Message From NZ Libertarians

To Chris Mounsey - on behalf of Libertarianz, the New Zealand Libertarian Party, I would like to extend congratulations on assuming the leadership of LPUK. We libertarians from the Antipodes have been following the fortunes of the LPUK closely, and we wish you all the best.

To Ian Parker-Joseph - thank you for your efforts in getting the LPUK off the ground. So many people have never even heard the word 'libertarian', can't pronounce it and don't know what it means. Hopefully over time, thanks to people like yourself, and (hopefully) we Kiwi freedom fighters, more people will switch on to the ideas of personal liberty and minimal government.

Hope your recent conference went well.

Richard G McGrath * Leader, Libertarianz Party

Glasgow North East

Just a quick note on the recent Glasgow North East by election on the 12th of November.
I realise that many of party members were very keen to to put forward a candidate for Glasgow North East. However, as many of those who know the area suspected, the final results from it showed that this was never going to be a good constituency for the LPUK to fight for.
I personally feel that though it may have been frustrating to be watching from the sidelines instead of being out campaigning for the party, the decision to sit this one out was probably the correct one.
Glasgow North East has always been a safe Labour seat, the Conservatives were pushed into relative obscurity and UKIP didn't even bother to field a candidate because of their poor record there.
Our resources could definitely be put towards more fruitful endeavours in the near future.
The time will come when the LPUK contests in an election in Scotland. In the meantime it is important to be patient and lay the essential groundwork beforehand.

Duncan Soutar
(Scottish National Coordinator)

Chris Mounsey LPUK At Libertarian Alliance

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

Reading List

This post is currently more of a “work in progress” at the moment. Eventually I hope to have a libertarian reading list as a permanent link on the side bar of this blog. I would prefer however to others make contributions and suggestions to the list beforehand.

Fredric Bastiat – The Law
Jagdish Bhagwati – In defence of Globalisation
Johan Goldberg- Liberal Fascism
Milton Friedman – Capitalism and Freedom
Milton Friedman – Bright Promises, Dismal Performances
Thomas Friedman – The World is Flat
F.A Hayek – Individualism and Economic Order
F.A Hayek – The Road to Serfdom
Henry Hazlitt – Economics in One Lesson
Richard Maybury – The Money Mystery
Richard Maybury – Whatever Happened to Justice?
Alan Moore – V for Vendetta (Comic Series)
Robert Nozick – Anarchy, State and Utopia
George Orwell - 1984
Ron Paul – A Manifesto
Ron Paul - Pillars of Prosperity
Joseph Stiglitz – Globalisation and its discontents
Benjamin Tucker – Instead of a book by a man too busy to write one
Ludwig Von Mises – The anti- capitalist mentality
Ludwig Von Mises – What has government done to our money?

I'm looking for people’s recommendations; whether they’re for books that are as yet not on the list, books on the list you feel are substandard or just recommending anything on here as a “must read”.

All input is appreciated.

Duncan Soutar
Scottish National Coordinator

LPUK Conference 28th November 2009

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.

Watch And Applaud

H/T Tom Paine

Edinburgh Trams

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Tram--power-cables-.5674834.jp

The current state of the Edinburgh tram works appears to have taken on the form of most modern governmental building projects of late; over budget, delayed and now will not be nearly as well built as first planned.
This latest saga however has less to do with mismanagement and more to do with the complete disregard for the individual’s property rights. In order to complete the works, electricity poles have to be erected next to the lines, of which the council are trying instead to join to the nearby houses. What really smacks of hypocrisy is that large numbers of these homes are grade-A listed buildings, which amongst other regulations are restricted from having outside adornments such as satellite dishes. These strict regulations however do not appear to apply if it is inconvenient for the council.
Some owners in the area quite rightly have pointed out that such attachment could have an adverse effect on the value of their property and that they should not have to bare the financial brunt personally. The council however appear to be steamrollering ahead and have responded by taking anyone who has made any objections to court. This is yet another example of one rule for those in charge and one rule for the rest of us.

Duncan Soutar

Scottish National Coordinator

Something To Be Really Worried About On May 6th 2010.

I listened to Radio 4 this morning, to Austin Mitchell after his fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference yesterday. Eight people turned up at his meeting, and one of those was his wife.

I saw the empty seats, the closed off areas at Brighton

I saw the photographs of half dead, half asleep Lib Dem supporters whilst Cleggy gave his all at the Lib Dem Conference.

UKIP and BNP are in dire straits financially; the LPUK is examining the pointlessness of contesting seats at Westminster in favour of building a grass roots local authority base.

Next week I am going to be watching the glassy eyed adoration of no policies Cameron and the Conservatives.

Basically Party Politics has collapsed in this Country, dwindling party memberships, over centralisation into Westminster, the recession, the expenses scandal etc has traduced democratic politics that has taken four hundred years to build up in less than twenty years.

The Public know it’s a fix, the Public want Radical Change and a New settlement, that was evident at the Forum on Modern Liberty, but that clamour for real progress has been stymied by the big three parties, and the growth of smaller Parties and pressure groups will never have a voice under this Electoral system. The British just don't do the 'Summer of Rage'

The Public has withdrawn from even voting, because ‘the Government’ always gets in. This has produced the bizarre situation where corrupt faux aristocrats lead the Labour Party. Has it really got to the point where Mandelson is the saviour of the Socialist Left? Is there nobody left in the Labour Party that can see what a travesty this is. We have now got a situation were Esther Ranzten and a baggage handler from Glasgow, are now seen as the authentic voice of politics. Don’t get me wrong anybody who takes on somebody who is trying to explode a car bomb has physical courage, but I am not sure that I want my politics to be along the lines of ‘fisticuff’ Prescott. A man who can barely string a coherent sentence together.

Politics is dead, the only option on offer is Mandelson’s ‘post democratic’ age. This is just an Oligarchy by another name with the rest of us condemned to the role of exploited serfs.

Unless the Radical smaller Parties start to coalesce around the concept of a new constitution, a new settlement and a new voting system, we are going to see the gradual sapping of the life blood in our democratic institutions, with the Police and the EU taking up the slack and running the country by default. The Army is now a degraded institution, loved and respected by the people. Hated and kept short of funds by the political classes and sent to fight illegal wars and to occupy foreign countries, the police on the other hand seem to have no shortage of equipment and helicopters, because the political classes see them as the only thing between us and them.

I spent the weekend as a Libertarian, with a Socialist, a near BNP supporter two Tories and a Liberal Democrat. We discussed politics we all had strong points of view that we could never agree on, but we had a forum to discuss politics because we had respect for each other and ‘ground rules’ that everybody was entitled to their say. What we did agree on that this was not replicated at either National or Local level. There is no forum. If nobody is prepared to listen to my point of view, why the hell should I listen or engage to somebody who wants to talk ‘at’ me about their politics.

That is the position that the Public now have with the current political structure.
There may be only 646 of them and sixty million of us, but nobody is listening to the sixty million, only to the 646, and pretending that this the body politic.

Personally the prospect of a Cameron Government on May 6th fills me with dread, as it will not be any different to Blair/Brown.

Irrespective of each of our political standpoint, we have to fight for a New Constitution, one that comes from below not imposed from above.

Our Politics are Moribund, and worse still has absolutely no mandate from the people of this Country.