North West Libertarians

North West Libertarians December Meetup

2011-12-10T00:03:00.001Z

For those who haven't seen the notice on Facebook, there will be an informal meetup of libertarians in the Kro2 Bar, Oxford Road, Manchester on Sunday 11th December, starting about 1.00pm. This will be the last North West libertarian meetup of 2011, but hopefully not the last one ever.

This has been a bad year for the Libertarian Party. For those who aren't aware of what's been going on, a few months ago the Party's assets – mainly the bank account and membership records – fell into the hands of a small unelected group who have refused to hand these records over to the legitimate National Coordinating Committee. This group is headed by the former Treasurer, who failed to hand over the financial records to the incoming Treasurer. The former Treasurer had been elected Leader at last year's AGM, but later resigned following allegations of misconduct. Unfortunately he failed to register this fact with the Electoral Commission, for reasons which I can only speculate about, and gathered a group of his chronies about him to take control of the Party. In flagrant breach of the Party constitution, they have also failed to hold an AGM this year – I can only assume that this is because they don't want to face any awkward questions from the membership. At one point, they even tried to de-register the Party, but failed because they needed the cooperation of one member of the legitimate NCC, who naturally refused to do this. The situation at the moment is that, although the Libertarian Party still exists as a legal entity, there is no organisation and no internal communication.

Some people have said that this proves that a Libertarian Party is not a practical proposition. I disagree. Other countries have thriving Libertarian Parties, I see no reason for Britain to be different. The way I see it, the real problem is that we didn't give enough thought to how we should be organised when we were first setting up. There was never any real support for local activism. There was also not enough oversight of the leadership's activities. These are lessons we can learn from in the future. Because I believe that there is a place for an effective Libertarian Party in this country. It could be that the current party will end up being de-registered, in which case the way will be open for a group of ex-members with honest intentions to set up a successor organisation. Or maybe the cabal who have siezed control of our party will see sense and step aside.

Either way, a Libertarian Party of some kind will rise from the ashes.

Some useful Blogs

2011-07-05T22:34:00.006+01:00

As it's gone quiet on here recently. I thought it would be useful to point our readers in the direction of some blogs by current and former LPUK members

Libertarian Party - http://www.libertarianpartyuk.com/

Thoughts on Morality - Rational Anarchist - http://thoughtsonmorality.blogspot.com/

Anna Raccoon - http://www.annaraccoon.com/

Stuart Heal's Sell a Man a Fishing Rod - http://sellamanafishingrod.blogspot.com/

Take care,

Daz

Let's expose another statist lie...

2011-04-05T12:56:00.003+01:00

So Cigarettes and alcohol go up again in the budget - in tobacco's case a whopping 7% rise means paying £7 for a deck of 20 is a not unusual occurrence in the shops. Of course, our paternal big brother who always knows best has been telling us for years that this is to offset the costs to the precious 'sacred cow' of the NHS in terms of liver failure, lung cancer and what have you. However, I distinctly remember a buget 10 years ago where the price of cigarettes went up to around £4 for 20 when we were told the increased duty would pay for these expenses. Makes you wonder why the state never got off the escalator. The suspicion that the real intent was of course to change people's behaviour is clear, and there was just the faintest hint of his before the budget when Dave boasted about the reduction in the number of smokers nationally. It is of course no business of the state to use taxation to change a person's lawful behaviour patterns, and part of me wishes a government would actually have the balls to follow through its statist instincts and propose banning tobacco and alcoholic drink of all kinds. Then we could finally have an honest discussion about the kind of country we want to live in. Meanwhile, here's one for all those with private medical insurance - as your filthy drinking and smoking habits cost the NHS the square root of nothing, keep all your receipts for cigarettes, whiskey whatever and at the end of the financial year, write to your local HMRC asking for some kind of rebate. After all, it's your medical insurance, paid for out of your own pocket that is picking up the tab. £20 says their reply will be an admission that the it was never about money it was about behaviour control. Wouldn't it be nice to see the bullies and control freaks being honest with us about their agenda for once?

Debating AV

2011-01-29T12:33:00.001Z

Here's a recent televised debate between the Establishment politician Margaret Beckett and Jonathan Bartley, who heads the campaign group "Yes to Fairer Votes". Personally I think Mr Bartley got the upper hand in this debate, but you make your own mind up:

On 5th May, we're all going to get the chance to vote for or against the introduction of the Alternative Vote system (AV), a seemingly small but significant change to the existing First Past The Post (FPTP) system. The difference with AV is that you number the candidates in order of preference, so you put 1 next to the guy you want to elect, 2 next to your second choice and so on. If your first choice doesn't get enough votes to be elected, then he's eliminated and your vote gets transferred to your second choice. This should eliminate the problem of tactical voting - instead of voting for whoever you think has the best chance of beating the guy you really don't want to get in, regardless of whether you like them or not, you can give your first preference to your favoured candidate without fear of your vote being wasted.

Although it's not a proportional system, it's an improvement on the current one. Not only will it eliminate wasted votes, it should also give a clearer picture of what kind of government the electorate actually want. The Libertarian Party supports this proposed reform, as do a broad range of other minority parties. Funnily enough, it's less popular with Establishment politicians, who seem to be generally happy with the system that got them elected (very often on small minorities).

5th May is going to be an opportunity to introduce a beneficial constitutional reform and give us, the general public, a bit more say in how this country is run. Don't miss the chance to vote Yes to fairer votes.

Happy New Year from the Libertarian Party

2011-01-01T15:21:00.002Z

The North West branch of the Libertarian Party would like to wish everyone a peaceful and prosperous new year.

It's true that the country is still in a bad economic situation, and will be for some time (at least in my opinion), but things can change for the better - it's just taking longer for us to recover from the recession than it should do, but even the most misguided economic policies can't completely stifle the entrepreneurial spirit.

2010 wasn't a bad year for the Libertarian Party. For the first time since our formation in late 2007, we fielded four candidates for election at the same time - two in the General Election and two in the local elections. No big breakthroughs yet, but you don't just set up a new party and get swept to power overnight. Every election we fight, we'll get better at it and we'll get better known, so watch out for us in this year's local elections.

Cheers!

Are the Young, Free and Ugly the new oppressed?

2010-12-19T18:57:00.003Z

Listening to Stasi Radio is a useful way of gaining an insight into how the other lot think and hey I pay the compulsory licence fee so why not while it's there? A fascinating conversation broke out 2 weeks ago on the airwaves between a man who wanted to force marriage upon everybody (presumably by drawing lots amongst us singletons) and a cohabitee with kids who seemed nice enough and saw tying the knot as a lifestyle choice she had chosen not to make.

"Marriage is best" apparently - people whose parents stay married regardless of whether they can still stand each other do better in education and thus have better employment prospects. What the Tory/religious/busybody tendency invariably neglect to mention is that teenage pregnancies, addiction problems and their social side effects (i.e. single parenthood and broken homes) tend to spike in areas with failing comprehensive schools and subsequently low aspiration.

These houses of broken dreams have made a niche of unleashing illiterate and innumerate young men into a society where work is scarce in a failing economy but welfare is everywhere you look. The reality is it is the social ills and the lack of opportunity that are feeding single parenthood and broken marriages, not, as the Tories would have you believe, the other way round.

But Iain Duncan Smith, a good man who is right every now and then, has decided that the real issue is that not enough of us are getting hitched, or into a civil partnership if you're that way out, and I thought, "it didn't take the Tories long did it?."

In the past, their pet hate was gay people, most clearly illustrated by the introduction of the repulsive Section 28 in 1986. So last year, in his attempt to convince us all he was some sort of 'liberal', Dave turned up at Mardi Gras and Pride, apologising for the law and promising any new tax break or benefit for marriage would apply to civil partnerships too.

However, nobody becomes and stays a Conservative for no good reason. As a breed, they are a judgemental lot (I'd know from being in CF for two years) and I always got the impression that they had a league table of 'ways of life' that they kept in their pocket or at least mentally. "Married, two kids, churchgoer, captain of local cricket team" was at the top, while "gay, single, no ties" was rock bottom. Now in a marriage of convenience between Cameron and the 'pink and proud' community, it is the unmarried hetrosexual who finds himself as the scum of the Tory earth.

When people talk about giving a handout to someone, I never hear it asked, "ah yes but who is paying for it?. Who is putting the money in the pot and walking away so someone else can take it?" Personally, I find it obscene that a single person on a modest income should subsidse the lifestyle choice of a couple who may be on thrice the takehome pay of the individual funding the largesse. It has already been accepted that the money is highly unlikely to steer a couple one way or the other, so it can only be a highly expensive gesture that does marginal damage to some and no good to anybody.

Once we get to work on the real issues, these questions tend to take care of themselves - personally the idea of getting married doesn't interest me at this point in time, and when IDS and his friends act like the street pushers of the tied knot, its appeal becomes even less.

Sorry Students - the Statists let you down

2010-12-19T18:53:00.002Z

When discussing LPUK policy with a distinctly statist friend of mine a couple of weeks ago, we got onto the subject of welfare reform, and explored our basic aim of incrementally rolling back a great deal of the welfare state. He said to me in a rather animated fashion "look Daz, I've been paying into the system, so if I lose my job tomorrow why should I not get the dole?". This brought to me that what we are really looking to do is renegotiate the terms and conditions between state and citizen in a way that we believe will benefit the individual in the long run, and was at the front of my thoughts while watching the first genuine riots seen in this country for many years.

The state currently guzzles almost half of GDP in Britain, a frightening statistic, and one which we all want to see gradually brought down to a figure that leaves a skeletal safety net while causing minimal infringement on people's ability to live prosperous, free and fulfilling lives. However, if one works from the assumption that big brother takes 45-50% of the cake, then I don't think it's unreasonable to say "yes I want an education and a state pension to come out of that - after all if you hadn't taken the money from me/my parents that is what I/they would have spent it on". Not everybody has even a basic grasp of economics, and the importance of risk vs reward equations in driving growth in the private sector. Nor is it fair to expect everyone to read Milton Friedman...the Welfarists of Labour and the Corporatist Tories have lied through their teeth to people and tried to run an unsustainable system for decades.

Now we are where we are, and the students of today wonder why the education that had been 'free' to their parents (who had the same 'tax-welfare contract') is no longer free to them. They were misled, and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the system finally imploded. Yes I feel sorry for them.

The conversation people always seem to have is "do we want a health system run on NHS principles?", "do we want comprehensive education directed from the centre?" and "do you want taxation to fund a state pension?". Scared of change or that their taxes will not be cut in line with reduced state provision, many answer "yes". What is very rarely if ever asked, certainly not in the statist media, is "is that model sustainable given the country we have now, and the changing demographics from the birth of welfarism 60 years ago?". I'm no economist but even a layman can see that what we need more than anything is real growth, a rapid reduction in the relative size of the state in terms of spend, and a fundamental shift in what government takes from you and gives back in return.

In the short-term, perhaps we should go back to the old arrangement of free degrees, but with only the best and brightest doing them (this is purely a personal view and not LPUK policy), Further downstream, allowing parents to keep more of their hard-earned will mean that many will be able to look at these choices themselves more proactively, whereas the challenge for us will be seeing the best of the American model adopted over here. Nobody who gets a place at Harvard ends up declining it because of their background and encouraging a climate of social mobility out of the rubble of the present will not be easy. Neither will re-visiting the state-citizen contract that has been in place since 1945, but when something is not nice, that normally means it is necessary.

Press Release Relating to the Electoral Commission

2010-11-24T15:02:00.001Z

This afternoon the following email was received from the Electoral Commission and is their considered opinion on Vince Cable's attempt to remove Andrew Withers as Leader of the Libertarian Party through the Courts.

The current proceedings taken against you is a matter for the Courts to decide. If the party makes an application to appoint you as Leader, then we shall consider the application in accordance with PPERA taking account of any implications of the Court decision. If approved, we shall update the party's registered entry.

So the considered opinion of the Electoral Commission is that the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has the right to determine who shall and who shall not be the Leader or an officer of a political party.

Also that it is the Electoral Commission's considered opinion that it is up a Court to decide whether Andrew Withers will be the elected leader of a registered political party, not the members, and that the Electoral Commission will approve an 'application' from the Party, not a notification from the members that a new Leader has been elected.

Freedom of Association has been the bedrock of our Parliamentary Democracy, under the Coalition that will be decided by the Government.
Ends

The media and pro-royal sychophancy - pass the prozac

2010-11-20T13:07:00.003Z

So Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married...good for them I suppose. The refusal of many, this writer included, to acknowledge the validity of the monarchy as an institution should not extend to out and out hatred of the individuals within it and it is clear that Wills is marrying the love of his life. This at least makes a pleasant change from some of the recent history within the palace, although the attempts by some in the media to claim that this is the monarchy 're-inventing' itself have been rather amusing. Kate Middleton may not be an absolute toff or have actual blue blood running through her veins, but she hardly qualifies as 'common as muck' either. This is another instance of the mainstream media and their curious love affair with the elite - watching the hysteria over the last few days has been at best perplexing and, more realistically, enough to drive any sane meritocrat up the wall.

Watching and listening to the BBC or Sky News, or reading any of the major news publications, one would think that there was not a soul on these isles who was not overcome by the news that an immensely posh young man and a slightly less posh young lady were finally tying the knot. You could be forgiven for believing that those deprived of work, hope and aspiration by the failed corporate state would forget their failed search for purpose and income and rejoice in the 'wonderful news' that would 'cheer up the nation'. So David Cameron slept on the mall the day before Charles and Di wed...he really should have kept this to himself. Who are these people who take such delight in toadying to the establishment? Do they not have lives, interests and hobbies of their own? (then again, this is a man whose idea of rebellion was trashing a restaurant with his Bullingdon club mates then getting daddy to pay for the damage). Having heard that 'Britons have never had it so good' in the same week, can a kind contributor confirm that we have not all been taken on some obscene 1950s time warp?

Hearing Chris Evans refer those not taken in by it all as 'a few sad republicans' this week was infuriating but perhaps not surprising. Evans is a lot more intelligent than he looks or sounds, but his journey from hip pioneer of avante-garde television and radio 15 years ago to safe-as-houses replacement for Wogan on Stasi radio is clear evidence that 'growing up' is not always a good thing and that 'normality' turns young people into tired old ones at an alarming pace. This writer has written an e-mail to Evans reminding him of his duty to report on the news with fairness and impartiality and will of course blog his reply on here should one arrive. Moreover, if the day of the wedding is declared a public holiday as has been mooted, this writer will be making a point of turning up at his place of work, even if it is only to twiddle his thumbs and browse the internet.

Us subjects/peasants are, one presumes, supposed to be eternally grateful for the extra day off - sounds like a pretty pathetic bribe for monarchist support if you ask me. If enough of us refuse to take the bait and turn up for work at the usual time, our managers will be forced to get out of bed even if it is only to send us all home. Should it become a nationwide thing then the pro-royal media would have to report it. And that would really stick in the craw, believe me.

...................................

EDITOR'S NOTE

Just as a point of clarification, I'd like to make it clear that the Libertarian Party is not a republican organisation - but we're also not a royalist organisation either. Some libertarians are royalist and some are republicans, and when the Libertarian Party was formed we made a deliberate decision not to have a party line on this particular issue. Let's face it, there are more urgent things to take care of, like crime, unemployment, taxation, debt and the police state. I personall would like Britain to become a republic, but that's an issue that goes beyond party politics - if it happens in my lifetime, it will have to happen as a result of a national referendum. I see no other legitimate way to bring about such a basic constitutional change.

In the meantime, we live in the system as it exists now - and when the Libertarian Party meets for its AGM on Saturday, I'm sure I won't be the only libertarian republican who will raise a glass to the future happiness of Mr Windsor and his bride.

The Libertarian Party and State Oppression

2010-11-17T21:22:00.003Z

The following was copied from Gregg Beaman's blog, "A Brief Encounter":

Below is an open letter to John Bercow written by a friend and colleague of mine, Andrew Withers. Andrew is a founder member of the Libertarian Party and is standing, unopposed, for the party leadership later this month. I have been happy to support Andrew and continue to do so despite Vince 'Big Brother' Cable's actions. The actions of the Coalition in this instance just prove why we need a libertarian party, and why the Liberal Democrats are anything but liberal:

Mr John Bercow
Speaker to the House of Commons

Dear Mr Bercow

On the 12th November 2010 the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills Dr Vince Cable MP instructed a firm of solicitors, Osborne Clarke of Bristol to write to District Judge Watson of the Bristol Registry requiring that I have leave of the Court to act as elected Leader of the Libertarian Party, further more and I quote:

‘Our client does not consider that Mr Withers has currently demonstrated sufficient need for leave in respect of the entity’

The Libertarian Party is a registered party within the meaning of the Political Parties,Elections and Referendums Act 2000, and I have a mandate from the members of the party to act as the party leader as from the 27th November, what further sufficient need do I require ?

It is extraordinary that a Minister of the Crown has made such a legal move against the leader of a minor party and creates a dangerous precedent constitutionally. Can you please advise when government ministers and the executive think that they can act in such a manner, and interfere with the internal workings of another party through the Courts.

Can you please urgently advise as Chairman of the Speakers Committee under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, when such powers were transfered from the Electoral Commission and to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills.

I have no intention of seeking the leave of the Court to act as the leader of the Libertarian Party and I suspect this act is both illegal and ultra vires on the part of the Secretary of State. I am urgently seeking Counsels opinion on this letter.

I would be grateful for your urgent observations by return.

Yours sincerely

Andrew P Withers

Leader Designate
Libertarian Party

In the latest turn of events in Andrew's four year legal tussles with The Department of Business, Innovation & Skills, a District Judge in the Bristol Registry has ordered that he should list all of the companies and organisations that he is an executive member of so that it can be decided by the Court whether he should be given permission to continue. Amongst the organisations specifically named is the Libertarian Party.

On the 22nd September 2010, the Information Commissioner ruled that when the Department was being run by Mandelson it withheld evidence that Andrew Withers wished to rely on in Court, and that they should release it ‘without further delay’. That ruling has so far been ignored by The Secretary of State’s officials. If the order is further ignored by this Friday, Andrew Withers will be seeking a Court Order to compel the Secretary Of State to comply with the ICO order under sec7 (9) Data Protection Act 1998.

Andrew's local MP is Dr Liam Fox and has been extremely supportive in a case that he has called in a personal telephone call a ‘scandal’, and found time in the midst of the strategic defence review to have personal meeting with Ed Davey MP the responsible Minister in the coalition Government on the 27th September 2010 to discuss the case. After which Ed Davey has ordered a review into the case by senior officials and a meeting has been suggested with senior officials to try to resolve the situation.

Andrew is currently writing a book about his experiences, and admits that new chapters are being added as one man’s fight against a politicised bureaucracy continues into a fifth year.

The story started in 2006 when a French company that Andrew was a gerant (director) of was illegally placed into liquidation by its French Director in contravention of the company statuts and on a perjured statement of affairs. The Court appointed Receiver was paid 8000€ to bury the company, and the French Director made off with the assets and finished goods . An investigating French barrister appointed by Andrew Withers visited the Receiver in Coutances and noted that there were no accounts, invoices or supporting documentation. The Barrister described the situation as the worst case of corporate fraud he had seen in over forty years of practice.

The unfortunate direct consequence of this fraud was that it brought down the British company down as well and it ceased trading in 2006 unfortunately four customers and a number of corporate creditors lost money.

The company was wound up in 2007, and Andrew presented himself to the Official Receiver with supporting documentation and statements from the French Investigating Barrister as to the veracity of the illegal winding up of the company by the French Director causing the failure of the company. He was complemented on the professionalism of the presentation of the narrative and whilst he could not promise that nothing more would be heard from the Insolvency Service, he was satisfied with the narrative.

In October 2007 , Andrew became one of the five founding members of the Libertarian Party sickened by the growth of the security state established by Blair and continued by Brown and the fact that the State was out of control and the State was absorbing more and more taxpayers funds. Three days later the run on Northern Rock began.

From this point the story started to take a bizarre and disturbing twist.

■Despite the French fraud being reported to Avon and Somerset Police and the Insolvency Service which is part of the then Business,Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. A furious French Colleague contacted Andrew to report that the French Director had just been given an award presented by the British Ambassador to Paris and Lord Digby-Jones (GOAT)

■From redacted documents secured under the Freedom of Information Act, the French Director started lobbying to have Andrew investigated in April 2008.

■In June 2008 he received a letter from the Insolvency Service in Plymouth to say he was under investigation under the terms of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, this despite them having no accounts because they could not access the electronic copies of the SAGE accounts.

■In November 2008 the Assistant Official Receiver confirmed in an email that in their view the French subsidiary was not part of their investigations as their advice was that it was not possible for French companies to have foreign shareholders !

■The conduct of the investigation was the source of endless abuse, the interviewer was balefully ignorant of commercial law, gave off the appearance of being a former policeman, told a number of direct lies and allowed Andrew to look at a former employee’s personal bank statements and files in contravention of the Data Protection Act, then could offer no explanation what those statements and files were doing with the company documentation.

■The Company’s former accountants were threatened with investigation, to the extent that they took legal advice.

■Mandelson was appointed Secretary of State 3rd October 2008, it is his decision to seek disqualification orders against company directors. Liam Fox MP met Andrew and was shown all of the documentation relating to the criminal fraud. Fox lobbied Mandelson and was rebuffed.

■Further evidence was supplied to the Secretary of State in July 2009, including witness statements and French Court documents to show the extent of the French Fraud and the effect it had had on the British Company. All of this evidence was rejected and returned to Andrew unread.

■From redacted documents received by Andrew under FOI , the Official Receiver’s recommendation to move forward to Proceedings was rejected for lack of evidence in May 2009, saying it ‘required more work done on it’

■In August 2009 with days to spare before being statute barred, proceedings were authorised by Secretary of State Mandelson against Andrew to be disbarred as a director for eight years. If Andrew was so minded to sign a confession and to say a false set of accounts prepared by the Secretary of State were true (that omitted the French subsidiary) , the ban would be reduced to seven years.

■Andrew and his lawyers refused to sign, and tried to negotiate with the appointed lawyers to no avail to drop the case.

■When the evidence in the case was finally released to Andrew it soon became apparent that-

■The winding up order made against the company was made by somebody who was not a creditor. The Official Receiver knew this and sought to hide the supporting documentation and invoices that had been altered

■The French Director had supplied the Official Receiver with forged Delivery Notes, the Official Receiver made no attempt to verify them.

■The Official Receiver had made no attempt to contact the Court appointed Receiver in Coutances, but entered into very friendly correspondence with the French Director. The Official Receiver allowed the transfer of assets , goods and cash to the French Director’s company at nil value.

It costs not less than £50 000 to mount a defence in actions such as this, Andrew’s legal insurers refused to consider this was an action they would cover, it does not take long to burn through legal fees, and with money running short Andrew compromised and settled on a voluntary undertaking with the Secretary of State for five and a half years not to act as a company Director with an undertaking that a s17 hearing would be heard by the District Judge before the undertaking took affect on July 13th 2010. The Court Order of 22nd June confirms that hearing never took place because the Secretary of State two days before the hearing in July had issued no instructions to counsel to attend and had broken the settlement by rushing into print and online trumpeting their success on the 1st July. The District Judge then signed an order to allow Andrew to continue to act as a Director in two designated companies, an order that was renewed on the 11th of October 2010 pending the outcome of the next full hearing.

Andrew released the following personal statement in October:

“I first wish to repudiate the voluntary undertaking I signed on 22nd June 2010, the accounts so presented were false, the Official Receiver knew they were false, I knew they were false, they were based on perjury in both French and English Courts, based on forged documents supplied by the French Director who colluded with the Official Receiver to transfer assets at nil value. I simply signed to end the attrition of costs by an overbearing State and because of the effect this war of attrition has had on my family. That is the end of one battle, but I have not given up the fight in this war.

I am grateful for the support of my legal teams in both France and England, to Liam Fox MP and to the members of the NCC of the Libertarian Party who refused to accept my offered resignation last June as Treasurer and Deputy Leader of the Party, and that despite the Court Order of the 11th October 2010 examining whether the poorly written, oppressive anti business CDDA 1986 can extend its authority over companies that are not registered in this country and to political parties and to charitable organisations, I will continue to seek the leadership of the Libertarian Party. Therefore it is only fair that all members are aware of this cloud that hangs over me before casting their vote.

I welcome the intervention of Ed Davey MP and look forward to the results of his review and for the opportunity of a meeting with senior officials to present the evidence that Dr Liam Fox has seen and quite rightly has called a scandal.

This will not however stop me seeking a Court order on the 25th October against the Secretary of State following the ruling of the Information Commissioner of the 22nd September. I will also be launching a civil action against the Secretary of State, Official Receiver and French Director, as both a creditor and shareholder of my former company for the wrongful transfer of assets , equipment and cash to the French Director at nil value.

I can however only express my displeasure at the lack of action by the Avon & Somerset Chief Constable in this case in relation to the Fraud and Theft that has occurred. The constant pleading of lack of resources has further undermined my confidence in Law enforcement.

I was a Classical Liberal before I help found the Party, my experiences of politicised public servants under the last administration have only confirmed that I must continue with that fight. I am confident the Parliament never intended the CDDA Act to be applied to foreign companies over which they have no jurisdiction , nor to political parties which is a breach of basic political Liberty, and I am confident that the Judge will come to the same conclusion "

ENDS

I will be at the Party AGM on November 27th, look forward to greeting Andrew as our new Party Leader and will support him in any way I can in the face of state oppression. It seems that Cable is continuing the practice of Mandelsonian dark arts.

Woolas Found Guilty

2010-11-10T23:50:00.003Z

The former immigration minister's General Election win, by 103 votes, has been declared void.

Candidate Elwyn Watkins launched the legal challenge, using a rarely-used election law, in response to a pamphlets produced by the Labour team.

Mr Woolas won the seat by just 103 votes.

The specially convened election court, chaired by two High Court judges, heard he sought to "make the white folk angry" by suggesting there was a Muslim campaign to kick him out.

Mr Woolas denied the claim and argued he was right to say Mr Watkins was in a "pact with the devil" because he failed to condemn the alleged campaign.

Former Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer told Sky News Mr Woolas had not been convicted of a criminal offence as it was an election court.

"Inevitably the consequences of there being a successful challenge in an electoral court for the first time in 100 years on the basis of fraud is bound to have ramifications right through the system," he said.

During the hearings, Mr Watkins' QC Helen Mountfield, said: "Mr Woolas' team had made an overt and, some may say, shocking decision to set out to 'make the white folk angry' by depicting an alleged campaign by those who they described generically as Asians to 'take Phil out' and then present Mr Watkins as in league with them.

She accused Mr Woolas of making "false statements as part of a series of reckless and irresponsible steps in this campaign - using doctored photographs, misrepresenting facts, stooping even to fomenting racial divisions and tensions".

Sky News

The election has to be re run, Woolas is patently not fit to hold public office. The rotting stench of the last Labour administration still hangs in the air.

Labour's war on charities

2010-09-20T01:36:00.002+01:00

Here's a nasty story from the Manchester Evening News. It seems that the Labour-dominated city council intend to crack down on charity workers, specifically the type who hang around places like Market Street and Piccadilly, asking people for permission to set up direct debits for regular donations. The MEN unflatteringly describes these guys as “charity muggers” or “chuggers”. Apparently shoppers have complained about feeling “harassed” and “intimidated” by them.

Sorry, but if you feel intimidated by a charity worker, you really need to grow a backbone. Unlike real muggers, they're not going to stick a knife in your ribs and demand money with menaces. And unlike Manchester City Council, they have no legal power to take your money from you without your permission. If you're approached by a charity worker in the street, and you either don't want to donate money or you can't afford to, a polite “no” will normally do – and if some misguided charity worker tries to give you the hard sell, all you need to do is calmly walk away.

So what's the problem?

North West Meet Up, 5th September

2010-09-04T00:12:00.003+01:00

It's that time of the month again. It hardly seems any time at all since the last regional meet up, but it's been a very active month (certainly for me personally, hence the light blogging).

This month's meet up is at our usual Manchester watering hole, the Kro2 Bar on Oxford Road (near the BBC). There should be a lot to talk about as we now have several prospective candidates for next year's local elections and we're aiming to establish a more formal organisation for the North West branch.

As usual, this meet up isn't just open to Libertarian Party members, everyone's welcome, just turn up and introduce yourself if you'd like to find out a bit more about what the Libertarian Party's about and what we aim to achieve. We're a friendly group, especially once we've got past the first couple of beers.

Still fighting "them" on the beaches

2010-08-25T23:22:00.004+01:00

The War goes on ! The war against Fascism (The marriage of the big State with big Corporations) we were told ended in 1945. Another skirmish has broken out, that the Libertarian Party is pleased to be part of-

All the links in the following article reproduced in full are to be found here on the Anna Raccoon site

70 years ago this week, Winston Churchill made his famous speech immortalising the words ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ He did so to rally every man and woman in these Isles to support the war effort:

“because we have been nurtured in freedom and individual responsibility and are the products, not of totalitarian uniformity, but of tolerance and variety.”

Sheila Martin was a fragile babe in arms when her Mother heard those words. Too young to understand the menace behind the Messerschmitts and Heinkels screaming overhead and disturbing her slumber. She was the intended beneficiary of Churchill’s words, one of the generation of children that depended on the bravery of British men such as her Father, away in France fighting for the freedom, tolerance and variety that was Britain’s hallmark.

Today, Sheila is once more fragile; she is 70 years old and was widowed 30 years ago. She tells me she has survived five heart attacks; she suffers from asthma, angina and high blood pressure. She only smokes the occasional cigarette these days, partly for health reasons, partly because her minimal state pension doesn’t stretch to any more.

70 years after Churchill’s speech was made, she has retired from a lifetime of hard work.

She was part of that unsung army of hard working, clean living, decent individuals, who cheerfully got up every morning and trudged off to put in a decent days work for a paltry wage as a ‘Mrs Mop’, raised her family, nurtured her marriage, made ends meet, saved little, but asked little in return, save the freedom, and tolerance that her older relatives had fought to provide. She is not a politically aware lady, nor insolent, nor ambitious for financial rewards.

In common with other ‘Smokers’ who may not like the new laws prohibiting them from smoking where others may be offended by the practice, she respected the law of the land, and complied. She is no campaigner against such laws.

Thus it was that she found herself standing at a bus stop, waiting for the bus which would take her home, and taking the opportunity to smoke a cigarette in the open air – there was no bus shelter. She could no longer smoke a cigarette on the top deck of the bus. She had not been able to smoke a cigarette with the cup of tea she shared with her daughter in town. Now she must stand in the road to enjoy the ‘freedom, tolerance and variety’ of the British Isles.

She only smoked half the cigarette; as the time drew close for the bus to arrive, she ‘nibbed’ the cigarette, letting the lit end fall to the ground, and thriftily stowing the other half of the cigarette in her handbag for a later occasion. It was her last cigarette until pension day.

Two of Sandwell’s famed ‘enforcement wardens’ approached her – a man and a woman. They told her that they were issuing a ‘Fixed Penalty Fine’ of £75 under Section 87 (1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as amended by Section 18 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. This mouthful of gobblygook was lost on Sheila; she had no idea what she had done wrong and put the piece of paper in her pocket.

Once home, friends and neighbours clustered round to read this piece of officialdom. Sheila still had the ‘end’ of the cigarette, with its precious inch or so of un-smoked tobacco in her handbag, so how could she be accused of littering the street – it had to be the cigarette ash they were talking about?

I have spoken to Sandwell Council, they tell me that they do not issue fixed penalty notices for cigarette ‘ash’ – I am sure they don’t. I am equally sure that Mrs Martin is telling the truth when she tells me that the half cigarette with its ‘butt’ was still safely in her handbag when she returned home. So we are left with the quandary of whether the ‘lit’ end of a cigarette, which will become cigarette ‘ash’ within seconds, constitutes parliament’s intention when they defined litter as including:

In section 98 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (definitions), after subsection (5) insert—

“(5A)“Litter” includes—

(a) the discarded ends of cigarettes, cigars and like products, and

(b) discarded chewing-gum and the discarded remains of other products designed for chewing.”

If a court holds that it does, then every smoker is liable for a £75 fine every time they smoke a cigarette in the street. I do not believe that to be parliament’s intention.

On Friday, the threatening ‘Final Demand’ from Sandwell Council, warning her that she now faces a £2,500 fine plus costs (and possible imprisonment if she does not pay that) expired. The next opportunity for Mrs Martin to contest this matter will come in ‘some months time’ – the council cannot tell me when her case will arrive at the top of their back log of cases to appear in the Magistrates court.

Sheila Martin is frightened, intimidated, and feels helpless in the face of this prosecution. She is in delicate health, aggravated by stress, and I have asked the council to reconsider their decision to press ahead with what may well be an interesting test case defining a cigarette end, but which will be at the expense of a frail and elderly person. They have referred me to their ‘revised Enforcement Policy’ – which makes for terrifying reading, a fine example of the totalitarian government Sheila’s Father fought so bravely to prevent. (available HERE)

Nick Hogan, who I was instrumental in rescuing from prison after similar council action, has joined with me, the Libertarian Party and the Sunday Mercury, to ensure that Sheila suffers as little as possible from the council’s intransigence.

We have already arranged for some very high powered legal representation for her, to put her mind at rest, and I have promised her that she will go to prison ‘over my dead body’ – she is obviously unable to pay this fine, or incremental increases of it, and I have personally guaranteed her that somehow I will make sure that she doesn’t have to pay it herself, nor go to prison.

There is no need for money at present, all the legal beagles so far involved are kindly donating their time and expertise free of charge – although if there are any other lawyers out there who would like to join the team, this is one broth that will not be spoiled by too many cooks. My e-mail address is on the contact section of this blog.

70 years ago we were prepared to ‘fight them on the beaches’ – how appropriate that today we prepare to fight them on the Sandwell……’

This article was originally posted by Guthrum on the Libertarian Party's national blog.

Why the palace shouldn't play politics

2010-07-24T12:48:00.002+01:00

Monarchists have always argued that one of the biggest assets of the status quo is that we have a head of state who is apolitical and has no interest in the tribal battle at Westminster. If Prince Charles' forays into the discussion about GM crops, architecture and suchlike were not already clear and irrefutable evidence that this argument is null and void, then the farce this week with the BNP and its leader Nick Griffin should surely be enough to convince many that the palace and politics are like oil and water.

As an MEP, Griffin was invited to a garden party at the palace on Thursday and promptly turned up on television declaring that this was evidence of his party's 'legitimacy'. Now we all know this to be something of a spurious argument. Yes, they are legitimate in the sense that they exist (just about) legally and managed to acquire 1 million votes at the last Euro elections, seeing Griffin and Andrew Brons elected to the European parliament. However, they were invited just as members of every other represented party was as a matter of procedure. The invitation did not represent a ringing endorsement of the BNP from Her Maj, and Griffin was setting them a trap by insinuating that it did.

Unfortunately, the palace appears to have walked straight into this and given the BNP a far greater publicity coup than turning up and munching a few sausage rolls would ever have done. People like Griffin build their myth on the concept that they are 'the enemy of the political class' and with this elite group held in contempt by so many, some voters have been liable to conclude that 'my enemy's enemy is therefore my friend'. Look, nobody contributing to this board has any truck with the man's wacky and sometimes hilarious politics. But not only do I think it was bad form to refuse a democratically elected MEP entry to the event because of such politics, it was also giving the oxygen of publicity to a man who knows how to use it.

Remember at school, there was always a kid who said and did ridiculous things at the back of the class, becoming more and more extreme as others indulged him with the attention he craved? Of course, as you get older, you realise that ignoring them or just smiling and saying "yeah, whatever" tends to make them disappear. The political class have indulged Griffin for too long, and now the palace have assisted their self-sabotage. Maybe we should give ignoring him a go - after all it couldn't work out any worse?

The Leaflet War – Labour 2, LibDem 1

2010-07-24T01:21:00.000+01:00

The next local election in Manchester isn't till next May, but as far as the big parties are concerned, the election campaign is already on. I've had three publications through the door in the last few weeks that can be considered election leaflets.

The first one was from Labour – an expensive looking glossy full colour leaflet with a picture of the local Labour mob on the front and a big “Thank You” headline. No need to thank me, I certainly didn't vote Labour – much more fun to run against them, even though the Labour candidate did manage to squeeze back in with a measly 2,247 more votes than me.

The next leaflet I got was one of those LibDem Focus things – simpler colour scheme but broadly similar layout. Another “Thank You” headline. A few more pictures of the local LibDems and also a bit more text. Also one of those standard bar chart diagrams that they like to stick on the front of their Focus leaflets, showing LibDems and Labour as “neck and neck” and discounting the other four parties with the words “The other parties Vote has Collapsed” - this is untrue by the way, as you can easily check by having a look at the 2008 election results. The Tory and Green paper candidates got about the same result as last time. The BNP loser got more votes than last time, despite doing no campaigning – I put this down to a combination of having the benefit of also having a General Election candidate, plus the incredible amount of free publicity those clowns get from the other party. And of course, me being the first Libertarian Party candidate to stand in Manchester, we don't know yet what a typical Libertarian election result is going to be.

I've got nothing against the opposition sending me this stuff. It's their right and the money to pay for it has been raised voluntarily. But the third publication that I've received is different.

This publication is not technically a party political leaflet, but it might as well be. It's the latest edition of the “Manchester People” – a newspaper-style publication printed and distributed by Manchester City Council and funded by the taxpayer. Sixteen pages of propaganda saying what a great job the council is doing. The front page is dominated by a story praising the Manchester Day Parade - £200,000 down the drain, but not one word of criticism. Another story is about the council's plans to blow £1,000,000,000 redeveloping St Peter's Square. There's nothing much wrong with it at the moment, that I can see – maybe the councillors are just bored with the view. Again, it's a completely one-sided story, not admitting any criticism, typical of this publication. Although it doesn't actually tell you to vote Labour at the next election, since it consistently praises everything the council does, and as the council is dominated by Labour, the message is clear. Local councils shouldn't be allowed to get away with this kind of thing, and hopefully when the Libertarian Party gets some councillors elected we'll be able to put a stop to it. But for the time being the working people of this city are being forced to pay for this publication to the tune of over £140,000 per year.

The EU-More Bull than Pamplona!

2010-07-16T13:09:00.000+01:00

The European Union is at it again, indeed when does it ever stop? Its authoritarian march towards supreme power and total control of our lives carries on relentlessly. I am only really concerened about UK withdrawal from the monster, it's up to other countries what they do, but I sense an ever growing scepticism throughout Europe to the EU. So what has caused my anger today?

For starters it's their lack of acceptance that the private sector is just that, private, and should be interfered with by the state as little as possible, ideally not at all. But no, where the EU see human interaction they want to control, regulate and legislate against it.

The leviathan is now concerened that there are not enough wimmin in the boardrooms of private companies. So what? Most of my working experience has been in the charity world where, I would guess, women are at least as well represented in senior management positions as men, maybe even disroportionately better represented. Do I care? Not a jot as long as they can do the job. By the way, I wonder what the EU think about the proportion of male/female primary school teachers throughout Europe, not just here?

Of course the EU is only 'flagging up the issue' at this stage, confident that the private sector will change the perceived imbalance. But as with every dictatorship behind that 'flagging up' is the threat that under the Lisbon Treaty, they have the power to enforce 'equality' if it doesn't happen voluntarily, or naturally.

Then there is the prospect of EU police forces having access to all your records: DNA, bank accounts, telephone and email records, everything that the British state has access to. This proposal is being floated under the European Investigation Order. Then it's only a hop, skip and a jump to Inspector Cutabollockoff kicking your door down at 4-00am to drag you off to Bucharest Central for interrogation. The British police and the British state scare me, this really brought me out in a cold sweat when I read about it.

The hat-trick today was the EU announcing, in true Mussolini style, that they will get the trains running on time! How? By forcing member states (or vassel states if you prefer) to adopt their new railway timetabling software. Bollocks! The last time I had a train cancelled was because the driver was in bed with a hangover, or at least he hadn't turned up for work. We all know about the wrong type of leaves on the line, the old signal failure excuse and the engineering works that have been screwing up the West Coast Mainline since about 1880. Typical EU delusional bollocks.

So what's the answer? Well pressure groups are all very well but too often preach to the converted. We all know that a majority of people in the country today would be happy to see us withdraw from the EU, but they are unaware of a credible political party advocating that. Also, while 50%+ would probably like to see us out of the EU, only about 8%, if that, will vote in a general election on that single issue, they vote on a whole range of issues from health and education to tax, law and order and all the others.

Furthermore, and I know from experience, that politicians who, rightly or wrongly, bang on, and on, and on about nothing but the EU turn the electorate off. Withdrawal has to be part of a cohesive manifesto including the whole range of government activities, preferably hacking away at the activity of government, and freeing people from the current invasive, authoritarian state that is crippling freedom and liberty. That is the only way to get into Westminster where real change can become possible.

If you think that no such party exists then I suggest you visit the Libertarian Party website. You will be pleasantly surprised.

North West Meetup, 7 August

2010-07-15T13:54:00.002+01:00

Following some discussion about the location and timing of the next regional meet-up, it's been decided that we should carry on meeting every month at the Kro2 on Oxford Road, Manchester for the time being. It's the most convenient venue for most of our North West members, as our greatest concentration of numbers is in Greater Manchester, it's easy to find and public transport links are good.

The next meet-up will be on Saturday 7 August, starting about 12.30pm. For those who haven't been to one of these meet-ups before, we normally take a table close to the door and near the bar, or if the weather's hot we'll sit outside. For ease of identification, I'll have a document wallet with a Libertarian Party poster on the front.

These meetings tend to be very informal, but likely topics of conversation are likely to include increasing our membership and sharpening up our regional organisation in preperation for next year's local elections.

As usual, the meet-up will be open to interested non-Libertarian Party members.

The Target For This Month

2010-07-10T01:25:00.002+01:00

We need to start raising funds for the local Elections in 2011, I would like to appeal to all members and supporters to donate what you can this month.

Our account number is 92635313 Sort Code 40-28-20

Our immediate target is £2000. We are looking to open a permanent office to handle donations and all the other administration and membership applications.Times are hard but every £5 and £10 is income in the right direction.

North West Regional Meetup 3 July

2010-06-28T22:43:00.001+01:00

Following the very successful Carnforth meetup, the next regional meetup is going to be in Manchester, at the Kro2 Bar on Oxford Road (near the university buildings and next to the Mancunian Way) on Saturday 3 July, starting about 1.00pm. As usual, interested non-Party members are welcome to attend. The format will be informal, although subjects for discussion are likely to include recruiting prospective candidates for next year's local elections, finding ways to attract new members and suggestions for future activities.

Would the Cumbria massacre have happened without the Firearms Acts?

2010-06-10T23:46:00.001+01:00

Following on from the horrific events in Cumbria, it was completely predictable that statist politicians such as John Pugh and Chris Williamson would come out of the woodwork to advocate yet more bans on lawful firearms ownership. Naturally they fail to provide any evidence that any further gun bans will reduce the likelihood of the next massacre, because there is no such evidence. People who want to commit murder will do so, whatever the law says. Certainly Derrick Bird's actions appear at this point to have been premeditated. If he hadn't used legally owned guns to do what he did, he'd have used firearms bought on the black market – and black market guns are easier to acquire than legal ones these days, especially if you want something that's currently prohibited.

The 1988 and 1997 Firearms Acts were sold as being intended to prevent future atrocities such as happened in Hungerford and Dunblane. They have clearly not had that effect, so what makes anyone think that further bans will improve the situation? The only obvious effect current legislation had on the outcome of the Cumbria massacre was to ensure that Bird's victims were all unarmed and therefore easy targets. If only one of the random people who crossed Bird's path on that day had been armed, they would have been in with a chance of stopping him, or at least slowing him down. A few decades ago this would have been more likely, as the gun laws were more laid back then.

But there's one more thing about this event that I've been wondering about – did Bird just suddenly snap or did he feel himself deteriorating over time, as his problems gradually started to get on top of him? There is a story that he tried to get himself admitted to a mental hospital just a day or two before the massacre, but was turned away – I don't know if that's true or not. But if it was a gradual process, did he seek help earlier? If not, why not? Could he have been deterred from seeking professional help by the 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Act? To see what I mean by this, pop along to the Merseyside Police website and download either a Form 101 (application for a Firearm Certificate) or a Form 103 (application for a Shotgun Certificate) and read Section 16. It reads “I hereby give permission for the police to approach my GP to obtain factual details of my medical history.” It's something that was added to the form as a result of the 1997 Act. That on it's own is enough to deter any licensed gun owner from seeing his doctor if he starts suffering from any emotional or psychological problems – he'd be scared that the fact that he's being treated for depression or whatever would get back to the police and that they'd use it as an excuse to revoke his FAC or SGC. Did this fact deter Bird from seeking help before it was too late? I don't know, we'll probably never know. Would a councelling or therapy have helped to prevent him going off the rails? Again, I don't know and we'll probably never know. It's not like psychology is an exact science.

But what does seem obvious to me is that clause in our draconian gun laws actually increases the risk of licensed gun owners developing problems in the future – probably not by very much but the possibility's there. Something to think about.

North West Regional Meetup, 13 June 2010

2010-05-20T22:23:00.003+01:00

Now that the elections are out of the way, we're having another regional Libertarian Party meetup in the Lounge Bar of the Royal Station Hotel in Carnforth, Lancashire, starting about 12.00 Noon on Sunday 13 June. This is just across the road from the famous railway station which was used as a location for the film "Brief Encounter". This is a nice bar that does decent food - the Station Burgers are both reasonably priced, tasty and very filling. There'll be a lot to discuss, since we now have experience of running an election campaign in Manchester and we're now in the process of recruiting candidates to stand in the local elections next year, not only in Manchester but in all parts of the North West.

Our meetups are pretty informal and you don't have to be a Libertarian Party member to attend. Anyone interested in libertarian ideas is welcome - so feel free to come along, talk about libertarianism and see if we're the sort of party that you'd like to support. We're a very friendly group.

EDIT 31/5/10

Please note that this meetup was originally scheduled for 6 June but has now been rescheduled for 13 June. My fault, I forgot about a prior commitment on the same day. I hope this doesn't cause any problems for anyone.

A National Ballot

2010-05-09T19:32:00.001+01:00

As it seems that some form of agreement between the Tories and Lib Dems may be emerging, democrats must maintain the demand that electoral reform has got to be part of the political reform.

The need is straightforward. We need legislation in the first Queen’s Speech that provides a national ballot within months in which the following alternatives are offered to the electorate:

1. A Conservative preferred option which might be expected to be the maintenance of First Past The Post, but with a smaller number of MPs and equal sized constituencies.

2. A Labour preferred option which is likely to be the Alternative Vote System.

3. A Liberal Democrat preferred option which would be the Single Transferable Vote System that they included in their election manifesto.

4. No change to the existing system.

5. An additional choice proposed by the Electoral Reform Society if they wish to present one.

As the Conservatives are the largest Party and they are adamantly opposed to fair votes, it may be that the Lib Dems will cave in and agree to allow the Tories to govern without a commitment to give the voters this choice. If that is the case, we must demand that those people who argued for fair votes before and during the election should stand by their commitments and present a Bill to Parliament for a national ballot on the above lines. There is actually a majority in Parliament for reform of the electoral system and that should allow such a bill to pass into law. In the event that a minority Conservative Government prevented this Bill from being presented to Parliament or obstructed it being passed into law, they should face a vote of no confidence and another election be forced.

Democracy in Britain must be modernised and the current opportunity presented by the lack of an overall majority by a single Party must result in genuine electoral reform being offered to the public.

Electoral Reform

2010-05-09T11:21:00.002+01:00

Opportunities for meaningful political change do not come often, but there is one now and it must be seized.

The situation is clear although it is complicated. The Tories did not win the right to form a government, but Labour most definitely lost the election. The bizarre effects of a First Past The Post (FPTP) election means that many people who do not support Labour or the Tories either do not have any opportunity to vote for a party that they do support or they vote tactically for one of these two in order to keep the other out.

This means that although the Lib Dems (LD) had 28% or 29% popular support before the election, only 23% of voters turned that support into a real vote. In addition to this, the LD vote was more evenly spread than that of the two major parties so they had lower chances of their votes being converted into seats. The consequence is that with 23% of the vote the LDs have only 10% of the seats. That is profoundly undemocratic and it is worse when you consider that 28% of voters may have wished to vote LD.

For Libertarians, the situation is far worse. We are in the position that the Green Party were in a generation ago. Despite the Greens standing hundreds of candidates and having a massive public profile for their policies, they have only just been able to secure a single seat in Parliament for their leader. This is a democratic disgrace.

For a new party with good, clear policies that would appeal to many voters, but lacking big financial backers and the army of backers of the big institutional parties, FPTP prevents any chance of even the smallest success in either national or local elections. That is not democracy and it must change now.

The Labour Government has taken this country into such massive debt that our economy is on the brink of collapse with all the terrible consequences that are beginning to unravel in Greece. This means that we must have a new Prime Minister and the prospects of reasonably stable government in the short term established very early this week. If that is not achieved, there will be great volatility in the currency markets and it will become harder every hour for all of us to be saved from very serious damage to our quality of life and financial future.

The tasks for today for our political leaders are these:

Gordon Brown

Resign immediately. You were never elected as leader of the Labour Party, you were never a legitimate Prime Minister, your performance in office has been disastrous and in the only leadership election you have ever faced you have conclusively lost. The Labour Party cannot maintain any credibility so long as you remain Prime Minister and the interests of the country require Labour voters to be adequately represented in the negotiations to form a government.

Nick Clegg

Do not make any deal that does not include a commitment to the introduction of electoral reform with a timetable for completion before the end of this year. You stood on a platform of fair votes and your present bargaining position owes everything to that undertaking. Failure to deliver electoral reform would be a betrayal of the worst kind and would not be forgiven.

David Cameron

You did not win a mandate to form a government and the economy of this country is in such a perilous position that you have a duty to reach agreement without delay on the formation of a government that can command a clear majority in Parliament so that effective decisions can be taken without delay. There is no Parliamentary majority among parties of the political right. Differences between Tory and LD memberships mean that a coalition is unlikely and a supply and confidence arrangement will be fragile. In these circumstances you should present a simple draft Queens Speech and emergency budget to all Parties and seek agreement to them being allowed to pass. Despite the opposition of your party to PR, there is clear demand from the public for electoral reform and it must be offered within a strict timetable that does not extend beyond this year. All other Parties should allow your minority government to function until a reformed electoral system is in place and a new General Election can be held.

The chaos of queues outside polling stations as polls closed; the disgrace of stations running out of ballot papers; the nonsense of an unelected second chamber and the absurdity of not having fixed term Parliaments, all contribute to Britain being seen as a country with third world election standards and grossly outdated democracy. All our leaders have an urgent responsibility to resolve these matters with the urgency that is necessary to prevent us collapsing into a third world economy as well.

The End of the Beginning

2010-05-07T23:52:00.001+01:00

The count for the local elections in Manchester took place at the Town Hall this afternoon. I was allowed to take two people along with me, so I took the Libertarian Party Chairman Gregg Beaman and a sympathiser who isn't yet a party member but who had contributed to the campaign. I found it to be an enjoyable experience. Fortunately the count didn't last as long as last night's General Election counts, but I had time for a cup of coffee and a chat with the Lib Dem candidate Gerry Diamond, who comes across as being a pleasant guy even though I don't agree with his politics. The local Lib Dem godfather Damien O'Connor was also there – it happens that he and Gregg knew each other a few years ago when they were both members of UKIP, so they had a chance to catch up on old times. The Labour candidate John Flanagan was there, but he seemed a bit aloof and didn't say anything to me. No sign of the Tory that I could see. The Greens were there too, and also the BNP candidate and one of his comrades. They didn't look very comfortable – a pair of twenty-somethings in ill-fitting suits who spent most of the time propping up a wall while the rest of the room avoided them. They looked like they were getting ready for a court appearance instead of an election (I was dressed much more stylishly in my combat jacket, jeans and Prisoner tee shirt – I think it's my sense of casual elegance that makes me so attractive to women). At one point, Flanagan tried to get support for a walkout in protest at the BNP even being there, which would have been a pretty childish thing to do – whatever else is wrong with them, the BNP are a legal political party with a perfect right to attend the count.

The count was over pretty quickly, and the result was as follows:

Lib Dem 1596
Labour 2402
Libertarian 55
Green 80
bnp 400
Conservative 265

Total votes: 4798

Flanagan gave a short speech in which he thanked the people of Newton Heath for voting for him and promised to do his best to serve the people of Newton Heath - not a word about the people of Miles Platting and Collyhurst South, which are also in this ward, don't ask me why. Possibly it's because Flanagan's not too familiar with the area, being from Gorton. You'd have to ask him.

I have to admit that the result was a surprise to me. I thought Gerry Diamond would win, his team certainly put plenty of work in, but unfortunately we've got another four years of Flanagan. The number of votes that I got as the Libertarian Party candidate was a pleasant surprise. I thought I'd get maybe 30-40. If that doesn't sound a lot, consider the fact that this is the very first election campaign that the Libertarian Party has mounted in this part of the country, that I'm an inexperienced candidate, that the ward was swamped with Lib Dem and Labour propaganda and that there would have been a lot of tactical voting going on. So I'm actually quite pleased that 55 people decided that it was worthwhile voting for me and the Libertarian Party. It comes to about 1.15% of the total vote. If you're one of those voters, thank you very much. I will do my best to ensure that you have plenty of opportunities to vote Libertarian in future elections. I don't know yet if I'll be a candidate next time, but I'm sure I'll be turning up in some capacity in future campaigns, maybe acting as an agent for another candidate or even just delivering leaflets. I've got the experience now, so I'm sure I can make myself useful. And I'm convinced that Manchester deserves a credible alternative to the current false choice between Labour and the Lib Dems. The Libertarian Party aims to be that alternative.

I'd also like to thank all those who supported me, whether in person by helping deliver leaflets or by sponsoring my campaign. It's been a real pleasure to work with such a dedicated team and I fully expect to be supporting some of them when they stand as candidates themselves.

The Axeman Cometh

2010-04-29T07:57:00.003+01:00

In my current campaign to be elected to Manchester City Council, one of my manifesto pledges is that I would always oppose increases in council tax and try to get it reduced significantly (significantly to me means at least 10%) then it's reasonable to ask what I would cut. Some people might think it's far-fetched being as Labour have increased council tax yet again and the Lib Dems are only promising a cut of less than 1%.

A good start would be to delete all or most of the budget for “Cultural and Related Services”. In 2006-2007, the budget for this was £66,506,000. By comparison, the budget for roads, highways and public transport services that year was less than half that, which shows a pretty strange set of priorities if you ask me.

Let's go through the itemised list of what this was for and see what we can take an axe to:

£96,000 – Archives spending. I'd have to look more closely into what this includes, but presumably the council needs to keep old records for future use, and it's a tiny part of the overall budget, so I'd leave it alone for now.

£3,825,000 – Arts development and support spending. Delete this completely. Art isn't something that should depend on handouts from the State. Art is generated by the creative impulses of the human mind, and it should be paid for by those who enjoy it.

£4,689,000 – Community centres and public halls spending. This probably won't make me popular, but I would vote to delete this part of the budget too. If there's a demand for such facilities, then they should be financed voluntarily by the people who use them.

£5,376,000 – Heritage spending. I'm assuming this includes maintaining the various monuments and historic buildings that come under council control. This should be phased out and responsibility for this should be turned over to charities and local voluntary groups.

£14,255,000 – Library spending. This is a problem. In principle it's another case where I'd say it should be paid for by those who use it. On the other hand, libraries are such useful facilities for supporting education, job hunting etc that I'd be very cautious about making any radical changes. If anyone has any practical ideas for making the library service voluntarily funded while still keeping it free at the point of use, I'd appreciate the input.

£6,560,000 – Museums and galleries spending. This part of the budget can and should be deleted. I do like visiting places like the Science Museum and the Art Gallery when I've got time, but not everyone does, and should my entertainment be funded by other people? I would advocate a rolling programme of transferring ownership and control of museums and art galleries to charities, volunteer groups and the private sector.

£14,764,000 – Open spaces spending. Parkland and suchlike, in some cases just waste ground that the council has grassed over. Local community groups should normally be responsible for this kind of thing, and in most cases they could probably do the job a lot cheaper.

£9,377,000 – Sports and recreation facilities including golf courses. Should be paid for by those who enjoy them. Privatise them.

£5,810,000 – Theatres and public entertainment. What is this, the Roman Empire, with Caesar laying on entertainment to keep the public quiet? I like going to the theatre when I can afford it (and it happens that we've got a lot of good amateur theatres around Greater Manchester) but I don't expect other people to subsidise my nights out through council tax. Delete this budget.

£1,754,000 – Tourism spending. I don't think I've ever met anyone who has visited Manchester due to promotion by Marketing Manchester. People come from the outside because they've got relatives in the area or there's some particular aspect of Manchester or it's history that interests them (football being an obvious example). Another budget that can be deleted with no problem.

Does a decent cut in council tax still sound far-fetched?

The Mancunian Candidate - The Campaign Begins!

2010-04-23T23:29:00.002+01:00

I took delivery of my leaflets for the local election in Miles Platting and Newton Heath yesterday. The Libertarian Party's Communications Director, Councillor Gavin Webb, has done a good job of designing these. They're only A5, but they're printed in colour, with a really good layout. He's even somehow managed to make my picture on the front look not too horrible. Gavin also got a pretty good deal, £89 for 5,000 leaflets – we're not a rich party with millionaire backers, and I'm certainly not a rich candidate. Election rules allow a candidate in this ward to spend over £1,000, and I'm sure the two big parties in this ward (Lib Dem and Labour) with their deep pockets will be taking full advantage of that. My budget is in the region of £100, so I'll just have to make do with what I've got. One advantage that I do have is that I'm the only candidate in this ward who's guaranteed a vote – all the others live outside the area!

So I got the leaflets yesterday, and today I started distribution. All of a sudden, it's turned into a real election campaign. Out of the door at the crack of 9.00 am, and I got back just about dead on noon. In that time, I delivered something over 300 leaflets in the area around my house, which I don't think is a bad rate of work. One thing about walking around delivering these leaflets is, I soon developed a real appreciation for what a hilly area my part of Newton Heath is. Lucky I keep reasonably fit (quarterstaff lessons on Monday nights, yoga on Tuesday evenings and walks in the country when I've got time) or I would have been done in after the first hour, especially as the weather turned quite warm after a bit. I had to skip some houses, due to the gardens having dogs in them or being unable to find the letter box (yes, really) but not very many. I didn't do any actual canvassing (I'm no salesman, so I figured knocking on doors and trying to get people to vote for me would be counterproductive) but I did manage to chat to some people when I caught them going into or out of their homes, or just hanging out in their gardens. I can quite honestly say that I didn't have a single unpleasant experience, everyone was at least polite and some were quite friendly. I got back home at mid-day tired but in good spirits, feeling that I'd made a good start.

I rested up for a bit after I had some dinner, then went out again, this time to town. I'd had a letter from the Electoral Services Unit to attend a briefing for candidates and agents. I got into town a bit early, to get my hair cut – which really needed doing. As it happens, I didn't have to wait to get my hair cut, so I ended up with about an hour to kill before I had to get to the Town Hall. I decided to spend it in the Art Gallery, which is one of my favourite free places to kill time. It's a great place to wander around and see what catches your eye – one painting I particularly like is “Work” by Ford Madox Brown. The only thing I'd change about the Art Gallery is that it's taxpayer funded. I don't think taxpayers should be forced to pay for other people's pleasure. Things like art and sport should be paid for by the people who enjoy them. Personally, I'd probably turn the Art Gallery over to some charity and let them raise money through donations and/or charging at the door.

Anyway, 4.30pm rolls around, and I'm at the Town Hall, in the Banqueting Hall. I hadn't seen this part of the building before, it's quite impressive. Tea, coffee and biscuits were on offer free of charge (ie funded by the taxpayer) and I helped myself to a cup of coffee and several biscuits. Is this a sign of me starting to give in to corruption even before I've been elected?

The meeting wasn't as well attended as I expected. There were seats for at least a hundred people, but no more than a couple of dozen turned up – both local and parliamentary candidates. Flanagan and some members of his mob were there, along with Damien O'Connor (the local Lib Dem godfather) and members of his entourage. The briefing was pretty boring, technical stuff, mostly to do with the right of candidates and their agents to attend the count, the opening of postal ballots and suchlike, along with stern warnings not to try any ballot rigging. There were a couple of of interruptions by self-important candidates who seemed more interested in starting an argument than anything else, but I learned what I needed to learn and also picked up a pass for attending the count, so it was worth going to.

Overall, a pretty good day. If this is electioneering, I'll have some more of it.

Sloppily-produced propaganda from the Labour Party

2010-04-21T19:28:00.003+01:00

One thing that's surprised me about this campaign so far is that the incumbent Labour councillor (John Flanagan) doesn't seem to be putting much effort into keeping his job. The Lib Dems have been campaigning hard in my area since about the middle of last year – I've had a monthly Focus leaflet off them, along with a Christmas card, calendar and a personalised letter inviting me to join up with them (no thanks). All I've had from Labour this year is a letter from Tony Lloyd, the local MP who's currently after being re-elected. The only time I've seen or heard anything from Flanagan in the last few months was when I attended a local political meeting last year, which was hosted by all three councillors. On that occasion, Flanagan stormed out of the room after one of the local taxpayers gave him a bit too much grief – I really didn't get the impression that Flanagan enjoys his job.

So little or no Labour activity in Newton Heath. Is this because they arrogantly assume that the locals will automatically turn out and vote Flanagan back into power? Or have they given up on Newton Heath on the assumption that this part of the ward now “belongs” to the Lib Dems? It's a false assumption in either case, since the voters all have free will, and anything can happen on election day – but then again, establishment politicians do tend to take the voters for granted, don't they?

It turns out that the Labour Party are doing some campaigning though, just not round my way. By way of this very useful and interesting website, I've found a copy of a “Rose” leaflet that the Labourites have been circulating around Miles Platting and Collyhurst South. It's well worth having a look, even if only to keep yourself amused by counting the typos. Edited by Flanagan himself, frankly it's a bit of a mess.

The leaflet has three pictures of Flanagan on the front, which isn't a good start – he takes an even worse picture than me. Naturally he takes credit for three new schools that are going up in the area, as well as keeping Miles Platting Pools open (for now). He also takes credit for “home improvements” in Miles Platting and Collyhurst, forgetting to mention that some of these “improvements” involve the extensive use of a demolition ball. The plan to demolish nearly 200 homes in Collyhurst South is particularly controversial, but you wouldn't believe it from reading this leaflet. Possibly because it's a relatively small area, not big enough to swing an election, the two big parties seem to be paying scant attention to the feelings of the people who actually live there.

The bottom of the front page is promoting the upcoming St George's Day Parade, which isn't really something that the council should be involved with – if local residents want to organise a parade, that's perfectly OK with me, it's just not something that the council should be financing or taking credit for.

The back page is even worse. According to the leaflet, the council has set aside £600,000 to repair all the extra potholes that have appeared due to the recent cold snap. For a town the size of Manchester, that doesn't sound anything like enough to me. Although I'm in favour of reducing the size of Manchester City Council's overall expenditure, keeping the roads in a decent state of repair is a necessary core function in my book, so it's one area where I think spending a bit of extra money is justified to get it right. And I don't think it's being done right at the moment, because a lot of the potholes near me have just been roughly filled with tarmac – I don't think they'll get through even a moderate winter without needing re-doing.

A bit further down, there's a nice prominent headline: “Manchester Council Tax – no increase”. This is a lie. The reality is that there's been an increase in the council tax bill of up to £22.70, depending on the property you live in. Maybe not as bad as it could have been, but nothing like as good as it could have been either, and definitely not a freeze. If they really cared about the working poor of this town, they could have reduced council tax significantly. Certainly if I'm elected I'll be pushing for at least a 10% reduction (the Lib Dem candidate's only promising a reduction of less than 1%, which isn't surprising as he's an ex-Labourite himself).

The rest of the leaflet is taken up with the usual form to fill in and send back to the Labour Party to get your name added to their mailing list, and some fairly random-looking photos down the side – the top one shows Flanagan standing in front of a playground pointing at the camera as if he's doing a “stick up”. The next one down shows Flanagan apparently being given directions by a Collyhurst resident – not surprisingly, as Flanagan's from Gorton and probably has trouble finding his way around this ward. One pic of Flanagan and Lloyd attending last year's parade. One pic of Flanagan standing outside a youth club, saying it had had a “£100,00 improvement boost” - does he mean £100.00 or £100,000? This leaflet hasn't been proofread at all. Weird how they can afford thousands of leaflets on glossy paper, but don't take the time to get them right.

Note to the Labour Party: I have experience of proofreading. If you want someone to go through your propaganda and check for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors next year, my hourly rate for that kind of work is £7 per hour. For the Labour Party (and Lib Dems and Tories) I offer a special rate of £14 an hour, or we'll call it £10 if cash in hand. You know where to contact me.

Vote for Kirwan in West Wirral

2010-04-19T16:37:00.000+01:00

Libertarians are not like the big Parties. We do not want to force a party line onto anybody. We recognise that as individuals everybody is entitled to make up their own mind on all issues and that applies to MPs as much as everybody else. The Party whipping system is a big part of the cronyism and secrecy that has given us claims for duck houses and moat cleaning along with all the other abuses of this disgraceful parliament.

David Kirwan is an anti-sleaze candidate who has committed himself to the complete openness that is necessary to clean up Parliament and restore trust in politics. David is a Wirral Councillor who left the Conservatives to be free to represent his constituents without the constraints of a failing Party interested only in its own interests. From this independent perspective he has read the LPUK manifesto and found that he agrees with us enough to be able to work together. Having met David Kirwan and discussed what motivates us I can say his views meet the basic criteria that I would require to give support to anybody. These are simple:

• A recognition that Government usually creates problems rather than solving them and that there must be a return to much more individual responsibility, stronger families, stronger communities and an end to state snooping and interfering into so many aspects of private life.
• A determination to eliminate the secrecy, corruption and waste that comes with our system of patronage government and the armies of Quango’s and consultants that squander our tax money to bully, coerce and cajole us into New Labour clones. Cameron’s Blue Labour would be no different.
• An understanding that it is not possible to export democracy to other countries any more than it is acceptable for our values and culture to be crushed under a welter of stupid laws and PC multiculturalism. Decent values and respect for others comes from behaving decently and not by beating people into submission if they have different opinions from your own.
• Knowledge that prosperity and wellbeing for everybody depends on the enterprise and initiative that we have in abundance in this country. Our economy is crippled with massive debt because of the crazy spending by Brown’s government as he tries to buy his way to a fourth term of ruinous Labour Government. The companies that could provide the jobs to bring people out of poverty and hardship are being strangled by ridiculous laws and red tape from Whitehall and Brussels.
• Like Libertarians in all our varieties he wants respect for individuals who are responsible citizens; safe streets brought about by simple laws that are firmly enforced; low taxes that allow people to use the money they earn in the way that they choose; a country that is respected in the world for its defence of its own interests without interfering in the legitimate affairs of others.

For the cause of Liberty to gain from this election we need only to show the big parties that we will not allow ourselves to be dragged any further into the sovietisation of this country. A hung Parliament would be a big step in the right direction and an Independent MP for Wirral West is an important element in achieving that objective. Libertarians should vote for David Kirwan.

Go, Leese! Just go!

2010-04-19T00:04:00.002+01:00

The major local political news story in Manchester over the last few days hasn't been the local election, but the fact that Richard Leese has had to “temporarily” step down as Leader of Manchester City Council after accepting a police caution for assaulting a 16 year old girl. It seems to have been some kind of domestic argument over medicating a cat, that blew up out of proportion somehow. Whether he will return to his £40,000 a year job as council bossman is unclear at this time.

However, it is worth pointing out that he previously spearheaded a “zero tolerance” campaign on domestic violence.

My opinion is that Richard Leese should have stepped down a long time before this incident happened.

This is the man who tried to bully the people of Manchester into voting for congestion charging, claiming there was “no Plan B” in the event of a “no” vote.

This is the man who encouraged thousands of ticketless Rangers fans to crowd into the centre of Manchester in 2008, leading to some of the worst rioting we've seen in this city in recent years.

This is the man who is happy to collaborate with this government's discredited and expensive ID cards scheme.

This is the man who has overseen annual increases in Council Tax even during times of recession, imposing an unnecessary economic burden on the working poor of this city.

This is the man who's idea of economic regeneration usually involves over-use of the wrecking ball.

This is the man, in short, who is the head of a council that has brought this city to its knees.

He should just go.

It's unfortunate that Leese's term of office as a councillor for Crumpsall doesn't expire until 2012. The honourable thing for him to do would be to resign as a councillor in order to force a by-election and let the people of Crumpsall decide whether they still want him. But I don't expect him to do that. Instead, he will attempt to live this incident down.

But there is no way he should ever be re-instated as Leader of the Council. Manchester deserves better.

A Manifesto for Manchester

2010-04-17T00:51:00.003+01:00

As I'm running as the Libertarian Party candidate for Manchester City Council in the Miles Platting and Newton Heath ward, here is my personal manifesto:

1. Libertarians believe that taxes should be kept as low as possible and as fair as possible. Council Tax is neither, it has no relation to the ability to pay and Manchester City Council has insisted on increasing it year after year, even in times of recession. I will never vote for an increase in Council Tax, under any circumstances and I will work to get it decreased. The annual increases in the rate of Council Tax levied by this council are a crippling burden on the working poor of this city. I believe that by cutting waste, improving efficiency and focusing on core functions, a cut of at least 10% in the Council Tax bill is achievable while still providing necessary services. This would put between £54 and £265 back into the pockets of each tax payer.

2. As a Libertarian, I am totally opposed to this Labour-dominated council's policy of collaborating with the government's expensive and discredited ID card scheme. The main problem with the ID card scheme is not the cards themselves. The real problem is that if you have an ID card, your personal details will be recorded on the National Identity Register – a centralised database which will be accessible to thousands of civil servants and vulnerable to hacking and criminal abuse. No need for ID cards has been demonstrated and yet this council insists on airport workers and students having them. How long until they try to force the rest of us to follow suit?

3. Libertarians oppose the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders by local councils. This is a form of legalised theft which has been heavily employed against residents of Miles Platting and Collyhurst South recently. People work hard for years to buy their own homes – why should the council then be able to throw them out of their homes, knock them down and pay them below market value for their homes? And all to clear the way for yet another of the council's seemingly never-ending “regeneration” projects. This Labour-dominated council has been knocking down and rebuilding parts of this city for as long as I can remember – a policy which destroys communities while doing little or nothing to improve the quality of life in Manchester. If elected, I will always oppose the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders.

4. As a Libertarian, I believe that local councils should focus on providing the core services which people expect them to provide – policing the streets, maintaining the roads, gritting, waste collection and so on – as efficiently as possible. If elected, I will work to ensure that the council's resources are used to maintain and improve these necessary services and not wasted on grand schemes and white elephant projects. Funding for non-essentials such as art galleries, museums, parades and so on should be left to the private and voluntary sectors who can usually do a better job of running them.

5. Libertarians believe in open, accountable government, both at national and local level. The public were rightly outraged when the scandal over MP's expenses broke last year, but local politicians have continued to feather their own nests while being largely ignored by the media. In 2008-09 Manchester city councillors claimed a total of £1,875,032.79 in allowances between them! Labour councillor John Flanagan – who is defending his seat in this election – personally claimed £25,520.67 in that year. Not bad for part time work! If elected, I will claim the minimal amount in allowances which I believe to be justified, and I will publish any claims I make on the internet within a week of claiming them, so that the taxpayers of this ward can decide for themselves whether they're getting value for money from me. I will also publish details of every Council motion I vote on (and those I abstain on) giving reasons why. Politicians should be prepared to account for their actions to the public every single day, not just every four years.

Words of wisdom from Tony Blair

2010-04-12T17:34:00.001+01:00

"Instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards let that money provide thousands more police officers on the beat in our local communities."

Tony Blair as Leader of the Opposition, Labour Party conference, October 1995

Vote Labour and get your home demolished!

2010-04-11T12:42:00.001+01:00

A recent edition of the Manchester Evening News had an interesting local story concerning Manchester City Council's planned demolition of 189 maisonettes in Collyhurst South. The maisonettes were built in the 60s and the council now want to demolish and replace them. The cost of this “redevelopment” will be £3,300,000 – the council rejected a proposal to refurbish the maisonettes at a much lower cost of £300,000, which would obviously have involved a lot less disruption to the community. Other options, like turning over ownership of the properties involved to a housing association or a local housing cooperative, don't seem to have been considered. Pretty typical of the sledgehammer approach that this Labour-dominated council tends to adopt.

For me though, what's particularly interesting about this story is that it implies that the local people are almost all behind the council's plan. That wasn't the impression I had recently, when I was canvassing for nomination signatures in the area. I only met one guy who plans to vote Labour, everyone else seemed to hate the incumbent councillor John Flanagan, who voted for the demolition. I talked to people who have lived there for decades and who resented the council's actions. Collyhurst South is a functioning community, not some urban battlezone – I've certainly lived in worse places, so why is the council set on this course of action? One very friendly couple who live in one of the maisonettes in question kindly invited me into their home and explained how distressed they were about the prospect of being moved into temporary accommodation while their home was demolished and a replacement built – both of them already have health problems, the stress from this can only make things worse. As usual with this council, they won't let the needs of individuals get in the way of their grand schemes.

Afghanistan: David Kirwan vs Sound Money Man

2010-04-09T10:20:00.012+01:00

My position on the occupation of Afghanistan is that War Is A Racket.

War is just a racket. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

-US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler (1933)

My position can be summed up with the words "armed neutrality". Think "Switzerland without conscription" and you're already there.

Prospective independent parliamentary candidate David Kirwan apparently wants to have his cake and eat it too.

He seems to think that British forces must continue to occupy Afghanistan and kill those who oppose it if the US forces remain there. No unilateral withdrawal!

He even trots out the establishment talking point of "better kit for our boys".

It saddens me to report that the LPUK has officially endorsed independent candidate David Kirwan for the 2010 general election.

Clearly, I don't.

Reply by Stuart Heal

Sound Money Man has not been a member of the Libertarian Party for several months, and has today requested that his status as a guest blogger be removed, which I have done.

The official Libertarian Party position at this time is for a policy of armed neutrality - a policy which I personally disagree with, however I continue to be an active member of the Party because I agree with most of the rest of the manifesto and I want to do what I can to make Britain a better, more liberal country to live in.

David Kirwan - although not a member of the Libertarian Party - seems to have similar motivations, and has therefore been endorsed by our National Coordinating Committee.

On the particular subject of Afghanistan, I suggest that anyone interested visit David Kirwan's website, and look down the list of manifesto podcasts on the right of the page, and click on "War in Afghanistan". Listen to what Mr Kirwan has to say and make up your own mind as to whether what he's saying matches Sound Money Man's characterisation of him as some kind of war monger. Personally, I though what he was saying made a lot of sense.

If this how heroes behave, I'd hate to see the villians.

2010-04-07T14:16:00.003+01:00

The video I am about to link to requires a warning. Its not for those of a delicate disposition. Youtube may require you to sign in as an adult. Don't say I didn't warn you. The video depicts British troops beating the crap out of Iraqi children. That's the reality of war. Not the Daily Star bollocks about "our boys" that the tabloids feed you. If this is how heroes behave, I'd hate to see the villians.

The Mancunian Candidate

2010-04-06T00:44:00.000+01:00

Three years ago, if you'd told me that I'd soon be joining a political party, I wouldn't have believed you. None of the political parties that were in existence at that time came close enough to my beliefs to be worth supporting, certainly not the Big Three. Then in late 2007, the Libertarian Party was formed, and it didn't take me long to decide to join it.

At the time when I joined the Libertarian Party, if you'd told me that I'd ever be doing anything more active for it than doing a bit of leafleting, I wouldn't have believed you then, either. But when the leadership said they wanted regional coordinators, I volunteered to run the North West branch. No-one else seemed to want the job, so I thought I'd have a go. But I always saw myself as a back room type - admin and blogging, that kind of thing.

I certainly never saw myself as a potential candidate for election. But here I am, the Libertarian Party's official candidate for the Miles Platting and Newton Heath ward in the elections for Manchester City Council on 6th May. Not only the first Libertarian Party candidate in Manchester, but also in the North West. So how did that happen?

I was first persuaded to consider the idea when I was talking to a new member early last year. He's an experienced politician, and he said he'd help me through the process of getting onto the ballot, which seemed pretty daunting at the time. But I realised that the best way to grow a young party was to fight elections, so I agreed to consider it. I started looking into the logistics of running a local campaign, and it seemed feasible, at least on paper. Then Andrew Hunt fought our very first election campaign in Wisbech South last spring. I helped out with leafleting for that campaign, and I saw that it could be done, if it was properly organised. As it happens, Andrew got a pretty good result by campaigning on local issues, and yet he didn't spend big money on his campaign as far as I know. His leaflets were just knocked up on a word processor and printed off, but he got a pretty decent result. I decided to give it a go, if I could.

But it's not just about promoting the party I'm in. I genuinely do believe that we need a major change in Manchester. After decades of Labour domination, this council has brought us to the point where Manchester - once an economic powerhouse - is one of the poorest areas in the country, with the second worst-performing police force. My ward is officially listed as an unemployment blackspot (I was told this by the staff at Newton Heath JobCentre Plus last year, people in particularly bad areas get extra help job hunting). Council tax is sky high, and if you can't pay, they'll send the bailiffs after you - some people have even been driven to bankruptcy. So the self-styled party of the workers has failed us. I don't believe the "Liberal" Democrats have got what it takes to turn this city around either. They're too timid, they won't carry out the necessary reforms, and they've long since abandoned their liberal roots. As a matter of fact, the "Lib" Dems in this ward all seem to be recycled ex-Labour councillors, including Gerry Diamond who is hoping to win this seat from the incumbent Labourite John Flanagan. So don't expect any massive changes even if the "Lib" Dems do well in this election.

So it's time to look for a real change. As the sole Libertarian candidate in this election, I realise that even if elected I won't have a major voice in the council (although I'll at least be able to argue for common sense). But this isn't going to be the last election that the Libertarian Party fights in this city - not by a long shot. We're going to become a permanent feature of the local political scene in Manchester. As the party grows, with each election I hope to field more candidates in different wards, until somewhere down the line - hopefully in the reasonably near future - we're able to put up a full slate of candidates with a real chance of winning.

I'm not the ideal candidate. I'm not comfortable with public speaking, I never have any money and I've got the personal charm of a dead rat. But I'll give it my best shot, and if I can mount a decent campaign on limited resources, I'm sure other Libertarians - some of them much better qualified to be councillors than me - will follow suit.

I don't know how long the journey will take, a few years at least, but this campaign is the first step towards a Libertarian City Council for Manchester.

Stuart Heal
Libertarian Party candidate for Miles Platting and Newton Heath

What have the British economy and Wayne Rooney's ankle got in common?

2010-04-05T20:40:00.006+01:00

They are both completely knackered

Maybe Gordon Brown could have chosen a different sporting analogy?

I'd say that the global financial system is to the real economy, what Lucy Smith is to John Terry.

How about that?

Send Us Your ******* Money !

2010-03-20T21:33:00.002Z

To Quote Saint Bob Send Us Your ******* Money!

We are looking to open a permanent office and employ a part time paid member of staff.

We doubled our income in 2009, and I would like to see if we can do this again in 2010.

Two donors have agreed to underwrite the costs, which will take the admin load off the volunteer members of the NCC and ensure a friendly voice at the end of the telephone for members, supporters and voters.

Please email donate@lpuk.org for a Standing Order Form or pay direct to
Sort code 40-28-20
Account number 92635313
giving your membership number as a reference, as Donation- (membership number)

If you are are Supporter- just put Supporter.

Cheques can be sent to Libertarian Party, 33 Castle Road, Walton St Mary, Clevedon BS21 7DA .

Labour's Election Leaflet – Sponsored by Manchester City Council!

2010-03-18T22:41:00.000Z

The local election campaign's been going on in these parts for several months now, at least as far as the “Lib” Dems are concerned. I've been receiving one of their Focus leaflets once a month like clockwork since about the middle of last year – plus a Christmas card, plus a calendar. They're really determined to get their man onto the City Council this May. But at least they (or their rich backers) are paying for their own propaganda, which is fair enough. The incumbent Labour councillor seems to be taking a more laid-back attitude – all I've had off his lot lately has been a letter from the local MP. Nothing else until yesterday.

Yesterday, a copy of “Manchester People” landed on my doormat. This is a “newsletter” published by the Labour-dominated Manchester City Council, supposedly to keep the local population informed about what's going on, and also supposedly non-party political. The headline was “Warm welcome for council tax freeze” - unbiased or what? Especially as the “freeze” in council tax that the council is bragging about is nothing of the kind – if you look way down towards the bottom of the front page (Paragraph 7) you'll find the admission: “Although the Council's element of your council tax bill is frozen, there may be slight increases in the smaller police and fire precepts.” Expect a rise, in other words – maybe 1 or 2%. In these times of hardship, the council should be going all out to cut council tax by getting rid of unnecessary waste and focusing on core services – scrapping “Manchester People” would be a small step in the right direction.

The other major story on the front page and continued onto Page 3 is about the upcoming Manchester Day Parade – another expense that we can do without. The rest of the publication is mostly upbeat filler about how well Manchester's doing (despite the massive unemployment and unacceptable crime levels) and how we all love recycling. Page 15 is given over almost entirely to the decision by the council to allow an outfit called Goals Soccer Centres to demolish part of Heaton Park and build a sports complex there. To those readers who live outside the area, Heaton Park is a huge area (actually the grounds of a stately home) on the north edge of Manchester that was sold to Manchester City Council in 1902 to be kept for the enjoyment of the general public. It's a lovely place, very popular in the spring and summer, the place is full of people in the good weather. Now the council wants to vandalise it. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of opposition to this proposal, in fact I haven't met anyone who's had a good word to say about it – you wouldn't think so from reading “Manchester People” though – I couldn't find one word questioning any council policy in the whole rag.

Instead of “Manchester People” it might just as well have been entitled “Vote Labour” - but then the Labour Party would have had to have paid for it themselves, wouldn't they? Easier just to charge it to the taxpayer.

Andrew Mwenda Verbally Bitch Slaps Bono

2010-03-15T21:00:00.003Z

The reality of aid from taxpayers in developed nations to the incompetent, dictatorial and corrupt governments of third world nations is pretty gruesome.

Ugandan entreprenuerAndrew Mwenda tells the unvarnished truth in a remarkably tactful and diplomatic way.

To be honest, if he wanted to shout "WTF have you done to my continent you stupid bastards?" I think he'd be perfectly justified in doing so. I think that's what I would do in his position.

Foreign aid has an awful way of enlarging government in the poorest countries. It rewards precisely those nations that are the furthest away from "good governance".

I'm strongly reminded of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti's words in You Be Thief (Authority Stealing).

Instead of workers
We have officials
Instead of buses
Them dey ride motor-car
Instead of motorcycle
Na helicopter
Instead of them waka
Na worker go waka for them

Authority people them go dey steal
Public contribute plenty money
Na authority people dey steal
Authority man no dey pickpocket
Na petty cash him go dey pick
Armed robber him need gun
Authority man him need pen
Authority man in charge of money
Him no need gun, him need pen
Pen got power gun no get
If gun steal eighty thousand naira
Pen go steal two billion naira

Effective Civil Disobediance

2010-03-15T01:41:00.006Z

I promised Gregg a post on the subject of effective civil disobediance. We both think that the LPUK needs to choose its battles carefully.

Which laws deserve to be broken and which ones upheld?

There is also the question of "should the law be broken publicly or privately?"

In Nick Hogan's case, I don't know the specifics of the "mass light up" he organised. Did he invite the media? Shop himself to the authorities? [EDIT: Nick expected to be fined and expected to be able to pay.]

Refusing to pay the fine was definitely an act of civil disobediance. [EDIT: Apparently not! The judge just gave insufficient time for Nick to pay the fine.] Is it one that the public would support?

I'm guessing that it might be very popular with some and very unpopular with others. Is that a good thing or a bad thing at this stage of the game?

In the end, his fine was paid by well-wishers on the blogosphere. I'm sure that Nick had no desire to spend the full six months inside to make a political point so I'm just glad he's not in prison.

Should we put the freedom to smoke in pubs at the top of our agenda or are there other more pressing issues?

So far, I've just asked questions. No definte answers yet. I'd be pleased to read some helpful comments on this topic to help clarify the issue.

UPDATE: Thanks to Guthrum for filling in the blanks.

Faux-Libertarian Muppetry

2010-03-14T23:26:00.012Z

Last night, a faux-libertarian muppet on a Ron Paul message board accused me of "advocating government" because I defended libertarians who are active in the legal political processes.

I was defending people who:

1. Vote.
2. Support political candidates.
3. Join political parties.
4. Donate money to campaigns.

Bear in mind that Mr Muppet wasn't saying "don't vote for this party" or "don't vote for that candidate". It was just a blanket condemnation. Don't vote for ANYONE. Don't support ANY party, movement or campaign. If you do, you're "part of the problem".

O.K. so we've established that Mr Muppet didn't just think that the political process was futile, he thought that any participation in it was actively evil.

So you can probably anticipate my next question for Mr Muppet.

What action do you advocate against the state?

Apparently, the answer was "NONE".

Well, isn't that absolutely flaming marvellous?

I bet the leaders of the banking cartel and military industrial complex are shitting their pants at the prospect of "do nothing" politics catching on.

Oh wait...it already has caught on. Most people are not politcally active at all are they?

The only difference between Mr Muppet and your average apolitical person would be his misplaced sense of personal superiority.

Let's be clear, this wasn't just a case of "I'm not doing anything personally". It was more a case of "no action is required by anyone to combat the state".

He didn't advocate agorism either.

I wish I could say that Mr Muppet was just an isolated case. But he isn't.

As much as I enjoy visiting Libertarian websites and reading sensible articles on the police state, economics, etc. the Faux-Libertarian Muppetry keeps popping up.

Even Canadian cult leader Stefan Molyneux advises his acolytes to pay their taxes in full and on time.

So this particular brand of "anarchism" and "resistance to the state" ammounts to:

No political process. No agorism. No civil disobediance.

Just lots of holier-than-thou cockwaffle and finger wagging.

UPDATE: Faux-Libertarian Muppetry is becoming so popular with children that a Tickle Me Anarchist Toy has been released.

Keep your curtains closed? Pay with cash?

2010-03-11T16:16:00.003Z

According to this government ad on Talksport radio, I'm already a terror suspect.

I don't even live on a bus route!

So if you have a score to settle with your neighbours or you just want to wind up the spooks a little, give the anti-terror hotline a call on 0800 789 321.

Personally, I suspect that the shooting of an innocent electrician wasn't just some outlandish cock-up on the part of the authorities.

I don't have conclusive proof of that.

But then using cash and keeping my curtains closed isn't very substantive either is it?

More on Nick Hogan

2010-03-11T13:13:00.003Z

As there doesn't seem to be a comment facility on the Nick Hogan post I am commenting this way.

I oppose the smoking ban and would advocate its complete withdrawal. However, we cannot pick and choose the laws we obey. There is a difference between campaigning against and flouting the law.

If you choose to flout the law you take the consequences and if you choose not to obey the laws you dislike you take the punishment. If you don't pay the fines you go to clink.

To take this stand over the smoking ban makes Nick Hogan a clown in my view, not a hero.

Civil disobedience is a last resort in extreme circumstances.

Help Hogan the Hero Get Out of Jail for £1!

2010-03-02T22:43:00.003Z

Copied from the national Libertarian Party Members' Blog:

This is a Libertarian issue if there ever was one, for the sake of £1, you can get a man released from prison. Old Holborn is running a campaign to raise £10 000 to get his fine paid.
As of 18.00 Hrs Tuesday 2nd March the amount raised was £5693

Over Five Thousand Pounds Raised in Thirty Six Hours

There has been a fair amount of comment in the blogosphere regarding the six month jail sentence given to Nick Hogan for flouting the 'no-smoking ban'.

Outrage has been duly expressed, here, there, and everywhere. Perhaps we can do better than just express outrage?

Nick was actually jailed for non-payment of the fine originally imposed for a 'mass smoke-in' on the day the ban came into force in 2007 in his pub, the 'Swan and Barristers' in Bolton. He no longer has that pub. He was fined again when council inspectors walked into his present pub and discovered a group of customers smoking - Nick wasn't even on the premises.

His wife, Denise, is now managing their present pub in Chorley herself. Their trade is so low that they don't even bother to open the downstairs bar. Nick is bankrupt, and had gone to court intending to argue that he could not afford the £500 a month payments demanded by the council towards their £11,600 bill for prosecuting him. He has already paid off £1,600. The court gave him a six month sentence instead, and he is currently in Forest Bank prison in Pendlebury, unable to help to earn the money which would ensure his release.

Denise has not even been able to speak to him since he was sentenced. She has merely been told to phone the prison on Monday to enquire when she might see him. She is confused, frightened, and feeling very lonely.

If all the people who disagree with the no-smoking ban contributed a few coppers, then Nick would be released. If you can't afford £1, then at least drop Nick a line and let him know he is not forgotten - not surprisingly, he is feeling very depressed.

Denise has just said to me 'all the people who disagree with the ban - where are they now? - and my Nick is in prison'. Quite.

Denise has no idea how to use the Internet, she has no idea how many of us are against the no-smoking ban. Let's show her.

£1 each - just 10,000 of you - let's see if the blogosphere can do more than merely rant in unison. Once the amount received totals the outstanding fine, they have to release Nick.

Nick's address is:

HMP & YOI Forest Bank
Agecroft Road
Pendlebury
Manchester
M27 8FB

OH UPDATE: Under the health act of 2006, it is the responsibility of the owner or the controller of "smoke free" space to uphold the law. It is not illegal to smoke in a shop or on a train. It is illegal for the owner or controller of the space to allow you to smoke.

Reprinted from the OH site

THE DONATE BUTTON IS ON THE OH SITE TOP RIGHT

The Libertarian Party is utterly opposed to people going to jail for offences such as this.

Misdirection or New Direction?

2010-02-28T14:16:00.007Z

In an earlier post entitled "Austerity, Repudiation or Inflation?" I predicted that austerity measures to reduce the national debt or an outright default on the debt were both unlikely outcomes.

I therefore concluded that the UK government would continue to expand its sovereign debt and that the Bank of England would continue to run the printing press in order to purchase all the unsold treasury bonds.

However, a recent statement issued by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives us more information to go on, since where the US central bank leads, the ECB and BoE are likely to follow.

So what do we make of Chairman Bernanke's statement?

It could be a simple case of misdirection. When Helicopter Ben says "we are not going to monetize any more US debt" he could mean "we are going to monetize US debt like crazy".

If that is the case, then the scenario I originally predicted will still come true.

Or he could be "getting tough" with the politicians. Ron Paul's HR 1207 has sent shivers down the spines of central bankers around the world.

A genuine refusal from the central bank to monetize any more sovereign debt will definitely provoke a response from government.

But what response?

Either the political class will bow down and beg his forgiveness - but why should they if the money tap is turned off? - or the resolve to End The Fed will increase and come, not just from free marketeers like Ron Paul, but also from big spending socialists like Dennis Kucinich.

If the US Treasury issued new fiat money instead of interest-bearing debt, the inflationary effects would be sudden and transparent instead of slow and opaque.

I don't know if it is possible to avert global monetary disaster at this point. Maybe pigs will sprout wings and politicians will spend less. Eventually, they may have no choice.

Four Errors of Marxism.

2010-02-27T20:29:00.006Z

There are (at least) four major errors in the political, economic and historical doctrine of Marxism.

The first error is identified by Ludwig Von Mises in Chapter Three of Human Action.

Ad Hominem is essential to Marxism. Don't believe in the triumph of socialism?

Well, then you must be a bourgeois ;-)

The second error concerns the analysis of classes.

Society stubbornly refuses to resolve itself neatly into bourgeoisie and proletariat.

Marx himself wrote this in a letter to Karl Kautsky dated September 12th 1882:

"You ask me what the English workers think about colonial policy. Well, exactly the same as they think about politics in general: the same as the bourgeoisie think. There is no workers' party here, you see, there are only Conservatives and Liberal-Radicals, and the workers gaily share the feast of England's monopoly of the world market and the colonies."

The third error is a failure to distinguish between cost and value. Adam Smith and Ricardo also slipped up on this question and advocated the Labour Theory of Value.

The fourth error is Marx's theory of the economic cycle. According to Marxists, the private appropriation of profit impoverishes consumers to such an extent that a "Crisis of Overproduction" results. This article in "Proletarian" outlines the orthodox marxist position on the business cycle.

The real cause of malinvestment is outlined by the Austrian School of Economics.

Who are the REAL "spin doctors" here?

2010-02-23T23:00:00.007Z

Mainstream TV, newspaper and radio pundits make very heavy weather of "political spin".

Since Labour's 1997 election victory there has been endless discussion of "shadowy figures" such as Alistair Campbell.

However, there is a "elephant in the room" that the mainstream media will never mention. That elephant is their very own spin on who is a "serious candidate".

Here is an example from the USA.

As the LPUK gains popularity we can expect similar shenanigins from the media in Britain.

Central Banking: create the problem you claim to solve!

2010-02-18T18:48:00.009Z

I'd like to open this post with a hilarious wiki article that appears to have been written by a dummy, rather than "for dummies".

Of course, not all of us are that naive.

Many authors are aware that there is something decidedly fishy about central banking and yet many of them completely mis-identify what makes the Federal Reserve, ECB and BoE smell of kippers.

One such author is Stephen Zarlenga, whose solution to government control of the money supply is...even more government control of the money supply.

This article by Kaj Grussner of the Mises Institute neatly illustrates where statist money cranks such as Paul Grignon, Ellen Brown and Stephen Zarlenga got it completely wrong.

Personally, I'm getting a little tired of people claiming that they "don't understand" the "complex issues" around the government monopoly on money.

What's "complicated" about the fact that money predates government?

Google Merchant bans Alex Jones.

2010-02-17T00:28:00.005Z

Google loves to censor.

When they are not acting as lackeys for the the Chinese Communist Party, they like to oppose westerners who tell the truth about global corporatism.

The most notable example is filmaker and talk radio host Alex Jones.

I've often said that if an article is published by a news agency like Reuters or Associated Press then no-one will bat an eyelid until Alex Jones reads it out verbatim at which point people will call him a "conspiracy nut".

He's an aggregator who selects information that is critical of Big Government.

Keep up the good work Alex. You're having an effect!

Merseyside Police's £40k Fail.

2010-02-16T22:47:00.009Z

A flying CCTV police drone...that violates Air Traffic regulations.

Ironic isn't it?

Its like...

Still Statist, but no longer Racist?

2010-02-14T15:53:00.007Z

The BNP rank-and-file have just voted to let anyone join.

So now, if you phone them up and say: "Hello, I'm a black gay jew who wants to join the BNP" they can't knock you back!

While you're at it, phone up the Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem parties and ask them how their brand of Keynesian statism differs from the ex-nazis of the BNP.

Poll: Is it acceptable to torture Richard Littlejohn?

2010-02-12T10:14:00.005Z

60% of Daily Mail readers think its perfectly acceptable to torture you if they suspect that you're a terrorist.

Personally, I think that torture is great and I suspect that the "journalist" Richard Littlejohn (Sun, Daily Mail) is an amoral thug who just needs a bit of pressure applied to him in order to confess to his crimes.

If you ask me, he probably started the Reichstag Fire in 1930s Germany. Just a hunch. Personally, I don't have any truck with namby-pamby liberal concepts like "evidence".

My sophisticated interrogation methods will reveal the truth:

Me: "Did you start the Reichstag Fire?"
Littlejohn: "No."

SLAP!

Me: "Let's start again with my finger in your eye socket shall we?"

Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura once remarked that if he was allowed to waterboard Dick Cheney, that the vice president would confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

I think he has a point.

The ignorant, amoral thugs who voted "yes" in that Daily Mail poll have apparently never heard of the Spanish Inquisition. It has also never occured to them that white British people might get tortured on home soil.

Tony Blair attacks "Conspiracy Theories"

2010-02-10T03:27:00.005Z

This article in the Daily Mail gave me a good chuckle.

I'm always accused of being a "conspiracy theorist" myself. I look for motive and opportunity in the world of human beings. According to popular culture, that means I'm a paranoid loony who wears a tin-foil hat.

You might not define yourself in those terms, but its very likely that the government does put you in the "conspiracy theorist" box every time that you disagree with them.

Of course, the real nub of the issue here is the truth. Blair did not complain about "wrongness" or "inaccuracy". He criticised a way of thinking.

I might say that he just wants to avoid any scrutiny of the facts, but that would make me a "conspiracy theorist" wouldn't it?

Pssst...Did you know that the Reichstag Fire was an inside job?

Only in America? Think on...

2010-02-08T20:34:00.004Z

Britain is often regarded by American libertarians as the "beta test" area for tyranny.

They note our mushrooming CCTV cameras, draconian victim disarmament laws and NHS death panels.

They take it as a warning: "...if it can happen over there...it can happen over here".

Still, I'm not convinced that Britain always leads the way in terms of repeated boot applications to the human face.

Would any British government department publish a document like the Domestic Extremism Lexicon on the internet?

I think its a case of "horses-for-courses". American fascists like things out-in-the-open. No messing.

Maybe British fascists are just more modest and diffident?

Austerity, Repudiation or Inflation?

2010-02-07T19:14:00.005Z

I'm talking about the national debt folks.

Whoever wins the next election, what are the chance that our sovereign debt will be actually be paid down during the next parliament?

Pretty slim if you ask me.

Political expediency demands that our MPs must continue to spend like crazy in three areas: welfare for the poor, government jobs for the middle class and corporate welfare for the largest companies still nominally in the "private sector".

Making major cuts in any of those three areas would draw tremendous political flack.

Austerity is not on the cards.

Is the next government likely to default on its obligations?

That might sound like a trouble-free way out of the hole, especially if Labour wins again. It would bolster the party's "left" credentials with the grass-roots, wouldn't it?

Lenin did it in 1917...

While credit rating agencies such Moodys do not discount the possibility of default, the backlash would be fierce.

As well as royally shafting the current holders of UK debt (including commercial banks, foreign central banks, the BoE, pension funds and small investors), a default would make Britain a financial pariah.

Future British governments would be forced to live within their means.

Repudiation is not on the cards.

That leaves us with the last remaining possibility. That the UK national debt will continue to grow at breakneck speed and the principal market for this debt will be our very own central bank.

In order to monetize this debt, the BoE would credit the Treasury's account with astronomical figures and take on equally vast sums of worthless UK debt.

It is absolutely no co-incidence that so many other western nations are struggling in the same way that Britain is at the moment.

The post-war Bretton Woods agreement tied the world's paper currencies to the US Federal Reserve Note and the dollar itself to Gold at the rate of $35 per troy oz.

Richard Nixon's administration shut the "gold window" in 1971 and gave us the modern era of total fiat money.

Tax revenues and debt became the new "backing" for central bank paper as inflation ran rampant. The soul singer Marvin Gaye described these political developments in his song "Inner City Blues".

Inflation is definitely on the cards.

British Army To Patrol Streets

2010-02-06T15:32:00.004Z

This article in from the Independent outlines plans to deploy British troops in order to deal with the fabled terrorist bogeyman.

"Anti-Terror" legislation has already been used by local councils to spy on people who over-filled their wheelie bins or sent their kids to selective schools outside their appointed catchment area.

So, I'm wondering who the real threat is this time.

I'm guessing that the real threat to our political class is the general public once the sovereign debt crisis explodes over our heads.

£420,000 - Small Change to the Labour Party!

2010-02-03T21:30:00.001Z

The Manchester Evening News reports that Manchester City Council has overpaid more than £420,000 to the organisation Marketing Manchester (which describes itself as “the agency charged with promoting Manchester on a national and international stage). This was over a six year period. Manchester City Council is supposed to contribute 35 per cent of Marketing Manchester's budget, with the other nine Greater Manchester councils splitting the remaining 65 per cent of the bill between them. Instead, the ratio was reversed – and it took the council six years to notice. That doesn't say much for their accounting methods for a start. To make things worse, a decision has been made not to reclaim the money, but to write it off instead – to write off nearly half a million pounds of taxpayers' money.

It seems that the Council's Deputy Leader, Jim Battle (Labour) reckons it's not worth the effort of reclaiming the money owed. According to Battle:

“There was a misunderstanding and it has now been corrected, end of story. It would be bureaucratic nonsense to chase a few thousand pounds. It will cost more to administer and correct.”

End of story? Leaving to one side the fact that they tend to take a firmer line when the hard-pressed working poor of this city fall behind with their Council Tax payments (they send the bailiffs in), this seems a bit of a cavalier attitude to taxpayers' money – and it is the taxpayers' money, not the council's. Ordinary people work hard to support themselves and then get over-taxed by this kleptomaniac Labour council – the least they can do is spend the money raised through Council Tax wisely. How is it that the council thinks they can afford to use our money to subsidise this glorified PR agency, and yet they couldn't afford to salt the roads properly this winter?

Or maybe the real question that should be asked is this: Should Marketing Manchester even exist? Why does Manchester need promoting? We're one of the major cities in the UK, who doesn't know we're here? Giving money to Marketing Manchester is a pointless extravagance at a time when the council should be focusing on providing core services as efficiently as possible.

O.K. who are you and what have you done with Gordon Brown?

2010-02-03T01:11:00.003Z

That is the question I found myself asking after reading this article in yahoo news.

New voting system?

I'm all ears...

A written constitution? Like in America?

I smell blood...

Of course, its possible that we will never get a new voting system or a written constitution. Its also very likely that the first "new constitution" will be awful.

However, the very fact that a governing political party is talking about constitutional change shows that our political class is desperate to restore some credibility and justify their existence.

What worries them is not so much that we'll vote for the wrong party, but that we won't vote at all, won't join political parties, won't contribute to their campaigns but instead will act on the popular sentiment that "it doesn't matter who you vote for cos they're all the same".

Monarchs don't pretend to have a popular mandate. They own everything in the kingdom. They are the master. You are the serf. There are no illusions.

Democratic politicians have to pretend that they work for you. Not for themselves, the banking cartel, the military industrial complex or any other special interest.

That pretence is wearing pretty thin.

Half of all UK jobs created by the state.

2010-02-02T16:52:00.003Z

Most socialists in this country want that figure raised to 100%.

Its a slippery slope. Intervention begets a crisis, which provokes more intervention, which begets another crisis, which leads to more intervention until no more tinkering is possible and the system collapses.

Bloomberg News on "Secret Banking Cabal"

2010-01-30T12:15:00.003Z

Please note that the following article is from the mainstream media (Bloomberg News) and not from some "conspiracy website".

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.

We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system -- apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout -- deserves further congressional scrutiny.

The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank AG, among others. That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks, which received 100 cents on the dollar for contracts that would have been worth far less had AIG been allowed to fail.

If you think that the same sort of crap doesn't happen on this side of the pond then I really have to question your grip on reality.

70 year gag on David Kelly death evidence.

2010-01-24T20:13:00.003Z

Suicide My Arse

Thumb-sucking mainstream media addicts can call me a "conspiracy theorist" for the next 70 years. At which point, the public can shrug its collective shoulders and say:

"In the early part of the 21st century, the British government used to kill whistleblowers to keep them quiet."

BNP Prank Call: "Hello, I'm a black gay jew."

2010-01-23T20:56:00.007Z

Kirkdale's answer to Lord Haw Haw, Steven Greenhalgh, put another BNP newsletter through my door this week.

His last effort was remarkably slippery. There was no mention of race at all. He didn't even talk about immigration. He focused on local people and local issues exclusively. If you removed all references to the BNP, you would probably think that the last leaflet emanated from the Liberal Democrats.

If the BNP refuse to talk about racial scapegoating, militarism and fascism, it gets harder for anti-fascists to point out the real agenda of this party and warn people accordingly.

However, with his latest offering, Steven Greenhalgh has reverted to type.

Apparently, MARGARET IS BACK.

Margaret is the apocryphal white British pensioner whose picture was stolen from Google Images and whose tragic, fictional life story has appeared on many BNP leaflets over the years.

Margaret wishes that she could claim asylum in order to enjoy the bountiful harvest of the British state that only foreigners are able to claim:

1. Her rent, council tax, water rates, insurance, electricity, gas and telephone bills would all be picked up by the taxpayer.
2. She'd be sent right to the front of the housing cue.
3. We'd replace that old cooker and put in full central heating
4. She'd be given a brand new 20" screen colour TV - and have the licence fee paid every year.
5. We'd even pay to have her windowsleaned every 12 weeks.

Confronted with nonsense like that, what can you say?

Its the ultimate case of "bullshit baffles brains". Don't believe that the BNP are a bunch of Nazis?

Why not phone them up and ask?

This is one little stunt that you should definitely try at home!

You might want to withold your number.

A Message From The Conservative Party

2010-01-22T22:26:00.002Z

A plea to melt even the heardest heart. Click here to make your own David Cameron poster.

The Next Two North West Meetups

2010-01-16T00:02:00.004Z

The next informal meetup of the Libertarian Party will be held in the Kro2 Bar on Oxford Road, Manchester, starting around 1.00pm on Saturday 23rd January. This is not just for party members, anyone interested in finding out more about us is more than welcome to come, it's very informal. We usually grab a table close to the entrance and in front of the bar (saves walking), so you should find us quite easily. Watch out for the scruffy geezer wearing a green combat jacket and carring a document wallet with a Libertarian Party poster taped to the front - that'll be me.

The following Sunday 31st January, we'll be meeting up again at our other regular watering hole, the Royal Station Hotel in Carnforth, Lancashire. We usually start about 12.30pm in the Lounge Bar (don't worry about missing lunch, the pub does good food - although those Station Burgers definitely aren't helping me lose weight).

With the elections coming up in May, subjects of conversation are likely to include how best to prepare ourselves for our first electoral challenge in the region, how we can develop the North West branch more effectively and the possiblity of organising some leafletting days.

Also it's possible that we'll be doing some drinking.

Thought crime in the USA

2010-01-15T18:48:00.005Z

As the LPUK has pointed out to British MPs, George Orwell's novel 1984 is "...a warning, NOT a blueprint."

Sadly, their American counterparts are taking bold steps towards a totalitarian state where an individual can be prosecuted merely for holding opinions at variance with the ruling party line.

Not content with appointing the Malthusian eugenisist John Holdren as his "science czar", President Obama intends to appoint Cass Sunstein to head the "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs".

If you're not already a conspiracy theorist, you should be.

Tonight's Wirral Meeting Postponed

2010-01-13T11:59:00.001Z

Sorry folks, but despite much determination not to do so I have surrendered to the weather. Following calls this morning following a new blanket of snow, tonight's meeting is cancelled. I will make new arrangements as soon as the weather permits.

Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience.

Coping With The Big Chill

2010-01-09T12:06:00.002Z

In the interests of supporting the community during the current arctic conditions, the following is copied verbatim from the Manchester Evening News:

Vital numbers to help keep the vulnerable safe
January 08, 2010

POLICE and care organisations have advised people to make sure the vulnerable and elderly are OK during the freezing weather.

In emergencies people should still call 999 and also use 0161-872-5050 to report crimes. But in most cases, people should t contact their neighbourhood policing teams on the numbers listed below. People can also contact Age Concern on 0800 00 99 66.

Trafford

Urmston and Partington: 0161-856-7684

Stretford: 0161-856-7655

Sale: 0161-856-7865

Altrincham: 0161-856-7530

Tameside

Tameside West: 0161-856-9390

Tameside North: 0161-856-9350

Tameside East: 0161-856-9511

Tameside South: 0161-856-9484

Stockport

Stockport Central: 0161-856-5902

Stockport North: 0161-856-9786

Stockport East: 0161-856-9973

Stockport West: 0161-856-9770

South Manchester

Chorlton: 0161-856-4784

Northenden: 0161-856-4546

Didsbury: 0161-856-4973

Wythenshawe: 0161-856-4882

Salford

Salford North: 0161-856-5228

Salford East: 0161-856-5127

Salford Central: 0161-856-5084

Salford South: 0161-856-5317

Salford West: 0161-856-5284

Rochdale

Rochdale North: 0161-856-9961

Rochdale South: 0161-856-8549

Heywood: 0161-856-8589

Middleton: 0161-856-8701

Pennine: 0161-856-4556

Oldham

Oldham town centre: 0161-856-8903

Oldham West: 0161-856-8927

Oldham East: 0161-856-9028

Failsworth and Hollinwood: 0161-856-8914

Royton and Shaw: 0161-856-8983

Chadderton: 0161-856-8825

Saddleworth and Lees: 0161-856-4524

North Manchester

City centre: 0161-856-3221

Crumpsall and Cheetham: 0161-856-3925

Charlestown and Higher Blackley: 0161-856-4027

Moston and Harpurhey: 0161-856-4502

Ancoats, Clayton, Miles Platting and Newton Heath: 0161-856-3521

Bradford: 0161-856-3502

Bury

Ramsbottom: 0161-856-8181

Bury West: 0161-856-8025

Bury East: 0161-856-8127

Radcliffe: 0161-856-8291

Whitefield: 0161-856-8204

Prestwich: 0161-856-4538

Wigan

Pemberton: 0161-856-7188

Wigan: 0161-856-7124

Hindley: 0161-856-7436

Leigh: 0161-856-7225

Atherton: 0161-856-7319

Bolton Bolton Central: 0161 856 5619 Bolton East: 0161 856 5761 Bolton South: 0161 856 5608 Bolton West: 0161 856 5689 Metropolitan Gorton and Levenshulme: 0161 856 4288 Longsight & Arwick: 0161 856 4223Moss Side & Hulme: 0161 856 4466Fallowfield, Rusholme & Whalley Range: 0161 856 4423
.................

Obviously those numbers are specific to Greater Manchester. If you know of any other useful contact details, feel free to list them in the comments section.

Obviously as stories such as this one and the inadequetly-gritted roads show, we can't rely on officialdom to offer much help in a situation like this. So if you know any old, handicapped or otherwise vulnerable people in your neighbourhood, please take the time to check up on them and give what assistance you can.

Personally, I'm going to have a quick bite to eat after I've posted this and then I'm going out with a spade to see if I can clear some of the ice and snow from my road - there's no chance of the council doing anything, they haven't even bothered filling our salt bin this year.

Another good reason to boycott the airports.

2010-01-05T15:16:00.004Z

Why anyone would voluntarily submit to these indignities is beyond me.

If minors are exempt from these airport pornography scanners, we all should be. I won't fly on principle.

New Year - New Party Meeting in Wirral

2010-01-02T18:39:00.000Z

Wirral Libertarians New Year Party

Yes it is something to get really excited about. Not just a drink and the company of good friends although it will be that I am sure.

What this is really about is getting together to discuss the problems of Wirral and finding solutions through clean, decent, honest politics. In recent times our politicians have disgraced themselves by their secrecy, deception and fiddled expenses, but the truth is that we cannot do without government or politics. We have to do politics differently.

Instead of Party puppets who vote however the whips tell them, Libertarians believe in independence and individuals who are happy to be held to account for everything they do and say. The Government that has bankrupted this country is probably in its last weeks, but there will be no solution from Caneron's Tories who offer nothing other than Blairism with a blue rosette. The Liberal Democrats are a directionless irrelevance who will be used by one of the two big parties as crutch to help them cling onto power.

What has been happening to us for too many years now is that government has grown and taxes have been increased by stealth until the state now directly controls nearly half of the economy and you cannot move without being on CCTV, needing a Police check or permit, or having to follow endless amounts of expensive and useless red tape.
Libertarians know the way to get lower taxes, safer streets, full employment and freedom from officials interfering in the private lives and decisions of adult citizens, but I can't deal with all that in this note. We need to get together and discuss it.

Please come along and join us at 8pm on Wednesday 13th January 2010 at:

Punch Bowl Hotel
77 Market St
Hoylake
Wirral
Merseyside
CH47 2BH

The pub is a five minute walk from Hoylake railway station. If you are unsure how to find it please contact me for further directions.

Everyone is welcome. You do not have to be a member of the Libertarian Party UK. The meeting will be relaxed, friendly and informal. At this first meeting we will be getting to know each other and having a chat about what Libertarianism is. I am delighted to tell you that Councillor David Kirwan, Prospective Independent MP for Wirral West, is in agreement with the Libertarian approach and will be coming to our meetings. This is your opportunity to meet the man who will break the grip of the failed Parties in Wirral and take a truly independent, honest voice to represent us at Westminster.

We look forward to meeting you.

Best regards

Malcolm Saunders

Scary Terrorists

2009-12-28T10:25:00.000Z

The old mantra 'terrorist threat' has been wheeled out so many times to justify more and more oppressive measures by New Labour that it lost its impact a long time ago. Indeed many of us doubted the seriousness of the threat from the start. Apart from the odd nutter or two the threat has never been as severe as that from the IRA a few years ago, and we lived in a state of relative freedom then in spite of them.

Then, over Christmas, the authorities wheel out a nutty Nigerian who used a syringe on a plane to make something on his leg go 'pop' and spout a bit of smoke. There you are, no doubt they will now ratchet up airport security even more, and install even more CCTV cameras in Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale.

But last time I flew I had a bottle of over-sized shampoo confiscated because they thought I was going to use it as a terrorist weapon. Rub suds in the pilot's eyes perhaps causing the plane to crash? So how did nutty Nigerian chap get a syringe and a thing that goes 'pop' and makes smoke through all that hi-tech security? Perhaps it was actually time for the state to show us that there is a threat and that removing our freedoms and liberties is justified, but they didn't want to actually kill anyone in the process, not at Christmas.

The other thing that concerned me was that this nutty chap has a mechanical engineering degree from University College London. Now I don't expect they teach bomb making at UCL, but what happened to education, education, education under New Labour if that is the best an engineering graduate can do? On top of that his family are very wealthy it seems, so he could have afforded the best ingredients.

I think it's all very odd.

Big Brother Really Is Watching You

2009-12-18T08:51:00.006Z

I have just come across an organisation that seems to be doing some very good work.

Big Brother Watch is researching and exposing the intrusion into our lives, and erosion of our civil liberties, by the state.

Big Brother Watch was founded by the founders of the Taxpayers' Alliance.

The worrying figures given below are taken from this research done by them:

There are currently at least 59,753 CCTV cameras controlled by 418 local authorities in Britain, up from 21,000 in 1999
This equates to 1 council owned CCTV camera for every 1000 people in the country
Portsmouth and Nottinghamshire Councils are in control of the most CCTV cameras with 1,454 each

Residents in the Outer Hebrides are the most watched people in the UK with 8.3 CCTV cameras controlled by the council for every 1000 people. Portsmouth has the second highest number of CCTV cameras per 1000 people with 7.8

The council controlling the highest number of CCTV cameras in Scotland is Fife with 1350 cameras
The council in Wales controlling the highest number of CCTV cameras is Swansea with 326 cameras
The council controlling the highest number of CCTV cameras in Northern Ireland is Belfast with 400 cameras
The total number of CCTV cameras controlled by councils in London is 8,815, which equals 1.3 CCTV cameras for every 1000 people living in the capital. Wandsworth is the most watched borough in London with 1113 CCTV cameras, or 4.3 cameras for every 1000 residents

In recent months I've become weary of meeting foreigners who comment on how intrusive the British state is, citing the worrying numbers of CCTV cameras spying on the public. It has been commented on by Americans, Australians and most recently by a Belgian, well a Fleming actually.

Make no mistake, Big Brother really is watching you.

North West Regional Meetup, 13th December

2009-12-06T15:46:00.001Z

Just a quick reminder that on Sunday 13th December, there will be another regional Libertarian party meetup in the Lounge Bar of the Royal Station Hotel in Carnforth, Lancashire, starting about 12.30pm. This is just across the road from the famous railway station which was used as a location for the film "Brief Encounter". This is a nice bar that does decent food - the Station Burgers are both reasonably priced and very filling. It's also intended that this meetup should serve as the Christmas get-together for Libertarians in the region, as the next meetup will be in January (exact date to be decided shortly).

Both of these meetups are open to anyone interested in libertarian ideas, if you'd like to come along, talk about libertarianism and see if we're the sort of party that you'd like to support.

Democracy?

2009-12-02T15:14:00.003Z

Pondering the vote this week in Switzerland I couldn't help thinking that the people of France, Holland and Ireland voted against the Lisbon Treaty but they, and we, got it any way.

Then the bleeding heart liberals go all self righteous and condemn the Swiss for voting against more minarets going up than the four that already exist in that country. The chances are the decision will be overturned when the Council of Europe stick their long noses in anyway:

“Bearing in mind that it is a fundamental right of democratic states to debate and vote on issues of importance to their societies, the referendum held yesterday on the construction of new minarets in Switzerland raises concerns as to whether fundamental rights of individuals, protected by international treaties, should be subject to popular votes,” said the council’s secretary general, Thorbjørn Jagland, a former foreign minister of Norway. “The ban on the construction of new minarets is linked to issues such as freedom of expression, freedom of religion and prohibition of discrimination guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Therefore it would be up to the European Court of Human Rights to decide, should an application be submitted to the court, whether the prohibition of building new minarets is compatible with the convention.”

What I take exception to is the following:

“The ban on the construction of new minarets is linked to issues such as freedom of expression, freedom of religion and prohibition of discrimination guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights".

Like the veil, the burqa, the crucifix and other symbols, minarets are not a necessity. The vote not to allow the building of more minarets does absolutely none of the above. If churches were not allowed to be built with steeples it would be exactly the same, we could still practice our religion, minarets and steeples are not that important in religious terms.

So forgive me for asking, but exactly what type of 'democracy' are the forces in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting to impose on those poor sods? Is it the one that says the people can have their say, as long as they agree with the political class?

Personal Responsibility versus State Control

2009-11-26T09:47:00.003Z

People often grumble about intrusions into their lives by officialdom then, whenever there is a problem, they are the first to shout for government action. Government action then means more intrusion into our lives and so on. What the 'government should act' brigade need to understand is that they are asking for those stinking scroungers known as politicians to do more damage and boss us around even more every time they shout 'the government should do something'.

The more the state intervenes and bullies the more society, whatever your perception of society is, seems to become increasingly dysfunctional. So the more dysfunctional society becomes, the more the state interferes and so on. Familiar?

Yesterday saw another one of those obnoxious state sponsored ads telling us what to do and what not to do, a bit like those other great totalitarians the Nazis and the communists used to broadcast. Last night's had a pretty ugly image of a pair of nostrils and was designed to make me stop snorting coke, regardless of the fact that the only thing I snort is a hayfever remedy, and obviously not in November.

Too many charities have now become extensions of the state, selling their souls and their noble ethos for easy money from the government, or you and me to be accurate through our taxes. Hence you then get sick adverts hectoring us about beating our children. These organisations have to justify their existence, and pay some huge salaries, so they sensationalise and exaggerate to shock us into donating.

Then yesterday it was announced that children are to be taught about domestic violence in schools. It is to become a subject in the personal, social, health and economic education part of the curriculum. Topics include: alcohol, drug and tobacco awareness; bullying; sex and relationship education; sexuality; careers advice; personal finance; healthy living; body image and how the body changes; personal well-being.Teaching domestic violence will be compulsory by 2011. Teaching or brainwashing? Where are the parents? Is the state now the parent, the parent merely the economic unit and breeding machine?

Domestic violence is sick and needs to be dealt with but are we always told the truth. The only time I have witnessed domestic violence was some years ago and it was the wife beating the husband. When I gave a witness statement to the police they told me that in London at that time it was roughly 50:50 when they were called out to 'domestics'. It isn't always big hairy thugs beating up the little woman, in that case she was about 5'00" and he was a 6' builder.

But the incidence of domestic violence, thankfully, is tiny although obviously huge and life ruining if not threatening for the victim. But introducing it into schools is making a thankfully rare event appear like an everyday happening to kids living happy lives in harmonious families. That is plain wrong and is likely to create more problems further down the line. On the really dark and scary side how many kids, when told not to do something, immediately go out and give it a try?

The problem is that government thinks it can come up with answers to everyting in a formulaic way, but life doesn't work like that. Government is turning the whole populace into potential victims or potential villains. It has created, through its actions and its propaganda, an unhealthy nation where a man outside the school gates is likely to be lynched by the mob for being a 'paedo' when he was there to collect his grandson. The husband of the woman who falls and ends up with a bruise on her face is likely to be hauled in by the Domestic Violence Unit for beating her. The newsreader who impersonates Trevor McDonald in rehearsals is accused of racism rather than imitation, the sincerest form of flattery.

Have no doubt, we are deeper into a police state than many people wish to acknowledge. But in 2005, despite CCTV cameras sprouting up all over London, we had the London bombings. CCTV, the hardware of the police state, couldn't protect us and neither will the propaganda, the brainwashing software of the state improve our lives or protect us. Personal freedom, liberty and resposibility are what we need.

When the government introduce the Hedonism Bill, prepare for complete and abject misery to follow.

God Save Our President

2009-11-20T08:53:00.002Z

The couple on the left haven't just met on an OAP speed dating evening, you can tell by how grey they are, especially him, let's face it under normal circumstances I am sure they would find each other thoroughly unappealing. You can tell straight away that he wouldn't be scintillating company, he just looks drab and dreary, probably because he is the President of Belgium. But now he's your president too, if you are unfortunate to be enslaved within the European Union that is.

Ladies and gentlemen the old grey fella in the picture is the first President of the United States of Europe, President van Rumpy Pumpy! The woman is one of Gordon Browns old slags, Baroness von Ashton van der Upholland, your EU Foreign Secretary. Known hereon as The Odd Couple. President von Rumpy Rumpy, upon becoming Fuhrer, asked to see a doctor claiming he was suffering from amnesia. It was a brief consultation, in fairness there is usually NO consultation in the EU, and he was reassured that he hadn't forgotten the election, he hadn't actually been elected.

It is quite apt that the first President should be a Belgian as Belgium too is a failing state cobbled together by the ruling elites of Europe to suit their purposes. In 1831 the Saxe-Coburgs had a spare monarch who should have become king of England, but for an unfortunate chain of events, so Leopold was instead plonked onto the throne of the bastard state of Belgium.

The one consolation is that the artificial states of Europe, apart from Belgium, have now disappeared-Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia the USSR. Belgium has only survived because the ruling elites want it to survive and it has been the model for the development of the current monstrously undemocratic supranational body known as the European Union.

So the Saxe-Coburgs were integral to the development of Belgium, and Elizabeth Saxe-Coburg-Gotha has demonstrated in recent years that the German monarchs are only interested in their own selfish survival. The only way forward in a post-EU democratic state, be that Great Britain or an independent England, will be as a republic. Our monarch has done nothing to stop our freedoms and liberties being eroded and no longer deserves our support.

The monarchy is an anachronism and should be abolished.

Proposed Wirral Meeting

2009-11-13T22:43:00.002Z

Libertarianism is growing and needs to grow much more. There will be a General Election next year and local government elections in many areas in May. Everybody who wants to see less government interference in the lives of ordinary people, lower taxes, a more effective criminal justice system and lower taxes should now be contributing to an effective alternative to the major parties which offer nothing but more of the same and inexorable movement towards national bankruptcy.

As another stage in building the Libertarian challenge to our incompetent government and its ineffective opposition I am planning to start regular monthly meetings in the Wirral part of the north west region. Dates are not yet fixed, but from taliking to one or two people the most likely choices are evening meetings on a Tuesday or Wednesday. No place has yet been fixed. It is most likely to be a pub in Birkenhead or within a few miles of there.

The meetings are intended to be friendly, informal and not limited to LPUK members. Anybody who thinks that Libertarianism might be for them is welcome to come along, check us out and chat.

If Wirral would be closer for you than Manchester or Carnforth I will be very interested to hear any suggestions for day, time and venues for meetings. I am likely to finalise arrangements for the first meeting shortly after the national AGM/conference on 28 November so I would like any suggestions by then.

If you use Facebook there is also an unofficial north west Libertarians Facebook Group where you can keep up with meetings and take part in discussions:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=167615597519&ref=ts

North West Libertarians: Upcoming Meetups

2009-11-13T14:45:00.004Z

The North West branch of the Libertarian Party has been holding a series of informal meetups in Carnforth and Manchester. Normally these are every month, but the schedule's had to be re-arranges slightly due to having to fit them round the upcoming AGM in Bristol, and also the fact that Christmas will soon be on us. The dates for the next two meetups have now been set:

On Saturday 21st November, there will be a meetup at the Kro 2 Bar, Oxford Road, Manchester, starting about 1.00pm. This is an easy pub to find, there are always tables available and the food's inexpensive if you want to eat. We normally grab a table near the bar, so we should be easy to spot. If you're coming by car, I recommend parking up in the multi-story car park on Charles Street, which is only a short walk away, and is very cheap at weekends.

On Sunday 13th December, there will be another meetup in the Lounge Bar of the Royal Station Hotel in Carnforth, starting about 12.30pm. This is just across the road from the famous railway station which was used as a location for the film "Brief Encounter". This is a nice bar that does decent food - the Station Burgers are both reasonably priced and very filling. It's also intended that this meetup should serve as the Christmas get-together for Libertarians in the region, as the next meetup's likely to be in January.

Both of these meetups are open to anyone if you'd like to come along, talk about libertarianism and see if we're the sort of party that you'd like to support.

Chris Mounsey at the Libertarian Alliance Conference

2009-11-13T14:40:00.002Z

The Libertarian Alliance is an independent, non-party political thinktank that has been around for years. They have no direct connection with the Libertarian Party, but they did invite our Director of Communications, Chris Mounsey, to speak at this year's annual conference. It's a pretty interesting talk, in which Chris describes the development of the party so far, our first couple of election campaigns, and briefly outlines some of our policies.

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

Geraldine Smith MP – Coward or Bully?

2009-11-11T11:26:00.002Z

Gregg being out of the country at the moment, and unable to access the North West Libertarians blog, he called me up to ask me to copy this post across from his personal blog. Frankly, I was stunned when he told me what had happened - whatever else is wrong with our elected politicians, we do generally expect them to at least keep to a civilised standard of behaviour. The full text of Gregg's post follows below:

Tonight, Tuesday 10 November, I was sat with my wife having a quiet drink in the centre of Brugge. Then my mobile rang, so I felt I should answer it, I was extremely concerned as it was my elderly father, and something was obviously wrong. My parents were distraught and I had to calm them down, they are both elderly and quite vulnerable and not in the best of health.

So what had happened? Well tonight they received an extremely unpleasant, threatening phone call from my local Member of Parliament, Geraldine Smith. She apparently "ranted and raved" about their only son, threatening to sue me, take me to court etc. because of some comments on my blog. I think I have soothed them without the need to return home early, I hope so, even though they were both obviously badly shaken.

It seems that a post of mine in June quoted a House of Commons library source that was wrong, she (Smith) had not, it seems, been on a women only shortlist in 1997. In effect, I had been misled by the House of Commons. Nothing new there then! Sorry about that and I will perhaps seek an apology myself.

Now then, to matters now. With all her allowances it took the genius team of Geraldine Smith nearly 6 months to pick that up. As they said nothing to my parents, or another blog I write for, anything about her expenses claims, which I also wrote about in June, I assume she is happy with that piece.

You can visit both posts if you track back, using the side bar, to my June 2009 blog posts.

So next time you want to throw your weight around Geraldine, pick on me, not my elderly parents.

That's that. I would now like you to apologise to my parents. If you haven't when I return then I will take matters further.

The Royal British Legion - Flanders' Field of Poppies

2009-11-06T09:56:00.000Z

The Royal British Legion - Flanders' Field of Poppies

Dumbed Down Britain

2009-11-06T09:34:00.003Z

It's been an interesting week, with Tom Wise, former MEP, at least being honest enough to admit fiddling his expenses. There are around 650 in Westminster and 700 in Brussels who still won't hold their hands up and admit it!!

So let's have a look at the effects of our interfering, expense fiddling, egotistical politicians interfering in, for example, the education system, which should never be under the control of politicians in the first place. The article below, from the Telegraph, is actually quite disturbing.

One in 20 schoolchildren thought Adolf Hitler was a coach of the German football team, a survey said.

And one in six youngsters said they thought Auschwitz was a Second World War theme park while one in 20 said the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of the war.

The survey for a veterans' charity also found one in 10 thought the SS stood for Enid Blyton's Secret Seven, and one in 12 believed the Blitz was a European clean-up operation following the Second World War.

Scottish-based charity Erskine, which provides nursing and medical care for veterans, said it would now take part in a nationwide scheme to educate schoolchildren about the two world conflicts.

The charity questioned 2,000 children between the ages of nine and 15 about their knowledge of the key people and events of the two wars.

While a quarter admitted they did not think about the soldiers who died in the conflicts, and 40 per cent said they did not know when Remembrance Day was, 70 per cent of all those surveyed said they wanted to learn more about the two wars in school.

Major Jim Panton, chief executive of Erskine, said: ''Some of the answers to this poll have shocked us and it has shown that Erskine, amongst others, has a part to play, not just in caring for veterans but in educating society as a whole.

''As we approach Remembrance Day it is hard to believe that 40 per cent of our children do not know when it is. Schoolchildren are the future of the country and it is important that we help them to learn about our history.''

The charity said it wanted some of the 1,350 veterans it cares for every year to share their experiences of the war with younger generations.

Erskine will work in partnership with Their Past Your Future (TPYF) project, a partnership of the Imperial War Museum, the Museums, Libraries and Archives England, the Northern Ireland Museum Council, the National Library of Wales and the Scottish Museums Council, to help schoolchildren learn more about the conflicts.

Andrew Salmond, a project manager for TPYF in Scotland, said: ''This initiative offers a fantastic opportunity to inform young people about the experiences of war - both at home and abroad.

''Some, we know, will convey wartime loss and suffering, others will speak of daring and inspiration. However, all will be of great educational value, offering an insight to what previous generations have endured in times of conflict.''

What a sad indictment of our education system as we approach Remembrance Day. Actually, what a sad indictment of modern Britain.

Libertarian Party AGM 28 November 2009

2009-11-05T14:32:00.002Z

The Annual AGM/Conference will be held at the Gladiator Room, Gloucestershire Cricket Club, Nevil Road, Bristol BS7 9EJ 10.30am- 4pm November 28th 2009

The Conference will deal with matters of policy and constitutional matters to be put forward by members via their regional coordinators, and the election of officers for 2010, plus party organisation, aims and objectives

A business meeting dealing with end of year accounts and hand over to the new NCC will be held in January.

We need to know numbers attending by November 2nd. There will be a £5 charge to defray costs on registration so please help us by registering early, and as ever Donations will be happily received.

Contact members@lpuk.org

The Sportsman Pub is nearby where I understand the usual fare can be obtained.

There is carparking available for 100 vehicles.

Directions

By Road

From the North:

Exit Junction 19 on M4 onto M32 to Bristol

Exit at Junction 2

Take the 3rd exit off the roundabout, keep in right hand lane and follow brown
tourist signs to County Ground. Continue on Muller Road for approx.1 mile.

Turn left into Ralph Road, opposite Bus Depot.

At T junction, turn left and then take first right into Kennington Avenue.
At top of road, turn left (signposted) into Nevil Road and drive through the Grace Gates into the ground.

From Central Bristol :

From St. James Barton roundabout in the City Centre, take exit marked Horfield (A38)
Continue along Stokes Croft Road and onto Gloucester Road

After approx. 1.5 miles turn right into Nevil Road (Signposted)
The Grace Gates are at the end of Nevil Road

By Rail :

Bristol Temple Meads is in the centre of Bristol, approx. 2 miles from The County Ground
Bus no. 8 or 9 will take you from the station to the bus station and then take any of the buses as below

Bristol Parkway is on the northern side of the City and approx 4 miles from The County Ground

By Bus :

The Bus Station is located in the centre of Bristol.

Outside the Bus Station from The Travel Inn, services, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 and 77 will take you along the Gloucester Road. The stop is Nevil Road, which is within 100yds from the Ground.

It looks like we've got more readers than we thought.

2009-10-27T14:04:00.003Z

Apparently as a result of Gregg Beaman's excellent post about the grasping, money-grubbing MP Geraldine Smith, we've received the following email:

Dear Sir,

It has come to our attention that there is a link to one of our Standard Notes, about all women shortlists, on your blog site. Regrettably the table erroneously listed Geraldine Smith as being selected as a candidate at the 1997 general election as a result of being on an all women shortlist. I gather that this mistake has caused Ms Smith some embarrassment and we are very sorry that this has happened; the corrected note is now available at http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-05057.pdf.

Yours sincerely,

Isobel White

Isobel White
Parliament and Constitution Centre
House of Commons Library
1 Derby Gate
London
SW1A 2DG

.............................

Fair enough. On behalf of the North West Branch of the Libertarian Party, I would like to withdraw the allegation that the grasping, money-grubbing MP Geraldine Smith got her job as a result of being on an all-women shortlist, and apologise if this has caused any offence or embarrassment to the greedy Ms Smith.

Of course you have to admit that it's an easy mistake for anyone to make, as the Labour Party do still make a habit of selecting some of their candidates on the basis of what's between their legs instead of what's between their ears - as demonstrated by current events in Wigan.

In the Libertarian Party, we're more interested in brains than plumbing, and we select our candidates accordingly. The Labour Party apparently see things differently.

The Nick Griffin Comedy Hour - Condensed Version

2009-10-26T13:52:00.002Z

Sorry, I just couldn't resist posting this:

Apologies for the interruption to our regular service, we will shortly return to serious politics.

October Meetup

2009-10-24T13:28:00.002+01:00

This is a quick reminder to all our North West members (and anyone else who's interested in meeting us) that this month's regional meetup starts at 12.30pm tomorrow, Sunday 25 October in the Lounge Bar of the Royal Station Hotel in Carnforth. See you there.

Libertarian Party launches online Supporters’ Section

2009-10-21T14:58:00.000+01:00

On behalf of the Libertarian Party I would like to announce the launch of the Supporters' section of our website.

The Party have introduced the Supporters' section of the website to help diseminate information about the Party to all those who are interested in the cause of liberty -- not just Party Members.

The Supporter's section of the website is aimed at all those who support liberty and wish to keep up to date with the Libertarian Party. We believe it will be of most interest to people who wish to find out a little more about the Party before they become members. But it may also be of interest to liberals and libertarians living outside of the UK or members of other political parties.

To become a Supporter is absolutely free and open to everyone regardless of age, nationality and current party affiliation. As a supporter you will receive regular updates on party campaigns, events and how you can help us in our quest to restore liberty to the United Kingdom.

So if you wish to become a Supporter of the UK's only Libertarian Party please sign up here.

Rob Waller
LPUK Web Director

Who do MI5 work for?

2009-10-14T04:45:00.004+01:00

There aren't many articles in the Guardian worth reading, but this one is.

Why am I not surprised?

If you're a WHITE person in Kirkdale, Steven Greenhalgh will fix your guttering.

2009-10-12T15:02:00.010+01:00

The most curious thing about BNP leaflets these days is all the things that they DON'T mention.

Today I recieved a leaflet from former Staff Sergant Steven Greenhalgh, a self proclaimed "Kirkdale Patriot" contesting Kirkdale ward for the British National Party, who have now dubbed themselves "The Voice of The Silent Majority - YOUR VOICE".

Does "silent" in this context mean "white"?

If "silent" isn't just a code word for "white" I challenge Mr Greenhalgh to explain what he means by "silent" in this context.

To be fair to Mr Greenhalgh, there is NO MENTION of race, ethnicity or even immigration in his leaflet.

There's a good reason for that. IRRATIONAL HATE is a big turn off for voters. So what does the leaflet talk about?

Mostly Steven Greenhalgh's VOLUNTARY WORK.

I'm not kidding. There is actually a photo of Mr Greenhalgh up a ladder in a hi-vis vest with a bucket clearing out someone's guttering with the caption:

"Steven Greenhalgh working voluntarily for Kirkdale all year round".

I'm sorry for being long winded, but I'm going to quote Mr Greenhalgh's good deeds AT NAUSEATING LENGTH to give you a real taste of the BNP's charm offensive.

"Since my last news letter I have been involved in helping families with fly tipping problems, in most cases I managed to get the rubbish removed within 5 days. I have also cleared areas in Regal Walk, Hartley Close, Vesuvius Street, Vauxhall Road and more."

"In my last news letter I was helping a gentleman who lives in Stanley Road. He was in the RAF for 12 years and was initially refused a war pension, so I asked the Royal British Legion's appeals officer to get involved. He ended up recieving a one off payment of £2300, a very good result!"

"I have been a member of the Royal British Legion since 1993 and last year I raised a substantial ammount of money for them. I will be visiting most of the residential and care homes in Kirkdale again this year, to distribute poppies to people with difficulty getting out. I will be laying a poppy wreath on Remembrance Sunday on behalf of the Liverpool British National Party branch."

"I recieved a call from John who is a 72 year old pensioner who had bought a phone set from [major electrical store in Liverpool]. This set turned out to be faulty and he returned it to the store three times. Unfortunately, after his third visit he indvertently lost his reciept and the shop refused to give him another phone set or a refund even though most of the staff recognised him. We planned to picket and hand out leaflets to potential customers every Saturday morning. Before we did this, we spoke to the manager and explained what we were planning to do, straight away he conceded and gave John a full refund. Being proactive definitely works. Pensioners cannot afford to be ripped off by big company stores."

"I recieved a phone call from a lady who had vermin in the walls of her flat. Within 6 days I had the enviromental health out to get rid of the vermin."

What about LOCAL POLITICS? There is a little of that, but not much:

"After speaking with residents of this area, it is obvious more speed calming restrictions are needed before someone is killed or seriously injured by speeding vehicles along:

Delamore Street
Ruskin Street
Chirkdale Street
Selwyn Street
Roxburgh Street
Carisbrooke Road
Hale Road

I will be pushing for these restrictions to be put in place asap. If someone is is injured or killed, the blame should be with the Kirkdale councillors."

"After years of campaigning, the final set [Vesuvius Street flats] have been boarded up and preparations are taking place to demolish them, once the utilities have been cut off, demolition should start."

"a public open meeting soon turned into a private closed meeting when the local councillor and his henchmen realised I was there at thec request of an elderly gentleman who lives in Paul Orr Court. He wanted me to ask probing and awkward questions to the panel. The meeting was about proposed public transport in and around Eldonian Village. I don't know what they were trying to hide. So much for the transparency the Labour Party keep talking about."

"What YOUR prospective candidate wants:

* Youth programs - Get children off our street corners!
* Park Wardens - keep our parks clean and safe!
* Lower Council Tax - Cut council waste!
* Free public transport for school children!
* Support for small LOCAL businesses!
* More Street Bins - keep our community clean!

Steven Greenhalgh fighting for the community and the average person."

Sounds like something the Lib Dems would put out doesn't it?

"With thanks to Merseyside Police for their financial contributions we can afford to stand candidates in most constituencies in Merseyside."

So that's how the police REALLY feel about equal opportunities is it?

Droylsden East Labour Party: Are they completely clueless?

2009-10-02T13:53:00.004+01:00

I watched a Labour Party member leafletting Fairfield Road in Droylsden (Tameside) the other day. He was very efficient, leafletting a house every 30 seconds. He even remembered to close each garden gate after him. It must be hard work leafletting an area for a political party. I've looked at the leaflet he was delivering now, and I wonder if he thinks it was worth the effort?

The leaflet is a glossy A3 sized effort entitled "the Droylsden East Rose". This is edited by Cllr Sue Quinn, one of the three Labour councillors who "represent" this ward (she's also the Deputy Mayor). Two thirds of the front page is dedicated to covering the recent Copperas Field fun day (basically a sort of local carnival/fete thing). The other third of the front page was dedicated to Labour basically congratulating themselves on having come first place locally in May's Euro elections. Of course a Euro election is a completely different thing from a local election. And Labour didn't do so well in the last local elections.

The back page has five different stories squeezed above the usual cut-out-and-send-back form asking for support. One story is about the re-opening of Littlemoss Memorial Gardens. Another story is about a campaign to bring back the old Droylsden Carnival. Why are Droylsden East Labour Party so heavily obsessed with circuses at a time when people are struggling to pay for bread?

Another bit is about how two of the councillors are members of the Droylsden FC supporters club. That's nice for them, but what's it got to do with council business or local politics?

One story is about Cllrs Kieran and Susan Quinn being opposed to Lord Mandleson's plan to sell part of Royal Mail. This plan seems to have been abandoned now, so why are they covering this? Maybe they are trying to distance themselves form an upopular government.

The last story does have some local relevance. It's short bit warning people not to vote for the BNP. I don't disagree with that, I hate the BNP as much as anyone. But it's funny that they don't give this more prominence, considering that the BNP came a close second in the last local election here.

The full results for the 2008 council election in Droylsden East were:

Jim Middleton (Labour) 1408 votes
David George Lomas (BNP) 1000 votes
Lee Anthony Robinson (Tory) 648 votes

Susan Quinn is up for re-election next year. If this is the best propoganda that the local Labour Party can come up with then she's in serious trouble. Droylsden is not that bad an area, but local people have local concerns that aren't being addressed at all. The biggest concern at the moment is the massive delays to traffic that are being caused by the roadworks around the crossing of Ashton Road and Market Street. This is because of the long-delayed and massively mishandled extension to the tram system and is causing massive delays at rush hour. You would think there would at least be an apology for the inconvenience in "Droylsden East Rose" instead of pointless rubbish about local carnivals. If local politicians ignore the concerns of local voters, then the voters will turn to any party that at least pretends to listen to them. And pretending to care about local issues is what the BNP's good at.

Labour could easily lose a seat in Droylsden East next May. If they do it will be their own fault. I wouldnt' like the BNP to win, because they're the only people I hate more than Labour, but voters want councillors who will take care of the practical business of keeping the town running smoothly, instead of patronising them with rubbish like this. If you don't believe me about hwo bad the local Labour group are have a look at thier blog and make your own mind up:

http://www.droylsdeneastlabour.blogspot.com/

Almost anyone with a decent campaign could beat them.

With friends like Molyneux, who needs enemies?

2009-09-27T12:25:00.005+01:00

According to Canadian anarcho-capitalist Stefan Molyneux, the election of any Libertarian political administration will be a "disaster" that will set back the cause of liberty by decades, if not hundreds of years.

If one thing is obvious from this video, its that Molyneux loves his Straw Men. He has to draw an absurd caricature of Limited Government advocates in order to convince us to give up politics and start wagging our fingers at politicians instead.

As we all know, finger wagging and saying "YOU'RE EVIL" in a really stern voice is the best way to combat the police state.

He admits candidly that we are "not going to see anarchy in our lifetimes". So far, so good. If you he would just admit that we are not going to see anarchy anytime before the sun expands into a red giant and scorches the Earth into a burnt cinder we would be in complete agreement.

In order to arrive at absurd conclusions, Molyneux needs to start with some absurd and counter-factual premises:

1. Limited Government advocates want to use government to reduce government.

Apparently, Molyneux has never heard of the Militia Movement in the United States.

He chooses to ignore the fact that private citizens in America are arming themselves at record levels since Obama was sworn in. They are not planning to initiate force against the government, but they are ready to actively resist any dictatorial measures imposed.

Molyneux forgets that the militia and "WE THE PEOPLE" are specifically mentioned in the US constitution as THE check on government abuses. The separation of powers within government is only a minor detail by comparison.

As Thomas Jefferson pointed out, when the people fear the government there is tyranny, but when government FEARS THE PEOPLE there is liberty.

Resistance to government itself must lie OUTSIDE government and translates itself into civil disobediance (e.g. nonpayment of taxes), peaceful protest (demos) and (in extremis) armed resistance.

2. Government hasn't got any smaller anywhere, ever.

Strangely enough, there was no mention of the Soviet Union and its east European satellites in Molyneux's rant. I wonder why?

In terms of "big government" you can't get much bigger than 100% of all legal commerce, right?

Yet the almighty Soviet Bloc collapsed. The state actually GOT SMALLER.

It is also really odd that Molyneux never mentions Somalia in his diatribe. If any country has come close to having "no government", the post Siad Barre chapter in Somalia's history is a fascinating study of what happens when a power vacuum arises.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy_in_Somalia

3. "Kindergarden Ethics" is a guide to human behaviour.

Don't initiate force against others. Don't steal. If only everyone would live by those two maxims, there would be no need for a state, opines Molyneux.

Quite so, and if my uncle was a woman, he would be my auntie. What does that prove?

Anarchists forget that Kindergarden Ethics didn't even work in Kindergarden. Ethics is the benchmark of human behaviour, not an analysis of how people actually behave.

MOTIVE and OPPORTUNITY are the key principles for understanding human behaviour. Not ethics.

If I am determined to steal Molyneux's wallet, no ammount of moralising will persuade me not to.

He can wag his finger at me, tell me not to steal, look me in the eye and call me "EVIL" all he likes, but unless he PHYSICALLY PREVENTS ME from stealing his wallet or there is some other form of SANCTION or countervailing THREAT, I'll do it.

For all the flaws in this video, he does make ONE very good point. That point is that the existing state institutions have embedded themselves so deeply in society that reform is no easy task.

Abundance Manchester

2009-09-25T12:40:00.002+01:00

"Abundance Manchester is a project which picks surplus or unwanted fruit from gardens and public trees around South Manchester and distributes it to local groups and communities. We also collect and distribute surplus vegetables from allotments and we have started our own Abundance allotment to grow our own food to donate to groups who can make good use of it."

I saw this group featured on the local news last night. This is the sort of local, voluntary initiative that libertarians tend to be quite keen on promoting. It seems that the generally good weather this year has led to a bumper crop of fruit and veg, so it seems a good idea to help to distribute some of the surplus to those who can make use of it. And it's the kind of thing that has to be done by private citizens independently of the state - if someone had gone to Manchester City Council with a proposal for scheme like this, I'm pretty sure they would have spent weeks - or even months - debating what to do, while the fruit and veg rotted. Instead, these guys have used their initiative to set up a potentially useful service. Their politics seem to be coming from a "green" angle, but they are giving food to outfits like the Salvation Army, so who cares? Good luck to them. If you want to know more about them, click on this link to visit their blog. There also seem to be "Abundance" groups set up in a few other cities round the country, maybe it's an idea that will catch on.

Independent Safeguarding Authority

2009-09-24T18:58:00.001+01:00

The Independent Safeguarding Authority is the government's latest tool in its imposition of a police state. It was set up in response to the Bichard inquiry into the Soham murders which means that the gullible will fall for it assuming it will protect children. It won't, but will further increase the surveillance/database state that is slowly imprisoning us.

To put it into some context here is an article in The Times by Chris Stevenson, a senior detective in the Soham investigation. He has a sense of perspective on the current paranoia that those of us fortunate enough to have never seen the things that he had to see, could learn a great deal from. Especially the 'nothing to hide nothing to fear' brigade.

It means that anybody wanting to work or volunteer with vulnerable people, children or adults, will have to be registered with the ISA as well as having a police check. Here is how the ISA website describes it:

The new Vetting and Barring Scheme will operate under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and under Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 in its application to Northern Ireland. It will replace the current List 99, PoCA, PoVA, POCVA, Unsuitable Persons and Disqualification Orders regimes.

Once the scheme is fully rolled out (there will be a phased introduction), it will be illegal to hire in regulated activity someone, who is not registered with the ISA. The new scheme will cover employees and volunteers in for example the education, care and health sectors who come into contact with children or vulnerable adults on a frequent or intensive basis and, when fully implemented, will affect some 11.3 million people.

This document is particularly worth looking at:

Guidance Notes for the Barring Decision Making Process

Even an acquittal in court can be ignored if the ISA decide they don't like the cut of your jib:

5.6. Acquittals

5.6.1.

There could be any number of reasons why a person charged with an offence is acquitted: perhaps the victim decided not to testify and the CPS (Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Northern Ireland) had to withdraw the case; perhaps the acquittal was based on a technicality; and even where a jury has found someone not guilty of having done something, you must always remember that, at most, this means is that the court did not find that someone did something “beyond a reasonable doubt” (the criminal standard of proof). The test applied by the ISA in relation to barring considerations is ‘on the balance of probability’ (the civil standard of proof). Therefore, even if there has been an acquittal, the ISA must still consider the case for itself on the basis of the balance of probabilities. A barring decision can, therefore, be made, having regard to all the circumstances, if the ISA is satisfied that the events concerned happened, on the balance of probabilities, notwithstanding an acquittal at court. This could become even more relevant where the substance of the offence or the attendant circumstances give cause for concern.

There is also a facility for people to report others to the ISA if they think they may be 'a bit dodgy' and it will be investigated.

The problem is that under the scheme almost everybody is classed as 'vulnerable'.

Under the scheme anybody not registered with the ISA will not be allowed to even apply to work with 'vulnerable people'. That means doctors, nurses, youth workers, social workers, charity workers etc., etc.

Even if a school has organised an exchange visit, the school will have to ensure that at least one parent hosting a foreign pupil is registered with the ISA.

I suggest, if you value your freedom, or what's left of it, you support No2ID.

No2ID is an excellent campaign but there is also a political party fighting to restore our freedoms, the Libertarian Party.

North West Meeting

2009-09-23T11:52:00.002+01:00

Just a reminder that our next North West meeting is on Sunday (27 Sep) in Carnforth at the Royal Station Hotel, Market Street.

We will be joined by new Libertarian Party councillor Gavin Webb from Stoke-on-Trent.

We start at 12-30 and the Station Hotel does good food so feel free to bring friends, loved ones and others. All are most welcome, not just party members.

Gavin Webb crosses floor to join Libertarian Party

2009-09-09T01:08:00.002+01:00

PRESS RELEASE

COUNCILLOR GAVIN WEBB OF STOKE ON TRENT CITY COUNCIL RESIGNS FROM THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS AND JOINS THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY (LPUK)

Gavin Webb, who was selected as the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Burton in 2008 and elected as a Lib Dem councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2007, has today announced that he has resigned from the Liberal Democrats.

He says: "I have made a good many friends in my fourteen years of activism in the Liberal Democrats and I hope that those friendships will continue, but regretfully I have decided to resign from the Liberal Democrats.

"The party, like the Conservative and Labour parties, has become a party of the establishment. It has unfortunately firmly wedded itself to the belief that there are primarily government solutions to the problems facing our country, and in the process, they are adopting policies that undermine our rights and freedoms as individuals.

"As far as I can see, most political parties in the UK appear to trust individuals when it comes to voting for councillors, MPs and MEPs, but once comfortably in power they are reluctant to trust individuals when it comes to them making choices about their own lives.

"There is however one political party - the Libertarian Party - that believes in giving responsibility back to individuals over their own lives and their own finances; and it is this party that I have now decided to join.

"We are on the road of authoritarianism, where government is our ruler rather than us being the ruler of our government. It is time for each and every single one of us to make a stand against government and those who feed off it, and demand the reduction of its size and scope.

"From what I've seen from many Lib Dem parliamentarians and councillors I don't believe the Liberal Democrat Party has the inclination to argue for smaller government in defence of our individual rights.

"Though there are some good classical liberal and libertarian types in the party, with whom I hope to continue to have a good relationship, their voices are crowded out by people who believe it perfectly okay to dictate to people how they should live their lives. I don't wish any longer to be a part of that.

"As an active member of the Libertarian Party, I will campaign to inform people that there are more voluntary, rather than coercive ways in which to influence positive outcomes for themselves, their families and the wider community. I hope to impress upon people that though there may be a need for government of some sort, it doesn't have to be government of the size and expense we see today.

Libertarian Party Leader Ian Parker- Joseph said

It has been a pleasure over the past months to speak with Gavin on numerous occasions, and following a meeting with him last month can attest to his personal commitment to the libertarian values on which he was elected, a man of honour, integrity and a passion for doing the right thing for his constituents.

I am therefore very pleased on behalf of The Libertarian Party to welcome Gavin Webb into the only party that wholly and uniquely stands for libertarian ideals in the UK.

I know that there is a great sadness from Gavin that the Liberal Democrat leadership were unable to rise to the challenge of veering away from the belief that the State has the answers to all our ills. It is a sadness shared by many.

In that light I hope that there are many more who now see the time as right to make the same changes that Gavin Webb has undertaken, not just from the Lib Dems but also those in the Conservative Libertarian wing who are unsuccessfully looking for reforms that will never come, and instead to look to a party that believes in libertarianism as a way of life, rather than one which merely gives lip service to it.

The Libertarian Party is here to stay, and new members such as Gavin Webb can only enhance the message that his constituents so clearly wanted to hear, and that Gavin Webb is living on their behalf.

Libertarian Party Chairman Andrew Withers said-

"Whilst we have a number of Parish and Town Councillors, Gavin is the first City Councillor that has crossed the floor to a truly Radical Party, one that wants to change the relationship between State and the Individual to the point where the State is subordinate to the will of the people, not the people subordinate to the will of the State.

Furthermore, the Libertarian Party argues that State should be small and accountable.

"We welcome Gavin, and hope that his decision will galvanise other Libertarians in other parties to join with us on the long march back to individual Liberty."

ENDS

Gavin Webb Can Be Contacted On 07949 026660

Libertarian Party (LPUK) 0845 299 7650

Email Contact@lpuk.org

ENDS

I have long maintained that the doors of LPUK would remain firmly open to anyone who wanted to stop, take a step back and realise that trying to reform the existing Big Parties in the ways of Libertarianism was like banging ones head on a brick wall.

This is a door that Gavin has chosen to walk through, and I sincerely hope that with his brave first move, it will galvanise others who have been sitting on the fence watching, waiting to see who would be the first.

We have well formed policies, we put the people before vested interests, we put people before the wishes of the establishment and the EU, and the consistency of our policies means that we will not be issuing new policy documents every week as we see from the Conservatives and LibDems.

We are not fooled by the PR work of Cameron, the flip flopping of Clegg nor the increasingly desperate pronouncements from Downing St. We are clear and concise in what needs to be done for the UK, for its peoples to be free from government interference, to be free of daily suspicions, to be free from surveillance, to be free from privateers acting under legislative protection to levy and fine for every infringement of draconian rules, but to be able to live their lives as each sees fit to do so.

Gavin Webb has taken the first steps, we will be looking to you, your friends, family and neighbours to follow him in taking the next steps and making the Libertarian party a real political force in the UK.

North West Monthly Meetups

2009-08-24T23:29:00.003+01:00

I had a bit of a longish drive from Manchester to Carnforth (near Lancaster) yesterday, for the latest meetup of Libertarian Party members in the North West of England. Although it wasn't a very big group that met there yesterday, it's always good to meet fellow Libertarians.

While sampling the beer in the bar of the Royal Station Hotel, we had some constructive discussions on the subject of organisation, and especially how we're going to support Gregg Beaman's campaign as our candidate for the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency in the General Election.

We've also agreed to make Carnforth the venue of our regular monthly regional meetups on the last Sunday of each month, starting on the 27th September. These will be in the bar of the Royal Station Hotel (right across the road from the famous train station), starting about 12.30pm and finishing whenever people get bored or run out of beer money. The Royal Station Hotel is a nice boozer with friendly staff, and they serve really good food.

The meetups will be pretty informal. The North West branch of the Libertarian Party (which covers Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria) currently functions as a loose association of members in the region, but holding regular meetups is an important step towards becoming a properly constituted Branch with a constitution and elected officers. We also expect to start some campaigning activities in the near future.

As I said, these meetups are pretty informal at the moment, and they are not just open to Libertarian Party members. Anyone who is interested in living in a more liberal Britain and wants to see what we're about is welcome to come. So if you're within travelling distance of Carnforth on the last Sunday of every month (starting 27th September 2009), why not come and say hello? Free thinking people will always be welcome, and you may even decide you like us so much you want to join us!

Government CCTV cameras in UK homes.

2009-08-08T14:52:00.005+01:00

American Libertarians like Jason Bermas are well and truly freaked out by the Daily Express story that the UK government is planning to put 20,000 CCTV cameras into the homes of families who have been sucked into the orbit of the all powerful Social Workers.

Weirdly though, Brits don't seem to care. Are we all too drunk to notice? Too much flouride in the drinking water perhaps? How did we get so passive and compliant in this country?

Total non-cooperation and non-compliance is the only sane and rational way to deal with Social Services.

How did you know?

2009-08-05T18:52:00.003+01:00

I was surprised to be invited to contribute to the North West Libertarians blog. Here am I, an established Muscovite. I haven't lived in the North West since I was a boy. Nonetheless, it's home. My wife and I have owned a house there for a few years now, which is our pied a terre in Britain. Family connections, deep behind Labour lines, are the reason the "New Labour" con has never fooled me. Visiting our families is what keeps me in touch with the relentless loss of liberties in recent years.

Every time I visit, the border police at Manchester Airport are just a tad more surly and insolent, as are all the "public servants" who now see themselves as our true masters. If I had never met a "tip Nazi", I would not have believed how arrogant the humblest public servants have become.

For my first post, all I want to say is this. I am delighted there are libertarians there at all. When I was growing up, most political dissidents from Labour were to that party's left. The local Tories were a dispirited (not to mention, statist and paternalistic) bunch. Growing up there in the 60s and 70s I never met a North Westerner who didn't believe in the benevolence of the state. I am sure there must have been some, but they were probably keeping their heads down. Well they might. On the night of Margaret Thatcher's first general election victory, my dad and I stood at the bar of our "local", as one neighbour said to another,

"How can she have won? I've never even met a ****ing Tory!"

I remember the Labour councillor who ran the local newsagents smugly smirking as he said to his wife about me; "look how big and strong these lads grow up under the Welfare State". I pointed out, to his annoyance, that my grandad was as tall, though born before Labour was founded, still less the Welfare State. I am sure his faith was entirely unshaken. His main reaction was shock that anyone should say such a scandalous thing.

You truly live behind enemy lines. I salute you!

Peter Schiff's "Crash Proof" is now on scribd.

2009-08-02T14:36:00.007+01:00

Of all the basic free-to-download economics books that I would recommend to the lay reader, this one is at the top of my list.

It is important to remember that this book was written in 2006 and published in 2007. Explaining anything with the benefit of hindsight is easy. Laying out the future is more difficult.

The author is long on clarity/common sense and short on jargon and verbiage. Although the title suggests an investment guide, only the last few chapters give specific advice on stocks, bonds, commodities, etc. The bulk of the book outlines why our post-industrial "service economy" is a giant fraud.

Today Europe, Tomorrow Oblivion!

2009-07-15T00:10:00.003+01:00

The mainstream media's made a bit of a fuss today about Nasty Nick Griffin taking his seat in the European Clown Parliament. Certainly his loyal followers who worked almost as hard to get him there as the media will have been celebrating:

But so what? Personally, I'm not going to lose any sleep over the fact that the North West is now partly "represented" in the clown parliament by this fascist knuckle dragger. What's he going to do, set up the Fourth Reich almost single-handed? Even if he had a majority of MEPs instead of just one, he still wouldn't have the ability to do any real harm. The European Parliament is almost powerless and only exists to provide a democratic veneer to the bureacratic swamp that is the European Union.

The only practical result of Nutty Nick becoming an MEP is that he's not going to be showing his face much in Britain for the next few years, which is OK by me (and probably with his rivals in the BNP). Instead he'll be alternating between Brussells and Strasbourg, pretending to be a serious politician and no doubt taking the opportunity to stuff his pockets with whatever expenses and other goodies are available. Let him strut around pretending he actually is someone in the fantasy parliament - personally I prefer to stick to real politics in the real world.

In ten years time, will anyone even remember Nick Griffin?