reforms to this country’s legal, taxation and trade systems are blocked by the Shield of Brussels.
It is true that this nation’s sovereignty is compromised by a host of international bodies. The EU is not least among them. We should recall Washington’s warning, and avoid ‘entangling alliances’.
Now, as for your claim that the UK is merely an arbitrary entity. Yes, it is, but it’s more than that as well.
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I really must finish that post on regional parties….
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Sorry Richard, but your comments don’t make much sense to me.
The British Government is not my enemy and I have no interest at all in the impossible objective of national sovereignty. As far as I am concerned only individuals can have inalienable rights.
Citizens need to create a state to enable them to maintain their safety and protect their property, but so long as they allow that state to go beyond this function they lose their freedom and abdicate their responsibilities.
State power should not only be restricted to the preservation of a simple framework of law, but it should also be delivered at as local level as communities consider viable.
The UK is not arbitrary, but it is an artificially enforced centralisation. Nation states are smaller versions of empires. All empires ultimately fail because they cannot permanently sustain the necessary coercion to hold them together. The EU is more likely to disintegrate than the UK, but failure of the EU will not provide any liberation.
The task for libertarians is to encourage people to recover the personal responsibility that has been stolen from them over decades of infantilisation by nanny states. Excessive focus on the EU is a distraction.
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“Excessive focus on the EU is a distraction.”
I suppose that’s irrefutable.
“I have no interest at all in the impossible objective of national sovereignty. ”
You are defining ‘national sovereignty’ as an unobtainable ideal, rather than as a preferable alternative to handing over the business of regulation to a supranational political institution.
“Nation states are smaller versions of empires.”
Really? Are tabbies smaller versions of tigers?
As a libertarian you should oppose increasing bureaucracy and political layering. How can you justify creating another government on top of the one we have? Libertarians should not favour new taxes, but rather say ‘no new taxes, cut the ones we’ve got’. Likewise with government.
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May I ask; what is, if anything, your relationship with the Withers’ rump party?
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According to private communications, it’s unaffiliated.
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It will be very interesting to see the result if they attempt to register a party called “The Scottish Libertarian Party”. Will the EC allow it as “voters may be confused” between it and the Libertarian Party of the UK. If our friends in the north are successful, it opens the door for the English Libertarian Party, the Welsh Libertarian Party, the London Libertarian Party etc etc.
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Addendum: Whilst I am loathe to use either of these statist socialist parties as precedents, the Scottish National Party and the British National Party don’t seem to cause confusion among the electorate (in terms of distingiushing one from the other that is).
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Currently being discussed, we are likely to register the “Scottish Libertarians” NOT the “Scottish libertarian party”. It is unlikely we will be allowed to use the “Scottish libertarian party” but can do only if the “Libertarian party” changes its status to not stand in Scottish steats.
Other back up names our also being considered. We are keeping the party 100% independent away from any other UK political groups. Once the party is registered in a months(or so) the consitution/polcies will not resemable any thing near to the libertarian party.
At the moment we have on the website a modfied version of the UK libertarian party consitution which has now been re-written(not published). Polcies (at the moment) is currently a modfied version of the North Carolina US libertarian party manifesto which will also need to be re-written.
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Good luck to the Scots, and hope it all goes well
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+1 Those of us south of the border will be watching with keen interest.
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