Message From NZ Libertarians

To Chris Mounsey - on behalf of Libertarianz, the New Zealand Libertarian Party, I would like to extend congratulations on assuming the leadership of LPUK. We libertarians from the Antipodes have been following the fortunes of the LPUK closely, and we wish you all the best.

To Ian Parker-Joseph - thank you for your efforts in getting the LPUK off the ground. So many people have never even heard the word 'libertarian', can't pronounce it and don't know what it means. Hopefully over time, thanks to people like yourself, and (hopefully) we Kiwi freedom fighters, more people will switch on to the ideas of personal liberty and minimal government.

Hope your recent conference went well.

Richard G McGrath * Leader, Libertarianz Party

Great Day at LPUK AGM

Well we had a great day at the AGM.

We've elected a very new, but experienced NCC.

Notable appointments include Chris Mounsey as Leader. Clr Gavin Webb as Communications director. And Greg Beaman (Ex-Clr) as Chairman.

Andrew Withers and Tim Carpenter maintain their respective roles.

Thanks must also go to Ian PJ who stepped down as leader -- he put in a lot of hard work on behalf of the party.

And finally thanks to all those who turned up, you made it a most enjoyable day.

Big-business and climate change

I was pointed in the direction of a rather amusing comment on climate change today...

What is so frustrating about these fools is that they are the politicians and greedy bastards who don't want a cut in their profits who use bogus science or the lowest scientists in the gene pool who will distort data for a few bucks. The vast majority of the scientific minds in the World agree and understand it's a very serious problem that can do an untold amount of damage to life on Earth.

So when the right wing fucktards have caused it to be too late to fix the problem, and we start seeing the devastating consequences and we start seeing end of the World type events - how will we punish those responsible. It will be too late. So shouldn't we start punishing them now?

Very funny, no? Anyway I'm not really interested in the punishment idea.

What is of interest is the way loony watermelons imply that opposition to the climate change agenda always comes from greedy, big-business capitalists.

This I believe is a falacy. In fact the climate change agenda is in some ways good for big-business.

Why? Well it's because the aims of big-businesses are very different to SMEs who are the main drivers of capitalism.

The aim of an SME is to grow -- to aquire more market share. Therefore they want to work in a low cost, competitve, free market environment. By contrast big-businesses simply wish to maintain their position within their industry.

And the easiest way to achieve this is to reduce competition. So big-businesses become very interested in what Warren Buffet calls "barriers to entry". That is to make it difficult for new businesses to compete.

And what is one of the best barriers to entry? REGULATION. The more hoops to jump through and the higher the start up costs the less competition big-business will face.

And the golden egg of regulation is... Climate Change.

Which is why I believe we've seen so many big-businesses jump on the climate change bandwagon in recent years.

And it is why it is an absolute falacy to suggest that big-business fundamentally opposes the climate change agenda.

Bank charges -- what's the big deal...

I'm a little lost by this whole bank charging thing...

Billions of pounds could eventually be paid back to millions of bank customers when the Supreme Court delivers a judgement on overdraft charges this morning.

The court will decide whether to allow banks to be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading.
The regulator says the banks have imposed unfair charges on their customers for going overdrawn.

But any refunds could be a long way off.

If the court finds against the banks it will pave the way for a further hearing to decide whether the charges are fair and, if not, what a fair charge would be.

Firstly, surely there are more important things we need to resolve in the banking sector. Like monetary supply and reserve ratios.

But more importantly this is an issue of personal responsibility. It's the individual's reponsibility to look after their finances -- not the banks.

The fines may be disproportionate compared to the cost but they serve a purpose. Which is to encourage people to look after their finances.

In addition most of these fines only target persistant offenders. If you accidentally become overdrawn once most banks will refund the fine -- both Barclays and Lloyds do.

So what's the problem?

I hope the banks win this case. As it promotes personal responsibility and good financial management.

And hopefully it will allow us to move on to discuss the more important issues in this sector...

St Albans campaign day two report

Despite the weather we enjoyed another good day in St Albans campaigning on Saturday.

We once again received positive feedback from the public. Especially the street traders many of whom had had enough of being over taxed. And of course those who enjoy a smoke.

We also got the above photo of us outside Northern Crock which I rather like.

If you would like to help us out with our campaigning in the South East please join our Activists Group.

Many thanks to those of you helped us out on Saturday.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

You Don't need No stinking Self-Defence

Boy, 14, and accomplice 'kicked man to death after he found them burgling a house'

Bailed to murder: Gang of teenage hoodies kicked former soldier to death for £5 they wanted to spend on booze and drugs



Taking into account the routine nature of the scenarios above, With dogmatic confidence the Powers that Be will still proclaim you wrong to suggest that the victims in these cases should have been armed with a gun, can of pepperspray, or even a club. After all, should weapons be legally available to carry by the law abiding, feral youths like this would have surely been carrying them to murder and obtain small change.

Or, is it that these hyped up wild animals, rather than commit calculative murder, see a chance to satisfy their sadistic urges and flex their muscles for the rush instead? Would effective weapons legally available for defensive purposes mean we'd have a shot victim or several shot thugs?

I'm curiously speculative as to whether any of these undeserving, press adorned anti-weapon zealots could honestly look into the eyes of one of these victims and say that had they have been armed with a weapon, things would have been worse? Would they proudly proclaim a rape victim as a model citizen for not carrying a groin-taylored dagger and instead laying down and giving in? After all, according to them there is "No possible excuse" for carrying a weapon and jail should be awarded to you should you dare to not comply.

I seriously wonder if asked whether they'd choose between a pistol or a mobile phone when confronted by an AIDs ridden crackhead, they'd proudly accept the later?

The slimy truth is, they have the audacity to demand that we do.




...............................................
Email www.gun-control-network.org and have your say.

Email www.homeoffice.gov.uk/complaints and have your say.

Join www.armbritain.com and have your say.

Visit www.britainneedsguns.co.uk.

If you see that change can't be found within in any other party, then join www.lpuk.org.

How Much ?

Bankers -- take your wealth and expertise, and...

I hope when you read this your jaw hits floor as hard and quickly as mine did...

A Financial Services Bill will offer tough new powers to City regulators to tear up bankers' contracts if they include excessive pay and bonus deals.

In an upbeat podcast on the Downing Street website, Mr Brown said Britain had a "bright future" ahead of it after the economic difficulties of the past year.
...
Chancellor Alistair Darling said the Financial Services Authority would get new powers to stop bankers pocketing big bonuses.

There would also be powers to cancel pay packages which rewarded undue risk-taking.

Legislation to be unveiled on Wednesday will also enable the FSA to require banks to renegotiate remuneration packages which breach its pay code.

Banks that continue to offer unjustifiable sums face being fined by the regulator.

What to say? This is simply mental. Even if we ignore the fact that this will not avert any future financial crisis there is still a shed load of things wrong with this.

First, it's just one big up yours to anyone working in the banking sector. They could have only made it worse by saying, "Take all your money and expertise and .... ... to Singapore with Jim Rogers..."

However, what is much more worrying about this is the precedent it sets. If the Government can set the wages of Bankers what's to stop them doing the same for other private sector workers?

Well, if we look at all the other precedents breeched by this Government -- for example RIPA -- nothing at all.

Seriously, if you have a decent amount of capital behind you and some skills just leave this country. Because I think they're just hitting nails into the coffin for fun now.

Operation Health Freedom

Here are a couple of interesting videos from the Campaign For Liberty's "Operation Health Freedom" on why socialised, state-run health care doesn't work.

First, another video from Dan Hannan who is once again up to his 'dirty, un-patriotic tricks'...

And second the excellent Andrew Napolitano of Freedom Watch fame...

Chris Mounsey LPUK At Libertarian Alliance

LAConf09, Chris Mounsey: "The UK Libertarian Party" from Sean Gabb on Vimeo.

Fight for Liberty Today

One of the main aims of the LPUK over the next 12 months is to convert ourselves from an online talking-shop into a real-world, campaign based, political party.

Now of course this is going to be quite a task given the resources at our disposal and the opposition we face. However, we are already making good progress towards this goal.

Gavin Webb, the UK's only Libertarian Councilor, has put together the website freemancampaigns.com to help Libertarians easily produce campaign material so they can organise in their local area.

Also in the South East we have already run our first campaign day in St Albans and we have many more planned.

So, how can you help us fight for liberty? Simple, you can give us one of two things. You can give us your time or a little of your money.

If you have time available and you live in the South East join our activists group and help us organise our campaign days. Or if you live elsewhere in the UK join freemancampaigns.com and start organising with your party branch in your local area.

But if like many of us you are very busy you can donate just a few quid to help us run our campaigns. For example -- for every £200 we raise we can print over 10,000 flyers or more than 5,000 newsletters which will help us promote the Party and libertarianism. Donations can be made on our website or you can transfer money directly to our Acc. No. 92635313 Sort Code 40-28-20.

If you can spare a little of the above you will make a big difference and helps us Fight for Liberty Today.

Brown -- can a Prime Minister be more out of touch?

It's quite clear that of all the statists from around the world we could have running our country we have the worst.

Brown is now so out of touch that even his fellow statists think he's nuts after he announced his transaction tax plan...

Although officials later insisted that the UK was not wedded to the idea of a transactions levy – often termed a “Tobin tax” – the prime ministers’ intervention sparked an unusual degree of criticism from the G20, where delegations are increasingly irritated by his attempts to browbeat them into new policies.

Tim Geithner, the US Treasury secretary said: “A day-by-day financial transactions tax is not something we are prepared to support”, while Dominique Strauss Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund repeated his long-standing position that a Tobin tax is “a very old idea that is not really possible today”. One G20 official sensed there was no ripping enthusiasm for Mr Brown’s ideas across the G20.

But even more odd was Brown's statement that...

"It cannot be acceptable that the benefits of success in this sector are reaped by the few but the costs of its failure are borne by all of us"

This clearly shows Brown has absolutely no grasp of reallity. Given that it was he and his Government that bailed out the banks and made sure we all bore the costs of their failure.

I'm just wondering what he'll do next. Maybe he'll come out as a flat-earther.

Ron Paul vs. Michael Moore

This is a great video on how socialists get it so wrong on modern-day 'capitalism'.

Cast Iron Guarantees Eh !

Vote Tory, for why ? their cast iron guarantees count for absolutely nothing.

The LPUK did not fight the Euro elections because it made a policy decision not to engage or give legitimacy to an organisation that does not of the assent of the citizens of this country, they were not asked. Labour promised a Referendum and the Tories promised the same. Same Result, you don't count.

Libertarianism is about have as little Government as possible and as close to the people as possible NOT creating super states, that only benefit the political classes.

Virtually every Party including UKIP and BNP were queuing up to stand for the EU gravy train, even the 'nationalist' parties of Wales,Scotland and Kernow were queuing up on the grounds of getting bigger subsidies from the EU. You do not become wealthier by creating bigger chains to hold you down.

The Tory Party is now heading for a damaging split over Europe again, because it is has two EU personalities that are utterly incompatable.

The Monarchy has signed all of these Bills ceding power to a supra national, undemocratic organisation since 1974 and has largely been supine as an institution to the will of the Political classes determined that we become a less accountable society.

Never mind the fiction of the NWO conspiracists the Imperial EU has arrived, because you all voted Labour,Conservative,Social Democrat,BNP and UKIP, the sensible ones did not vote and therefore gave legitimacy to this Coup D'Etat

Unless there is an umbrella opposition to this form 'gerrymandering' style of Government, our individual Liberties will be further driven underfoot.

UPDATE

The Czechs have ratified the Lisbon Treaty. There was no serious opposition to this in the Rotten Parliament.

Banking: When you sup with the State, no spoon is long enough.

So we see the Treasury parading "their plan" for the break-up of State-supported banks to "increase competition on the High Street".

Andrew Neil has neatly pulled back the Treasury's velvet curtain to expose the pretence and falsehoods of the announcement. I shall not repeat what he says.

Did Darling-Brown know that the EU would force this, in which case they were at best disingenuous and even fraudulent when putting the case to Lloyds, or were they just* incompetent?

Either way it shows that The Treasury is NOT Sovereign in the UK anymore. It is set to degrade from being an independent Sovereign entity to a regional head office, to a mere branch and then, finally, the indignity of being an ATM.

Lloyds would not have failed. Barclays did not. HSBC did not. Had RBS been slapped hard enough on the back to spit out Nat West, the latter would have survived without State aid.

All four English "High Street Banks" not requiring State Aid to see them through the crisis? That does not fit into the plan. That would not give the Devil, I mean, the State a chance to get its control-freak fingernails into the Banks' operations, to "manage the market".

What it will do is send a message to all financial institutions as to "who is boss". It might make some kow-tow to The State in the short term, but only for as long as they can restructure and move their wealth and operations elsewhere behind the scenes. London as a major financial hub is threatened yet again by the combination of our current abominable Labour administration and their puppet-masters in Brussels. To think it is not part of a plan then again puts us onto the alternative, that of their utter incompetence.

Either way we need rid of the puppet-master and the election of a new Administration free of puppets. Common sense will tell you to get both we need the latter before we can achieve the former.


* I say "just" as I think this term applies across both cases.

Thou shalt not offend famous swimmers

It seems that I'm a celebrity swimmer Rebecca Adlington has got her swim suit in a twist because of what a comedian has said...

Olympic swimming champion Rebecca Adlington has made a formal complaint accusing the BBC of not being tough enough on a comedian who made a joke about her.

In a letter to the BBC Trust, the double gold medallist said she felt Frankie Boyle had been let off with a "slap on the wrist" after he made a jibe about her appearance.
...
Boyle has remained unrepentant about his comments and has so far refused to apologise.

He has since quit Mock The Week and in an interview with Time Out he criticised the BBC for being dull and only showing cooking and property programmes.

He said: "If you look at the scheduling nowadays, it's all just celebrities meeting meerkats."

The gag was made on the BBC gameshow Mock The Week when Boyle said Miss Adlington resembled "someone looking at themselves in the back of a spoon".

All I can say is well done Frankie Boyle for standing up for freedom of speech and not caving into the BBC. It's just a shame he had to leave Mock the Week as he was the best thing about it.

Sadly there is a worrying belief developing in this country where people assume they have a right not to be offended.

This is nonsense and dangerous as it can only curtail freedom of speech. Ultimately if you don't like what someone has to say don't watch, listen or hang around with them. Then you won't be offended.

So in 'solidarity' with Frankie Boyle and freedom of speech I shall re-publish the content that got him in so much trouble. And remember if you don't wish to be offended don't watch it...

Tories: Disingenuous or fools over Renegotiation?

It appears that the Tory position will be to "renegotiate" over our EU status, but not to have a referendum or just repeal the ratification of Lisbon.

What would they do, what COULD they do in those negotiations? Lisbon is signed. Lisbon can self-amend. The EU can string out talks for 1, 2, 5 or 10 years. What can David Cameron do? What is his "walk away" position?

To get a proper renegotiation, one would need to have the ability and the will to adopt the "Nuclear Option" as in pull out of the EU entirely by repealing the 1972 Act. As no Parliament can bind its successors - and not forgetting that no MP nor Parliament is authorized to hand over sovereignty to foreign powers to begin with - the ability exists. The will is another mater. I am certain there is no will in the current leadership of the Tory Party.

While Dave is in interminable talks with EU filibusters in Brussels, the Tories will go merrily about their "own" (?) plans at deepening Regionalisation along the boundaries decided by the EU whilst the Commission will be self-amending the Treaty. For talks to work for the UK the EU needs a good reason to keep Dave at the negotiation table and to close a deal. They do not have one, nor, given the lack of sanction, do they NEED one.

The EU, I am certain, will not mind talking. Talk is cheap. They will listen to the demands then come back with a "compromise" that will gain favourable headlines but in fact concede nothing of any lasting power or value just as the "red lines" gained the UK nothing in reality.

We appear to be undergoing a ghastly "Bait and Switch" exercise with Labour and Conservatives hand in Fabian glove.

EDIT: I posted something similar to the above as a comment on this post over at Conservative Home. It was up last night but my comment did not see daylight. For shame, TimM, for shame.

Devil's Kitchen at the ASI

The LPUK's very own Devil's Kitchen will be giving a talk at the ASI on Tuesday this week.

We haven't been informed what it will be on yet but having seen him speak on a number of occassions I am confident it will be excellent whatever the subject.

The event kicks off at 6pm so if you are interested please come along.