Lack of a Libertarian party in the UK

Why has a Libertarian party not become involved in mainstream politics yet?

[video="youtube;BUjzrS6jwiw"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUjzrS6jwiw[/video]

Also, why is it seen in this country to be a bad thing if you want to reduce the power of the state and increase the power of the individual?

The state has failed us; both Tory and Labour governments, the Tories wish to ban everything and censor as much as they can while Labour wish to suppress free thought through political correctness and the concept of the nanny state.

Isn't it time we looked at alternatives to these two parties, and to the large scale bureaucracy of our country as a whole?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Cristocracy

Libertarian thinking tends to attract the elite far more than any middle-class or working class citizen. In a populist society, what did u expect?

Reply 2

Drunken Bard

Original post by Cristocracy

Libertarian thinking tends to attract the elite far more than any middle-class or working class citizen. In a populist society, what did u expect?

But why? Greater Individual freedom should be beneficial to everyone.

Reply 3

Cristocracy

A True Libertarian advocates absolute freedom.

This means no compulsion, no taxation of any kind. Which consequently means no benefits at all, no NHS, no subsidies whatsoever.

I doubt many will vote for it...

Reply 4

Drunken Bard

Original post by Cristocracy

Not really, classical Libertarianism is the belief that the government's main priority is to protect it's citizens human rights.

There is more than one type of libertarianism though, just the same as any other political ideology.

I'm talking mainly about Civil Libertarianism.

What you just said was Fiscal Libertarianism or "Thatcherism" as it's better known.

I mean heck, you can even be a Libertarian Socialist just like Noam Chomsky.

UKIP ?

Original post by Drunken Bard

Its not 'fiscal libertarianism' or whatever you call it-As a movement, there are far less splinter groups among libertarians than other philosophical movements.

Libertarians generally subscribe to Nozick's version-which is exactly what I just described. Libertarian Socialism is in itself inherently contradictory. No other mode of thinking can quite exist alongside Libertarianism, unlike how Liberalism and communitarianism can somewhat co-exist

Reply 7

Llamageddon

Because we've spent much of our time as a 2 party democracy, occasionally having a third that holds weight. Consequently results overpower ideology and philosophical arguments are going to be ignored when somebody else can point and say "we did that".

Reply 8

Drunken Bard

Original post by demx9

UKIP ?

UKIP contradict themselves constantly, they say the are Libertarian yet wish to ban the burka?

Reply 9

demx9

Original post by Drunken Bard

UKIP contradict themselves constantly, they say the are Libertarian yet wish to ban the burka?

Well as you said Libertarians main priority is protecting the citizens, and burka's do have many security concerns so it should be banned (like in France)

Reply 10

Drunken Bard

Original post by Cristocracy

That simply is not true though.

Libertarian socialists agree with anarcho-capitalists that government is a monopoly and should be abolished, but they believe that nations should be ruled instead by work-share cooperatives or labor unions instead of corporations.

Reply 11

bataille

Original post by Drunken Bard

I'm quite libertarian myself (quite near to someone like Walter Block on the compass) and I've thought about this a lot. I guess partly because a lot of things core to the libertarian consciousness aren't an issue here - guns, the draft, etc, and we don't have a federal system to constantly chastise. Plus the NHS is both the scourge of the free market and immensely popular. We never had an Ayn Rand either :wink:

Reply 12

Cristocracy

Original post by Drunken Bard

UKIP contradict themselves constantly, they say the are Libertarian yet wish to ban the burka?

In a weird way, this can work, but only if the government thinks itself (i.e the country) negotiated for it. This takes the form of a contract-the government must be able to see itself, and argue that it owns this particular piece of land (i.e England) and anyone living in it thus has to follow the particular laws and rules it sets.

Reply 13

Rakas21

Classical liberalism is very popular among the youth movements of the Libs, Tories and Ukip however that's probably the problem (their split). The sooner libertarians rally behind the Tories and get involved in the local associations, the sooner libertarian MP's will pop up.

Reply 14

Cristocracy

Libertarian socialists agree with anarcho-capitalists that government is a monopoly and should be abolished, but they believe that nations should be ruled instead by work-share cooperatives or labor unions instead of corporations.

Unfortunately I dont consider these people libertarians at all.

All liberatarians I think, draw upon principles set out by R.Nozick. Quite clearly if you are going to suggest unions / work-share co-ops then its not liberatarian in a real sense-might as well identify yourself as communists or something.

At its heart, libertarianism is about non-interference. Any form of interference is non-libertarian, and the more you interfere, the further you stray

Reply 15

Rakas21

Original post by Drunken Bard

UKIP contradict themselves constantly, they say the are Libertarian yet wish to ban the burka?

Ukip's claim to libertarianism is the same as say Ron Paul in that a lot of policies (abortion, gay marriage, immigration) are socially conservative however they can claim a libertarian mandate because they'd put it to a referendum like Switzerland.

Personally I don't think they are any more libertarian than the Tories however its interesting that some libertarians love Ukip while others view them as heavens trading from a false platform.