Category: Libertarian Party

By TheYellow&TheGreen

Operation Raise the Colours has succeeded spectacularly. Lampposts across the country now bear the marks of defiance. The campaign has borne fruit, forcing Labour to tighten its grip on immigration by introducing digital ID. That debate deserves its own article.

This one is about something deeper. Something darker. The Ulsterisation of Britain.

Across our towns and cities, dividing lines are hardening, cultural, political and social. The sectarian aesthetics once confined to Northern Ireland are re-emerging here at home.

A new tribalism has taken root. The right has embraced identitarianism and with it the tactics and violence of collective ideology. Our streets are turning into battlegrounds. Symbols rise and fall in daily cycles of retaliation.

The left is no less tribal. It dresses its own divisions in moral language, but its identity politics is equally intolerant, demanding conformity and punishing dissent. The symbols may differ, yet the instinct to sort people into camps of virtue and vice remains the same.

From every corner of the collectivist spectrum, groups are organising, marching, preparing for confrontation. Each claims moral authority. None stands for individual liberty.

We are individualists by nature; we have always lacked the perspective or the experience to deal with sectarian politics. Yet we cannot ignore the material world or the reality of the situation. Individuals are being abused and assaulted, and private property is being targeted.

The question is not whether libertarians should take sides, but how we can stand apart, defending freedom and autonomy without becoming another faction in a growing civil conflict.

Regardless of how we feel about the other side or even our own, we must remember that there is a person on the other side, a person with feelings, thoughts and flaws. If we lose sight of that, we surrender to the same collectivist mindset we claim to oppose.

Liberty cannot survive in a world where people are dehumanised into tribes and enemies. It survives only when we recognise the individual, even in those we disagree with, as an equal in dignity and freedom.

That, above all else, is the libertarian line in the sand.

You can learn more about the Libertarian party at https://libertarianpartyuk.com/.

Originally posted on 24^th October at https://www.facebook.com/libertarianuk/posts/the-ulsterisation-of-britain-a-libertarian-perspectiveby-theyellowthegreenoperat/1372713361150263/

Though the rise in popularity of Reform UK has hogged the headlines, the increase in popularity of the Green Party has been as consistent as the fall from grace of Keir Starmer’s Labour.

Are they just a harmless bunch of harmless vegetarian eco-fanatics? Let’s have a look. Zack Polanski has been the Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since September this year.

After changing his name from David Paulsen, university followed and then a career in the Arts. He worked a variety of roles, including actor and director. Polanski also sang for the London International Gospel Choir. One must wonder why he didn’t call himself out for cultural appropriation.

He then famously worked as a hypnotherapist, getting caught out by The Sun trying to make a reporter’s breasts grow larger. It’s all in the mind, apparently.

Policy-wise, Polanski has advocated for increasing taxes on billionaires, renationalising water companies, challenging governments for what he sees as insufficient subsidy on net zero policies and regulating private corporations even more. His politics are closer to the far-left than the Liberal Democrats he once stood for.

Given their leader’s political views as eco-populist, linking broad issues like high costs of living and the climate crisis as both being caused by the wealthy, it seems the Green Party is a serious threat to the UK economy. Green not through anything to do with the environment, but rather, envy!

Martin Day – Mercia Coordinator, Libertarian Party UK

You can learn more about the Libertarian party at https://libertarianpartyuk.com/.

Originally posted on 11^th October at https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1361419042279695&id=100052348363639&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=T5uMhlVjtwaBAV90#

Image from Grok.

Ben Allsop the Wessex Coordinator of the Libertarian Party UK writes about Eight rights you think you have, but don’t (and how a constitution can help).

As a party, we are fighting to finally form a codified constitution in the United Kingdom. To highlight why we need one, here are eight fundamental rights that almost everyone values (and may already believe they have), but the British government violates routinely.

Freedom of Expression – This is an obvious one, but well worth starting with. Currently, British citizens have no right to freedom of expression, also referred to as ‘freedom of speech’. Laws such as the Communications Act 2003 or the Public Order Acts give police and other bodies the legal ability to punish and silence citizens for speaking their minds.

Freedom of Information – The other side of the ‘free speech’ coin. The ability to receive information is just as if not more vital than the ability to broadcast it. But British citizens are simply not allowed to know certain things. For instance, the possession of ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’ is illegal to own in this country under the Terrorism Act 2000. The state also routinely practices censorship through OFCOM, which can now mandate social media companies to remove ‘legal but harmful’ material’.

Presumption of Innocence – Surely not, I hear you cry. Well, the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 enables government agencies to monitor your communications which in the past would have required at least reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. More worryingly, civil asset forfeiture laws allow police and even local councils to seize property if they suspect it to be the proceeds of crime. Note that there is no requirement of proof or even conviction for alleged crimes. Suspicion alone is enough to remove property from the accused.

Property Rights – As they say, “if you can’t keep it, it isn’t really yours.” The government can and does practice compulsory purchase in the UK. Not to mention the fact that it forced businesses to close during the pandemic. In addition, several laws such as The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, and more, all allow the government to seize and freeze assets without so much as a hearing. Even in cases where the accused has been cleared of wrongdoing, they may still be expected to make a time-consuming and expensive claim through the court to retrieve their property.

Right to Privacy – Long dismissed as a wacky conspiracy theory, the reality of mass surveillance became common knowledge with the leaking of NSA documents by Edward Snowden and others. As well as the US, the UK was also active in collecting massive amounts of data extracted from and intercepted between its own people. Since then, the British government has passed legislation such as the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 which overtly bestowed itself with the power to spy on us all.

Self-sufficiency – Who hasn’t dreamed of buying a plot of forest, building yourself a cabin and living out your years on nature’s doorstep? And like many dreams, this one gets a kicking from the government too. Planning permission, green belt and AONB designations, building restrictions, land use restrictions, environmental health and waste rules, council tax and residency enforcement, service access and identity issues will all conspire to make living off-grid a legal impossibility in the UK. ‘Pay your taxes or live on the street’ are the only options we get.

Right to Protest – Under the guise of tackling the life-endangering protests by ‘Just Stop Oil’ a few years ago, the government was able to introduce sweeping new powers which had the ability to crush future protests. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 made making noise during a protest or violating undisclosed restrictions both arrestable offences. These powers were further expanded by the Public Order Act 2023, which allowed the state to ban people without a criminal conviction from protesting and ridiculously, made it an offense to carry a bike lock to a protest.

Popular Sovereignty – We all know that in a democracy, the people are sovereign. All authority is derived from the consent of the people after all. Except, at least in the UK, that isn’t true. Of course, for the past century or so adults in the UK have been able to influence the composition of parliament. But only one of two chambers of it. Sovereignty in the UK actually lies with parliament itself. Parliamentary sovereignty allows parliament to pass any law without judicial or public scrutiny with a simple majority. You are one act of parliament away from living under a dictatorship. I hope that I’m not alone in saying that that terrifies me.

At the end of the day, a codified constitution is just a piece of paper. There can never be any foolproof way of keeping out authoritarianism. But anything that makes the sudden or gradual seizure of power more difficult for governments may one day prove to be a godsend. So please support us in our fight for a constitution, help prevent tyranny and reverse the progress already made towards it…while you still can.

This post can also be found at https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1274615394293394&id=100052348363639&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=Bc8xyHo1zQ4TWm3j#.