Martin Day, Party Secretary, UK Libertarian Party

If you believe in individual rights, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and the constraint of government size and influence, then the Libertarian Party might be for you.  We recently spoke with Party Secretary Martin Day.

“People have had enough of the incredible tax burden faced nowadays – the highest since the aftermath of WWII”

Can you introduce yourself and your role within the Libertarian Party?

Hi, I’m Martin Day and I am the Party Secretary. I joined the Libertarian Party back in 2018 after UKIP lurched into territory I didn’t want to go into. I believe there has been increased interference in our daily lives, particularly over the last 30 years, and the Libertarian Party was a perfect fit for my ideals. My role includes writing some of the content that we put out on almost a daily basis, assisting with uploading website content, and sending out Press releases. Believe me, they do get sent, despite the mainstream media giving us a wide berth. I’m also the coordinator for the midlands (Mercia) region. We rely on people rallying to a common cause. It’s hard as organising libertarians is akin to herding cats, but we try, because we believe in our minarchist ideals.

We face reduced liberty on many fronts, without a popular push happening so far.  How do you see the cause for liberty fairing in our country?

Talking to the man/woman on the streets, there is much support for the idea of more freedom and less government. The demonstrations against the lockdowns proved that, and the mounting anger against the ULEZ expansion is another example. People have had enough of the incredible tax burden faced nowadays – the highest since the aftermath of WWII – and the restrictions to setting up small businesses in favour of the big corporations. Unfortunately, it is difficult to translate that into votes as tribal instincts kick in and people vote for either the red or blue socialists anyway. Yes, I did say blue socialists, the two main parties are seemingly locked in a battle as to which of them can extort more money through taxation and squander it on projects that defy reason after an ever-increasing army of civil servants have had their cut out of it first. They believe they know how to spend our money better than we do.

“What was interesting was Uxbridge, where the result was a clear rejection of Labour’s ULEZ plans, yet they voted for the Conservatives, who have not clearly stated they would stop it”

We’ve just had 3 by-elections with many smaller party’s running and wins for all 3 main parties.  Are there any conclusions you draw from the results?

By-election results can be very deceiving, with the electorate keen to show their dissatisfaction with the ruling globalists like Sunak and Hunt. What was interesting was Uxbridge, where the result was a clear rejection of Labour’s ULEZ plans, yet they voted for the Conservatives, who have not clearly stated they would stop it. This shows how difficult it is for the smaller parties to get their message across.

“we are currently trying to raise the funds for Tony Brown’s tilt and the London Mayoral office. The required deposit to even stand is, £5,000, which is, quite frankly, a tax on democracy”

We likely have a general election next year, and we’ve interviewed Tony Brown your London Mayoral Candidate.  What are the Libertarian Party’s plans for these and other elections?

The reason that we did not contest the recent By-elections is that we are currently trying to raise the funds for Tony Brown’s tilt and the London Mayoral office. The required deposit to even stand is, £5,000, which is, quite frankly, a tax on democracy. It will be our main focus for next year, but we do also hope to have a number of candidates standing in the next General Election.

How can people get involved in or find out more about the party?

We welcome all those interested, who can become members at https://www.libertarianpartyuk.com/join There are opportunities for getting involved from writing to helping candidates leaflet at election time, though just sharing our posts on social media all helps to get the message out there.

You can follow Martin on Facebook and Twitter.

Plans for 2023

With a politically tumultuous 2022 coming to an end, we asked you, ‘What do you hope your organisation will be doing in 2023?’

Hilary Judge, TOGETHER Croydon

“I hope that they take the Cash Fridays campaign on-board, and it goes nationwide. Businesses should be encouraged to actively promote taking cash.”

My hopes for Together are that they become more democratic with greater member input.  We would have ideas coming from meetup groups and individuals and adopting participatory democracy, which is a program where recipients answer questions where they completely agree, somewhat agree etc.

I hope that they take the Cash Fridays campaign on-board, and it goes nationwide (Cash Friday’s is a campaign to on a Friday, spend cash to pay for goods / services rather than use cards). Businesses should be encouraged to actively promote taking cash. Expand the campaign to younger people by giving cash to dependent teenagers, rather than bank transfers.

I would like bigger debates with participants from all over the political spectrum and I’m thinking of organising our future meetings as open debates.

Together Croydon are meeting on Tuesday 7th February in Croydon and Thursday 9th February in Beckenham, contact [email protected] for further details.

Martin Day/Andrew Withers, Libertarian Party

“Small business owners are increasingly aware of the bias towards huge corporations that this current administration has. They know that we support initiative and entrepreneurism.”

The Year ahead.

2023 will finally see a new website produced, featuring more interaction with the members. Hopefully, that and the data system behind it will enable us to run increasing numbers of candidates in the local elections this May.

We are also speaking to university students to get the message of self-sufficiency and individualism into the younger generation. So far, it is generating more interest than previous years.

We continue to highlight the appalling corruption of this current government, whist pointing out that the other side are unlikely to be any better. Just different coloured snouts in the trough. Sadly, too many voters are shackled to the two-party system.

Locally, a whole new initiative is being discussed along the lines of London Libertarians. Small business owners are increasingly aware of the bias towards huge corporations that this current administration has. They know that we support initiative and entrepreneurism.

We are now faced with the Prince Harry farago dominating the headlines, while this unelected Prime Minister, without the mandate of the voting public, enacting a surveillance authoritarian state.

Serious policies are no longer subject to the scrutiny by the voter, nor by MP’s more concerned with climbing the preferment greasy pole and raking in expenses and part time appointments.

Centralisation of power amongst the few is root cause of political crisis. The Libertarian Party has a fully thought-out Constitutional Reform package.

What you tolerate will continue.

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