ELECTORAL REFORM NOW !

All Hands On Deck

This is the last weekend before May 6th.

Thanks to an appeal to all members last week for funds to finance the leaflets plus a couple of members of the NCC underwiting the difference, we have ensured that each house in Devizes and Sutton & Cheam Constituencies will get their leaflet.

A Big Thank You especially to those who sent in some large cheques.

However please don't stop giving what you can, as soon as this election is over the 2011 Local Authority campaign starts getting organised.


This weekend is your chance to show you do care about Liberty, to just spend a couple of hours helping Nic and Martin's campaign out, you can also support David Kirwan and Nikki Sinclaire on the Wirral and in Solihull.

Please also remember Stuart Heal and Tim Carpenter in Manchester and London.

We just need your ability to shove a leaflet through a letterbox, if you are in Pewsey this weekend, and you are shy, Nic and I will hold your hand.

Leafleting works

Libertarian Party Manifesto 2010

We have seen much of the big three party's manifesto pledges. To this end I submit for review the Libertarian Party manifesto. Please note that you can compare this manifesto by carrying out a search for your party's name along with the terms manifesto and the year.

If the views presented are more to your liking perhaps you should contact the party, donate, become involved or a combination of all of the three!

In a country where we are individuals having choice is important. We should be aware of the decisions our representatives are making, the impact they have not just on our lives but that of all people and ensure our voices are being heard.

Libertarian+Manifesto

EDIT: For those of you that require this document in another format please email
sutton @lpuk.org

Guy News Poll Of Polls

A great pool of clear brown water is now opening up amongst the big three, Cameron is only three percentage points ahead after the most disastrous Government in postwar history, largely because the Tories relied on personality politics 'if we could only get our own Blair' , and not concentrating on policies.

Anybody with half an ear to the ground would have realised that the massive coercive hectoring State created by my generation of 1970's graduate misfits with their misguided and destructive wimmin at the helm of of social policy and social engineering in the hands of the likes of Brown, Straw and Mandelson needed challenging day after day after day.

Cameron and the Tories did not do this, they failed in opposition, seeking to match Labour's spending pound for pound, meekly accepting every salami slice of the loss of our Liberties, and now want to be the Government of the day untrammeled by what the public wants or thinks until the next election.

The writing is on the wall, Clegg is riding high because of an overiding committment to Constitutional Reform and reducing Taxes.

Once that has been achieved and we have a more responsive electoral system, we can make our views known on Europe, Crime, Welfare and a host of other issues.

Regurgitating 'change' as did Obama is not going to swing it with the British Voter who do not do revival meetings too well.

Cameron the 'Man of Destiny' better start getting used to the idea, that we have played that game for sixty five years and we have had enough, if he wants to get the Conservatives into a position of power and influence, he better start telling Boy George is not going to be Chancellor for a start.

Campaign E Mails

Please use the following to contact our campaigns

devizes@lpuk.org

sutton@lpuk.org

Nikki Sinclaire MEP

Following a recent meeting with Nikki who is standing as an Independent in Meriden we are pleased that the Libertarian Party can give its endorsement in this General Election.

Nikki's recent fracas with Lord Pearson and the potential 'Lord' Farage has lead her parting with UKIP.

If you wish to support Nikki on the campaign please contact us at 1984@lpuk.org

The Loneliness Of Being A Tory Candidate In Bracknall

H/T OH

Oh Dear- The Tories here seem to be getting the message from the voters

Martin Cullip in Sutton & Cheam

Martin now has a facebook up

pop along and register your support

So What First Attracted You To The Multi Millionaire Jury Team Member Ms Kennard

The Sutton Guardian story rumbles on with the revelation that Julia Kennard is a Jury Team supporter. A quick check on her Twitter account confirms that it is the same person.

Iain Dale gives the story a fillip as well.

Jury Team looking to break the mould of politics ! More of the same Authoritarian rubbish without the benefit of policies more like.

Enshrine the Right To Bear Arms back into law

Every human being has a right to defend themselves. What good is the right to self-defence when you are denied the tools needed to effectively succeed in thwarting an attack? Likewise, every nation also has a right to retain their power over government by being armed.

The Prevention of Crime Act 1953 is cited as making the carrying of any object for the purpose of self-defence a criminal offence. The Firearms Acts progressively stripped away all means of effectively defending one's home, especially from multiple home invaders. All of these subsequent laws have created a situation whereby the law abiding are at the mercy of criminals who simply do not follow these laws.

In this country, should a women pull out a can of irritant self-defence spray on a rapist, among other things, she'd be charged with possession of a section 5 firearm. This is a more serious offence than assault or attempted rape. Criminalising weapons has ensured that justice has swung completely in favour of the criminals in society.

As Prime Minister, one of the first acts I'd take in restoring the liberty of the people would be to reinstate our once cherished right of bearing arms for defence back into law.


Should you agree with me on this essential measure in restoring our grip over tyranny and despotism, do vote 'for' in this entry on The Telegraph's online poll:

http://debate2010.telegraph.co.uk/ideaView?id=087A000000004bbIAA

We Have Had A Chat With The Editor Of The Sutton Guardian

Who have now decided to amend the online version of candidates in Sutton & Cheam

The full story of fear and loathing is set out here by Anna Raccoon

The Libertarian Party has received a dismissive response from BBC complaints department about Wiggy Neil

Perhaps this is why according to Guido Fawkes, the complaints department of Public Service Broadcaster has some chums of Gordon working in it and standing for the great helmsman.

Sutton 'Guardian' Joke Journalists

The Electoral Commission is running a campaign wanting you the great British Public to get involved in democratic politics. All well and good.

Ok you put your name down as a candidate of a registered political party to stand for Parliament, the returning officer is pleased and extremely helpful that his constituency is being used as a testing ground for a new party.

Then you send off your biography to the local press, remember them the fourth estate, charged with investigating and holding the system to account.

So have a look at what the Sutton 'Guardian' decides to print instead of the Libertarian Party's candidate official bio.

This was lifted off a darts social website that the candidate had given his time and energy to. The now owner of that website has sent a furious email of complaint to the editor.

This coming hard on the heels of washed up journo Andrew Neil's treatment of Chris Mounsey the Libertarian Party Leader, playing the man not the policies. Here we go again, the media not wanting to give the public ideas above their station that there is an alternative to the three major parties corrupt tax & spend policies.

The Libertarian Party agent for Sutton & Cheam has dropped a polite email to the Editor asking for a little chat on Monday morning.

The two 'journalists' who put this together are obviously aiming high in their careers as political editors of page 16 of the Sunday Sport.

Not only is Westminster a festering pit of self interest, the fouth estate is happily wallowing in the same mire

The joke party candidate- the Labour Party candidate gets a glowing bio. This joke party has put each one of us in massive debt, lowered living standards and widened the gap between rich and poor. Even the overtly far left BNP gets a respectful mention.

Looking forward to that chat Monday.


' Libertarianism the concept that dare not speak its name'

Jail knife carriers

Because all 'knife carriers' are baby killing sociopaths who we can't afford to have loose on our streets, right?

Disabled caravanner given criminal record for penknife in car

Full time carer Rodney Knowles kept the knife in his glove compartment of his vehicle.

The 61-year-old, who walks with the aid of a stick, was stopped by police on suspicion of drink driving - he was below the legal limit - but officers found the knife in a pouch in the car's glove box.

He was given a conditional discharge after admitting the weapon charge at Torbay magistrates court in south Devon.

Knowles, from Buckland, Newton Abbot, Devon, said:"It's a stupid law. Now I have a criminal record."

Prosecutor Philip Sewell said:"He told officers that he had the knife for caravanning. He is not working and had no malicious reason for carrying the blade."

Mr Jolyon Tuck, defending, said he uses the knife to cut up fruit on picnics with his wife.

He said:"He accepts it is in his car and the law is very clear. He admits possession of it and he had no good reason for having it."

Knowles was ordered to pay £40 costs and the knife was forfeited.

The retired maintenance engineer, who has no previous convictions, said:"It was in my glove box in a pouch, along with a torch, first aid kit and waterproofs."

These people seem to think so:

Mandatory jail terms for knife carriers a step closer as Holyrood committee votes in favour

‘Jail knife carriers’, says Godman

Jail knife carriers, says Cameron

Tories Will Jail All Knife Carriers (- "The party would also fast-track the introduction of mobile weapons scanners on streets, trains and buses.")


Do you get the whole illiberal law thing now? Good.

Votes

Shamelessly lifted from Anna Raccoon

The 'Leaders' Debate

As a fully paid up politics junkie, DIY SOS was a far better bet.

The whole farce was a snapshot of how the politicians and hacks treat us.

The Audience were compelled to sit there in stony silence listening to how these three idiots were going to spend THEIR money, Dear God, they were also wired up to some machine to allow MORI to gauge their reaction.

I did not look at the 'Leaders' I looked at the faces of the audience, how many did you count chewing their lips in suppressed rage.

Alistair Stewart (allowed out from his 'Stop Police you are wonderful' persona) was the ref. Why o why him ?

The questiontime format is far better, where if an ego driven politician is talking
bilge, the audience erupts into a cacophony of rage and groans.

This was a beauty contest without the beauties, a complete and utter waste of time.

We the people should be partaking in OUR democracy, not sitting in a stony silence wired up to a machine. We get just one chance to vote in a rigged system and we are told to collectively told shut up and be quiet. No wit,No style,No flair - sanitised to death.

This is a dystopia from 1984 and bladerunner. The Prisoner remake starts Saturday, how apt.

Which bad law would you scrap first?

First up..


Firearms Laws

http://debate2010.telegraph.co.uk/ideaView?id=087A000000004CfIAI

The current laws governing firearms ownership in the UK are overly restrictive. Both the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 and the Firearms (Amendment)(No2) Act 1997 were passed at times of significant outcry against firearms ownership. Indeed, the Home Affairs Select Committee concluded that a ban on handguns in the wake of the Dunblane massacre would be "panic legislation".

A report by the Center of Defence Studies, (Imperial College, London), revealed that the Handgun bans had no effect on the criminal use of illegally held Firearms in Britain.

The private ownership of handguns was effectively banned in Great Britain in 1997. All registered handguns were collected by the police and destroyed. Since then, there have been an average of between 4,000 and 5,000 recorded firearm offences involving handguns every year. Criminals who want to use handguns don't seem to have too much difficulty in obtaining them, but they aren't stealing them from licensed gun owners.

Whoever forms the new Government after May's Election must face up to the fact the majority of firearms crime is carried out with illegally held firearms, and that restricting the rights of law-abiding people can have little impact on this.

Demand your liberty teeth. They'll make scrapping the other 3000 + criminal offences a little easier..



--------------------------

Edit - We are now gaining ground with a total of 74 votes. Only with your help can we get this ignored issue of liberty and personal responsibility the exposure it needs!

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth

Apologies for the late comment on yesterday's Daily Politics show with this delectable washed up hack Mr Andrew Neil (61). Pictured here with yet another young lovely not the one that had previously been photographed with wearing a baseball hat that Private Eye repeatedly reprinted.

Anyway, the disgust that this hack produced yesterday has led to a glut of membership applications and donations to our tiny and irrelevant party in the last twenty four hours.

Neill and the BBC do not understand the meaning of 'Public Service Broadcasting' for which the BBC has a charter and the ability to enforce a TV tax to pay for itself. Neill felt that it was not his task to question Mounsey on his party's policies, but to play the man himself, attacking his blog. The wee balding scotsman is not fond of anybody who has any association with public schools, so Mounsey was never going to be off to a good start.

This morning Chris has deleted his blog, and has made a personal decision to tone down the visceral anger that has been his trademark.

Unlike the rest of the BBC, professional politicians and Neil himself sucking off the teat of the public purse, the members of the Libertarian Party are committed amateurs. We cannot afford to have our real jobs and lives threatened by those who feel threatened by having been caught fleecing the public purse in 'Rotten Parliament' and in the BBC.

Neill appears in another show were he sits around chuckling with the hypocrite Diane Abbott and the ever bizarre Portillo. If these three are what the BBC thinks represents politics no wonder forty per cent of the population don't vote, and the rest are utterly disillusioned with what is on offer, including the sterile 'Leaders' debate tonight.

Dinosaurs ruled the earth once, they do not do so now as they were unable to adapt to a new reality.

Update

In response to begging emils received, here you go

Cameron A Halfway House Libertarian?

Where a libertarian party would simply decree that it is for the individual to build a strong family, get their children into a good school and find work, Cameron's conservatism wants to actively help people secure those three fundamental building blocks of the good life.

Tim Montgomerie

Yes, it is the Libertarian Party's belief that it is upto you to build your family, get the best education and get work. It is nothing to do with a raft of Quangocrats,Social Workers and politicians setting targets. All of these have removed tesponsibility from the family, along with crushing taxes that would make it financially easier.

Cameron has already stated infront of his party conference, that he does not lead a Libertarian Party. I don't want to be a partner in Government, I do not want to govern anybody else.

I do want Government off my back

What Clegg,Cameron and Brown Don't Want To Talk About

H/T Tom Paine

In 2007 when Cameron was promising to 'match Labours spending plans' five people met in a pub near Big Ben to found the Libertarian Party- the most urgent committment was to cut and pay off the National Debt.

The Libertarian Party saw the financial tsunami coming, so did a lot of other people, but it did not fit in with the consensus big state view of all the three big parties.

The Party is over boys and girls, the hangover is about to start.

Only by reducing the State massively can we survive this recession, we cannot export what Civil Servants produce. It is as simple as that.

The Conservatives, Labour Party and Social Democrats are tinkering around the edges. When reality hits and we have to start reducing our standard of living and pay more and more direct and indirect taxes. We should demand that a seperate section is put on our monthly wage slips showing underneath PAYE and NI- the Brown Tax showing the debt we all owe.

That should be his legacy. Nothing more

Libertarian Party Leader On 'BBC DAILY POLITICS' Wednesday 14th April

Fresh from the bearpit that was 'The Big Question' on BBC last Sunday (available on BBC iPlayer) Chris Mounsey is on the Daily Politics Show tomorrow Wednesday 14th.

Hopefully there will not be a member of the medical profession on the programme as per last Sunday who said 'I'm a Libertarian too, but I want everything banned' (paraphrasing a bit there I know)

Chris will be putting forward the proposition that the State should get out of our lives.

Appeal For Funds

I would like to thank everybody members,supporters and non members for their financial support over the last week, however we have to up our income significantly over the next few weeks to support our candidates.

PLEASE DONATE WHAT YOU CAN

Martin Cullip to stand in Sutton & Cheam

Martin's website will be going live shortly.

On the "Libertarian" label

Seeing as our leader Mr Mounsey has been on the television program Big Questions, a post about terminology is peculiarly useful and this video is timely. I imagine some viewers were new to the word, hopefully some of them have found their way here.

A definition of the term appears on the Party website, which is as follows:

Libertarians believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and freedom from government— on all issues at all times. We don't say government is too big in one area, but then in another area push for a law to force people to do what we want. We believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and freedom from government — on all issues at all times

This video, filmed at the Oxford Libertarian Society, advocates the label "Individualism" for what this member would have thought of as Libertarianism and knowing that the individual is sovereign in Libertarian thinking is the first thing to understand.

The 43 minute video will tell the attentive viewer exactly what Libertarianism is not which is always of use, and it puts the term into context alongside related terms such as "liberal" and "conservative", which will be more familiar.

Stephen Davies - Time to Revive ‘Individualism’? from oxford libertarian on Vimeo.

I must stress, the party is called the "Libertarian Party" not the "Individualism Party". The obscure label "individualism" is not popular as far as I know, but perhaps more members will comment as to the applicability of it.

Chris Mounsey on BBC's The Big Questions

Just found out LPUK Party Leader was on the BBC show The Big Questions this morning.



Please follow the link to watch the show on BBC’s IPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s1vxf/The_Big_Questions_Series_3_Episode_14/

(Skip to about 44:00 min)


Unfortunately it looks like Chris was surrounded by a very emotional audience...
PS: try and spot the woman claiming to be libertarian and supporting an almost outright ban on drink driving. :)

Vote Labour-Why Not ?

H/T Obnoxio,b3ta

Death Of A Democratic Liberal Nation

General Election Turnout

1992 77.7%
1997 71.4%
2001 59.4%
2005 61.4%

Source UKPolitical Info

Percentage share of the Total Electorate that voted Labour in 2005 21%

Source Railings & Thrasher


Labour Party 35.3% of the Vote 356 seats 55% of total seats
Conservative 32.3% of the Vote 198 seats 31% of total seats
Lib Dems 22.0% of the Vote 62 seats 9% of total seats
Other 8.0% of the Vote 30seats 5% of total seats


Nearly 40% of our fellow citizens are not likely to vote in 2010 because of apathy,ignorance or they are disenfranchised.

If you live in a 'safe' seat and your vote is largely an irrelevance.


These depressing statistics show that we cannot pretend to be a democratic nation, we are an oligarchy. Yesterday Clegg came to Bristol. Big Poster on a truck, swarm of journalists, not one voter! He said with a straight face that he expected to be in No 10 to an open mouthed BBC reporter.

He is lying to himself, to the camera and to the voters and he should hang his head in shame. He knows he will never march into Whitehall under FTP because it is rigged in favour of the big two.
Clegg does not understand the zeitgeist and is weaker for it. He has already flunked his historic destiny for himself and his party.

Stop pretending that the Lib Dems are anything other than 'kingmakers' and set out your stall for proportional representation and an end to this squalid excuse of a gerrymandered 'Representative Democracy', these opportunities only come along once every forty years. Ashdown was conned by Blair, and Clegg has clearly learned nothing from the experience.

All three parties are quibbling over Tax, the real issue is Constitutional Reform, I have never seen such depression in the public and the minor parties, knowing that no matter how hard they try and how much money is spent it will make very little difference to the Political Elite. The Rotten Parliament is about to be replaced by the squalid Parliament, full of party placemen, and with precious little mandate and legitimacy from the Electorate.

Quote Of The Day

'The campaign’s begun, but for 25 million of us it’s going to be a pretty quiet election. And that’s because in at least 383 Safe Seats the campaign’s already over.'

Electoral Reform Society

Only a revolt by the Great Ignored can transform this charade into an election

The great charade begins, for that is what this election is. The “modernising” of the Conservative Party has deprived the electorate of choice. As the weasel terms “centre-right” and “centre-left” indicate, the two main parties have informally merged into one: the consensual Centre. Anyone advocating a programme that departs from the EU-approved, soft-totalitarian liberal-left is branded as “far-right”. The filleting of the Tory Party of any philosophical core by the Cameronian gang has left it an empty husk, manipulated by the Pavlovian reflexes of Political Correctness.

Gerald Warner- Telegraph

Full Article

We are obviously not alone

Libertarian Party Endorsed Candidate Surges To Third Place In The Betting Stakes

Ladbrokes comprehensive betting on the General Election website for many constituencies and they appear to be giving David Kirwan the best odds for any Independent or fringe Party. They are consistently giving UKIP, Greens & BNP throughout the 649 constituencies 100/1. In both Wirral South & Wallasey UKIP is on 100/1.

David Kirwan is an independent endorsed by the Libertarian Party

In Wirral West the betting is….

Conservatives 1/10

Labour 5/1

DSK 50/1

Liberal Democrats 100/1

UKIP 100/1

Jury Team 100/1

David appears to be the only Independent or fringe Party etc ahead of the Liberal Democrats anywhere? This is a great opportunity to break the political mould and elect an Independent.

David Kirwan's website is www.davidkirwan.co.uk

NI and the Economic Illiteracy of Labour

I am, frankly, flabbergasted at the twists and turns Gordon Brown is using to try and make out the NI "cut" is damaging.

He says it is taking money out of the economy. He says it is unfunded. He says it will cause lay-offs and closure of businesses.

Taxes take money from the productive sector to fund services. From the statement made by Gordon Brown, one must come to the conclusion that he considers the State Sector to be "the economy" and the Private Sector to be some external funding source. That might explain alot, in fact.

For Gordon Brown to say not raising NI is unfunded is like a Vampire complaining about an unchecked nosebleed. It is also irrational - NI is not being cut, but just not increased. How is that ever "unfunded"? Even if it were a cut, it is still not "unfunded" - tax cuts cut Government revenues, but it is spending that is either funded or unfunded.

Gordon has been a master of unfunded spending for around a decade.

What is so frustrating is that the Tories will not meet Gordon head on. They should say they need to cut public sector jobs so that private sector jobs, the ones paying for the public sector, can grow. They should throw back a lead-lined "And?" to Gordon when he complains about this. Gordon will protect his client state at our expense and this needs to be exposed.

It is outrageous vote-buying from Labour and outrageous spinelessness from the Tories.

At least we have pointed sticks

Oh, wait. scratch that...

Actor Darren Day guilty of carrying pointed stick

Day, who is well known for dating a string of glamorous women including actress Anna Friel, said he was shocked when he was charged by police, and had told them the item was not an offensive weapon.

But during the trial, the sheriff was told by two martial arts experts from Lothian and Borders Police that the kubotan was designed in the 1970s for use by the Los Angeles Police as a self-defence weapon and in a worst case scenario could be used to kill someone.

What better place is there for rapists and muggers to peruse their chosen career paths, than in the UK?

Where else can you be assured that every victim you choose to initiate contact with will be unarmed and under full control of you, the illegally armed one?

Where else can you be assured that the victim, if armed themselves, will face prosecution?

If given a choice, would a criminal of the above mentioned nature choose the UK, or the US states below?

Armed Grandfather Saves Himself, His Wife, and His Grandson from a Violent Burglar

Armed Home Invader Shot by Armed Homeowner

Armed Neighbor Saves Mother and Daughter from Home Invading Rapist

Philadelphia, PA Fire Chief Shoots Home Invader in Self Defense

Columbus, Ohio Apartment Renter Shoots Home Invader in Self Defense

Armed Homeowner Fends off Burglar

Armed Woman Stops Home Invader by Using Her Newly Purchased Gun

Ax Wielding Attacker Shot by Armed Business Owner

Modesto, CA Liquor Store Clerk Fatally Shoots Armed Robber

Armed 82 Year Old Woman Stops Would-be Killer


So if the above sounds more in line with the term 'justice' to you, do drop by and show your support at:

www.armbritain.com

Is This The Sterile Future ?

Nic Coome Devizes PPC

Nic's campaign is now up and running, you can donate here

This Is Not Democracy, It Is Smoke And Mirrors For The Corrupt State

....governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whatever form of government becomes destructive of these ends; it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

Jefferson



I was flying back to the UK yesterday so I caught the beginning of the Parliamentary Gurning competition on the Sky News Channels in various airport lounges.

What is apparent is that the political classes still not ‘get it’, they are still playing the same old baby kissing routine that they think passes for democracy, so that they can get their feet firmly jammed under the table and carry on with the same elective dictatorship for another five years. For them the Expenses scandal never happened for them, the Rotten Parliament never happened for them, the vast influx of immigration never happened for them, the Surveillance State never happened for them, and foreign wars of aggression and invasion voted for by Parliament never happened for them.

Let us be clear what we do not want is more of the same, in 1997 the country largely drew a collective breath of Thank God, as the Tories were thrown out. The vote then as I fear now will be a vote to get this crowd out. To what end? It is just a treadmill of buggins turn.

Unless there is real constitutional change, not the flim flam of Cameron’s talk of change, we are in for a very bad time. Power must be taken back from Whitehall to the people of the country that means having the courage to cause a Constitutional crisis not seen since the 1830’s.

The Labour Party does not deserve anybodies vote after their ruinous thirteen years, however they have gerrymandered the vote by creating one million public sector jobs, and turkeys do not vote for Christmas, each one of us will be forced to pay £300 per annum to bail out the public sector pensions deficit. We will be asked to do this without complaint or riot.

Mandelson who for me signifies everything that is corrupt and putrid about the British State, knows that Brown is a vote loser that is why we had the ‘team’ photo on the steps of Downing Street, instead of Brown the Leader as a vote winning asset. For me this is the ultimate defensiveness and is a clear indicator that Brown is going to lose this election, only being supported by his client state so assiduously built up over thirteen years.

The Tories do not want ‘change’ they want power, it is as crude and as simple as that. I have not seen any undertaking of rolling back the security state, but I have heard promises of ‘in your face policing’, I have not heard undertakings of constitutional reform. No, they are promising you the same old authoritarian State. The Tories voted for War, The Tories promised to match pound for pound spending by Labour before the crash. They will say and do anything for political power using the same old corrupt ‘Parliamentary Democracy’. Vote for them if you will to ‘get the others out’ but that is what happened in 1997 and look at what happened.

The Social Democrats (forget the word Liberal, they are not) will jump into bed with Labour rather than the Tories to prop up a discredited regime. They change their mind at the drop of a hat and have no philosophy being the mongrel result of the mating of two disparate parties. Their record in local Government should not be allowed to be replicated at national level.

As a Historian I know how much blood has been shed to obtain the vote, therefore to not vote is almost a sacrilege. This election threatens to have one of the lowest turnouts in one hundred years, through ignorance, apathy and the general feeling that voting only returns the government. Largely the apathy is caused by the ‘safe seat’ syndrome. If the North wants to have a knee jerk socialist state, they can have one in the North by creating a Swiss style Canton that raises its own funds and redistributes amongst their own. Do not ask the other cantons to subsidise their Soviet. I can guarantee that within a year the true cost will cause internal emigration.

The two choices are not to Vote, therefore depriving ‘the government’ of legitimacy. Any Government that gets less than 50% of the popular vote is not a legitimate government and can be opposed at every level. The other is to vote for minor parties or independents, which is the only way we can end the prospect of another Rotten Parliament, and another minority government in terms of the vote inflicting their extremist views on individuals.

A failure of Logic, or a Slip of the Mask?

It seems that Chris Grayling, MP, Shadow Home Secretary has been "caught" agreeing with the idea that owners of Bed and Breakfast accommodation should be free to "turn away" gay couples.

This story broke some time ago when a couple running such an establishment turned away a gay couple who had booked a double room, but now a Tory has been covertly pinned down on the issue. We see the Tory Blogger Iain Dale distancing himself from his fellow party member in addition to the usual howls of indignation from the Left and, on occasion, the conceit of "settled consensus". Heard that before?

It is all the more disappointing that Iain Dale has had a logic failure here, considering he is, IMHO, thought of by some as a good "advert" for gay, neither hiding it nor shoving it into peoples' faces, precisely the sort of outwardly reasonable, rational person who you would think would understand the Rule of Law that has now enabled him to live his life pretty much as he pleases, without the views of the Mob kicking his door in physically and metaphorically. I did not take him for a ladder-kicker. I hope he reconsiders his position, I really do.

We see some people stating that there should be nothing that prevents one gaining services in the free market.

Yes, and no. It is not that simple, as conflation has occured, there are two parties involved, remember.

Let us break down this B&B situation, i.e. free trade and "the market", into its logical components.

Is it right to force someone to take/pay for a service? No. That is a form of extortion, racketeering. It is coercion.

Is it right to prevent someone seeking a service? No. This is oppression. Witness the great wrong in preventing girls gaining an Education under the Taliban.

Is it right to prevent someone offering a service? No. This too is oppression.

Is it right to force someone to deliver a service against their will? No. This is oppression and coercion, i.e. a form of Slavery.


The market has one key facet: Voluntary exchange.


Forcing someone by "law", actually in this case it can only really be called "regulation", to exchange their services is not voluntary. It is not free trade, it is not the market, but enforced, coerced "trade".

It is still disappointing yet no surprise that many on the Left cannot see this distinction and focus on one side of the transaction. It might be that they look upon exchange through the prism of Statism, of people interacting with a monopolistic State or State services. If there were a monopolistic State run B&B, heaven forbid*, I would be there demanding it to be open to all and not discriminate. But that is not what is happening here. We are talking about something I really do think many of the Left do not understand at a fundamental level: Free enterprise and freedom in general.

It is ironic indeed that many on the Left wrongly condemn Libertarians as people who want to do what they like and hang the views of others, to trample over people irrespective of their feelings "because we want to and we can". This has always and will always be a shockingly disingenuous canard, for Libertarians respect the individual and as such one just does not do such things irrespective of the superior freedoms of others to their own life and property. How ironic, then, that the Left are shouting that people should be "free" to thrust themselves upon others and make them work for them against their will "because they have a right to".

This comes back to a point I admit I might bore people with. The different concepts of "rights" and "freedoms".

A "right" is something, an entitlement, that is the responsibility of, or needs to be furnished and paid for by, others. A "freedom", on the other hand is the absence of coercion. If there is any responsibility, it is upon the one exercising the freedom to be accountable for their actions in not impinging on equal or superior freedoms of others.

In the case of the B&B'ers, we see one group shouting for the rights of Gays to demand de facto slavery from the B&B'ers, and on the other side we have Libertarians, shouting for the freedoms of all.

Now imagine if the B&Bers were Prostitutes. Now revisit your stance on the right to refuse trade. Now what do you think?


* Imagine it. Only open 9-5 Mon-Fri (half day Wednesday), Shut during all bank holidays, school holidays and an additional 4 weeks off for staff holidays and 5 Inset days. One size room and same cost. Breakfast is charged regardless of if you want it or eat it and if there is an [insert group here] staying you must not order any [insert food group here] for fear of upsetting them. In fact you are not "allowed" to eat breakfast outside otherwise you will be denounced for undermining the quality of other people's breakfasts in state run B&Bs by not subjecting your children to them.

Police Block Libertarian Party Fundraiser

This was forwarded to me this evening, anybody any further background information ?

Lest We Forget

H/T Old Holborn