Happy Tax Freedom Day- Sunday May 30th

H/T Adam Smith Institute

Working For The Man

George Kubiak- Honorary Consul

South-West Libertarian Party Member George Kubiak was installed yesterday evening as Honorary Consul of the Polish Republic for Bristol by the Polish Ambassador Barbara Tuge-Erecinska

The event was also attended by the Lord and Lady Mayoress of Bristol.

This Is Libertarianism- Peter Tatchell

An interesting case regarding a Christian whose homophobia led to criminal charges: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... y-sin.html

The case was dropped today after gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, a friend of mine and a left-wing libertarian I respect, offered to testify for the defence. Here is his press release ...

CPS drop case against street preacher

Charges withdrawn after Tatchell offers to testify for defence

Home Secretary urged to issue new guidelines to police and CPS

Arrest for anti-gay views is unjustified and heavy-handed

Freedom of speech must be defended, even for homophobes

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped all charges against homophobic Christian street preacher, Dale McAlpine, shortly after gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell offered to testify in defence of his right to free speech.

Mr McAlpine, 42, was arrested in a street in Workington on 20 April, after condemning homosexuality as a sin. He was charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.

"Although I disagree with Dale McAlpine and support protests against his homophobic views, he should not have been arrested and charged. Criminalisation is a step too far.

"Despite my opposition to his opinions, I defend his right to freedom of expression.

"Soon after I offered to appear as a defence witness and to argue in court for Mr McAlpine's acquittal, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case. The sudden withdrawal of charges may have been mere coincidence but perhaps not.

"Mr McAlpine should have never been prosecuted in the first place. While the arresting officer may have acted with well-meaning intentions, he was over-zealous and interpreted the law in a harsh, authoritarian manner.

"Although clearly homophobic, Mr McAlpine did not express his opinion in a way that was aggressive, threatening or intimidating.

"I am surprised and shocked that the CPS allowed the case to proceed at all. The Public Order Act is meant to protect people from harm. Dale McAlpine's views are misguided and offensive but I see no evidence that they caused harm to anyone.

"I urge the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to issue new guidelines, making it clear that the police should not arrest people for expressing prejudiced views in a non-threatening and non-aggressive manner. Prosecutions should only proceed in extreme circumstances. The police should concentrate on tackling serious, harmful crimes, such as racist, homophobic and sexist violence.

"Causing offence to others is not a legitimate basis for putting a person on trial.

"Nearly everyone holds opinions that someone else might find offensive. If offending others is accepted as a basis for prosecution, most of the population of the UK would end up in court.

"Freedom of speech means accepting the right of other people to say things that we may find disagreeable and even offensive. Unless people make untrue libellous comments or incite violence, they should not be criminalised for expressing their opinions," said Mr Tatchell.

From The Libertarian Party Forum

Day Of Days !

Guido has unconfirmed Reports he has gone.

Quick Get a stake to drive through Mandelson's 'heart' to make sure

Knives Out For Cameron

Brown is to slope off in four months, the Tories are a little more humane with a swift dispatch at the price of failure to deliver total victory.

Cameron with his policy free vacuous big Society, Green/Blue BS and I will match Labour spending pound for pound, has proved that the Tory Tony Blair has only got days in which to survive if the Rainbow Alliance of Failure and the Big State tries to form a Government.

Who is next for the Tory Tumbrill of Leadership, Davis or Boris ?

The Botched Federal Kingdom Of Britain

The Constitutional crisis that we are currently enjoying can be laid firmly at the feet of the New Labour administration.

So keen were they to placate the Welsh and Scottish Labour Parties to maintain their dominant role against the rising Nationalist tide, that they botched devolution by not giving it to England. Even Northern Ireland got in on the act.

They should not have worried, because these ‘sham’ Nationalists, do not actually believe in economic Nationalism, just saying what they want to do with other people’s money be it English Gold or EU Gold, and wanting a ‘fairer’ redistribution of National wealth (subsidies) from Whitehall.

Lets be clear about this for the last thirteen years the Labour Party has been kept in power by a gaggle of Welsh and Scottish MP’s and Ministers. The Darien Government. They brought with them the twisted politics of patronage and corruption now seen in Glasgow

Last Thursday’s election clearly showed that England under first past the post went Tory and that the Tories barely had a showing in Scotland, and only a glimmer in Wales.

Cameron set his face against the political reality of the United Kingdom in post devolution Britain. The reality was that we had a Federal Kingdom already, but HE wanted to be the Prime Minister of Great Britain, something akin to wanting the role of viceroy of India in 1950.

The issue of proportional representation is only part of the argument; the only place that we have FPTP is in the Whitehall elections, because it structurally favoured Labour. Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have PR, only England is hamstrung by FPTP, to allow Scottish and Welsh MP’s to have a greater say in the running of the country.

My position is quite simple, I am a passionate believer in PR, and there is no moral case against. For too long we have had a rigged system that disenfranchises seventy percent of the electorate and ossifies political debate.

I am also a passionate believer in structures that work. The 1688 structure as amended by the Act of Union has broken down.


Clegg, Mandelson and Cameron are trying to put together a botched repair to a discredited system.

We have a Federal system – fact. Acknowledge the political reality.

We need a new political settlement, with an English Parliament based on PR, with an elected 100 man Senate to run Defence and Foreign affairs as a ‘Council of the Isles’ Everything else can be devolved to the ‘National Parliaments’ and assemblies.

The Tories, Labour and the Social Democrats whoring themselves around are not acting in the ‘National Interest’ they are jockeying for party advantage, and in whose Nation are they acting for.

The Tories have very little interest in letting power slip through their fingers by endorsing PR on Principle and the Rainbow Alliance of losers would be abhorrent to the Electorate.

Yet again the politicians do not get it attempting a stitch up and ignoring the people of this country who hold the Sovereignty in their hands.

I say to Cameron, endorse PR coupled to an English Parliament for the next Election, and campaign for a New Settlement of the Country, that ensures the
Liberty of the Individual in a written Constitution- If you don’t the Tories will get rid of you in a trice for failing to deliver total victory.

The Celtic Alliance Begging Bowl

“Cornwall has been under-funded for many, many years. We receive less money for our schools, hospitals and public services than elsewhere in the UK.

“A key part of our campaign will be for a Commission to investigate the full extent of this Government under-funding of Cornwall, just as the recent Holtham Commission (organised by the Welsh Assembly) found that Wales is under-funded by £300 million a year.

“Now must be the time to demand that Cornwall receives its fair share of expenditure, which will help us cope with the difficult economic times that lie ahead.

“We will be pressing all political parties to support this call for a Commission. It is also our hope that the main London parties will agree to abide by the findings of such a review and guarantee Cornish communities their fair share of future spending.”

Mebyon Kernow


Last week saw the unedifying sight of the Celtic 'Nationalists' basically campaigning for protection from the inevitable cuts, and seeking guarantees of further subsidies from Westminster.

Please explain to me how this is economic nationalism.

Wales and Scotland are hopelessly wedded to socialism despite having its own Parliaments and assemblies, but Kernow has no excuse for emulating this line.

Why is the independent Duchy of Kernow, not seeking to emulate the Isle of Man, and the States of Jersey and Guernsey. Constitutionally Cornwall has only been part of England since the 1880's. There is nothing to stop Kernow deciding its own affairs, setting its own tax rates personal and coporate to encourage money, jobs and business to invest there.

Is it not a degrading spectacle to prefer to campaign on getting handouts from the EU and Whitehall

The Imperceptible Squeak From Beneath The Floor Boards

This picture sums up why the Libertarian Party stood in Devizes yesterday. A BBC interviewer asking sensible questions about what is Libertarianism, and a Libertarian answering.

The imperceptible squeak in a seat where noblesse oblige rules the local Tory Party (I have not seen characters like this since watching the last ever episode of ‘To The Manor Born’) allowed 141 voters to vote for something that they have never heard of before Nic Coome stood, let alone had the opportunity to vote for.

All of the candidates bar one made the time to come over and chat. Why is it that the Labour Party has decided that it has to act with such aloof self righteous anger in a rural seat that they had no more chance of winning than the Libertarian Party had. Their Agent at one point was getting quite abusive and redfaced to the tellers , because they were not collating the voting papers ‘properly’

Why UKIP has gained the reputation of being the only Libertarian Party I have no idea, they too were ‘angry’ very angry about Europe, yes there were very angry about that, but frankly that is as far as they had any policies or opinions on anything else.

The Green Candidate was a card, and failed to make the final line up, as somebody said to me, I think he has a glass of dandelion & burdock on the go, I could not help but laugh out loud.

Claire Perry is a ‘nice’ enough career politician, but sadly her acceptance speech was very very very thin. She thanked the Police, her party, her husband, her children and then promised to spend the taxpayers wisely !

Claire came across as a Cameroon member of the Hockey upper sixth team.

Has politics advanced in Wiltshire since the 1930’s ? yes slightly by 141 votes.

Junab Ali (Labour) - 4,711

Pat Bryant (UKIP) - 2,076

Nic Coome (Libertarian) - 141

Mark Fletcher (Green Party) - 813

Fiona Hornby (Liberal Democrat) - 12,514

Martin Houlden (Independent) - 566

Claire Perry (Conservative) - 25,519

I Have Not Voted Twice Today

This is the most depressing election that I have been involved in thirty five years of 'voting'. I flew back from a businesss meeting in Lisbon yesterday pondering for two hours what I should do with my valuable cross. Not voting is an anathema, as I have too much respect for those who have fought and died for this right in centuries past.

But the the choices on offer to me are simply not choices, nor am I lucky enough to vote in Devizes or Sutton & Cheam for a real Libertarian candidate.

Brown and Labour have brought the country to its knees with the spectacular spend and waste binge of the last thirteen years, introduced aStasi State with a million more public servants watching us, fining us and taking away our Liberties, whilst proclaiming they were protecting us.
The fact thatMandelson is still at the centre of Government just sickens me. What else does he need to do to prove he is morally and financially unfit to run his almost global super ministry.

Cameron and Osborne are flim flam men of the very worst kind. He is seriously proposing to seek the premiership with 35% of the popular vote, and if necessary pay the Ulster Unionists £200m to get him anointed. That is not change, that is the same old corrupt way of doing things. Cameron's personal antipathy to proportional representation shows that he cares not a jot
about having a Mandate or the figleaf of legitimacy.

In 1951 3.2% of the population voted for a non Conservative/Labour Candidate, in 2005 the figure was 32.7%. What does that tell us about how out of sync FTP is with the voting intentions.

Clegg and the Lib Dems, have a laudable commitment to PR, but a despicable commitment to being run by Brussels, which is the very opposite of what a Libertarian wants, a small local accountable Government.

The also rans have all paid their £500 deposit, yet do not enjoy equal access to State subsidies and State Broadcasters, because politics is no longer a battle of ideas, it is a Presidential beauty contest.

Tom Paine has best summed it up for me today.

...even those on the (Labour) client payroll must know in their hearts that this can’t
go on. I feel sorry for some who will vote Labour today out of fear for
their non-jobs or the future of the lame “services” on which they
depend. Apart from the underclass (probably less than a million
individuals) they are not willing parasites. They simply have no
experience of providing for themselves. More to the point, given the
economic destruction wrought by Labour and the lack of any clear,
honest solution from the Tories, they understandably have no confidence
that any likely government will ever leave them enough of their own
earnings to do so.

Of course I am disappointed in anyone who
votes for fairyland politics today, but I accept they are not
deliberately destroying our country. They are clinging to its wreckage,
with no idea what else to do. Most (if they are honest) know in their
hearts that they are stealing from their children and grandchildren.
They are familiar with the concept because it’s just what their parents
and their grandparents did to them with their unfunded Welfare State.
It was only during Blair’s time in number 10, after all, that we
finished paying America back the money our grandparents borrowed to
fund their great “vision” in 1946. Their “stamps”didn’t pay it all. We did.

None of this is Gordon Brown’s fault. Blair concealed his motives well, but
Brown has been openly, honestly intent on reducing us to the living
standards and civic culture of the former East Germany. He sincerely
believes in “equality” and seriously thinks that we will be poorer but
happier in social solidarity under firm government. Under his
leadership, Labour has once again been an honest party of losers, for
losers. It has openly promoted loserdom as a lifestyle. No, the fault
for today’s impending fiasco lies entirely with HM Opposition for
failing to sell reality to the deluded and/or terrified voters.

My wife says Cameron had no choice. The voters are hypocrites; complaining
that no-one tells them the truth, but punishing anyone who tries to do
so. She thinks Cameron will imitate Blair in substance as well as
style; pretending to be ideologically close to the outgoing government
but then introducing by stealth every aspect of his true agenda. I am
not convinced, which in a way is a compliment to Cameron. I don’t think
he is that warped.

It has come to something, has it not, when our only hope is that David Cameron is despicable liar? Just like Blair.




I have two votes in this election, one a postal vote entrusted to me by a Libertarian Party member currently living in Hong Kong- having discussed the candidates, she came to the conclusion that only writing 'None of the above' would do.

I have voted this morning, using the simple expedient of attaching a sticker that says the following.

THIS HARD FOUGHT FOR VOTE IS MEANINGLESS IN A CORRUPT
FIRST PAST THE POST SYSTEM.

THIS ELECTION IS A THEREFORE A SHAM AND HAS NO LEGITIMACY TO
APPOINT THE NEXT GOVERNMENT


I do this with a heavy heart.

My eldest son who at twenty four has never voted before because he feels alienated from the political system, actually set off to vote Conservative. At the door to Church Hall was a Conservative canvasser who quite aggressively demanded his roll number, which he quite rightly refused to give. An argument ensued, at which point Cameron lost another vote to the 'None of the Aboves'. The Tories have not changed, they are just as small town authoritarian as they have ever been.


There should never be another election run under the First Past The Post System, any goverment that says it has a popular mandate, is flying in the face of the facts and starts from day one lying. The Monarchy is equally in jeopardy constitutionally if this is forced upon us.

Who cares who wins?

I suppose I've left it a little late to comment on the general election. Wading through the sea of garbage spouted by the main three contenders would be a full time job and I already have one that pays, which I happen to rather like. I do, for once, have better things to do.

First off, I apologise for the lack of vigor and care you might have expected. The fact is I am so bored of repeating the same observations I can barely bring myself to write this. I have given up any hope of salvation.

That being said, I have a point to make. Most of you will be well aware you are being spoon fed utter shit. That kinda goes without saying. But one thing that screams at me is that not one of the leaders has the guts to tell you the truth about the economy.

We have debts spanning into hundreds of billions and the best David Cameron can muster is £6bn worth of cuts. Meanwhile we have Gordon Brown who thinks the government IS the economy and Nick Clegg who uses the spectre of the feeble Tory cuts as a reason to vote for him. £6bn? Try £60bn. For starters. It IS that bad.

Anyone would think we were not on the brink of fiscal Armageddon. The Euro is yet again on the brink of collapse, there is a real danger of a double dip recession and we have not even begun to feel the effects of the recession we're in.

I am reminded of the Arnhem "paper bag" strategy where the dead and wounded were propped up at machine gun posts to give the impression the British were still in situ as they stealthily evacuated in the night. This perfectly encapsulates what is happening with British politics. We have the appearance of they are still engaged in politics but behind the decoy, there is simply nothing of substance.

We have one party who would keep VAT as it is, one who might budge it up a percentage point and one who might budge it down one. Where is the party saying scrap it altogether? But that would mean admitting that they are legally bound by the EU to keep it at a 15% minimum. As ever we are being expected to swallow minor policy adjustments as choice at the ballot box and nobody will tell you that Brussels is now the government.

Of the few powers that remain with Westminster, will any of them sweep away the taxes that are crippling the economy? Will any of them really reform the public sector? Will any of them really reduce the payroll vote and welfare? Will anyone scrap the tax hikes on beer? Will anyone drop the taxes on petrol? Will any of them finally admit they were wrong on climate change? Take a guess.

I was bored enough to watch the final debate on the economy. The EU barely factored into it. The biggest drag on our economy is cost of hiring. It is why jobs are leaving our shores. And that is down to EU regulation. Will any of them address this or even admit it's a problem? Nope. That's too much like real politics.

Agriculture, fishing, trade, employment, VAT, air traffic control, radio frequencies, weights and measures, employment, energy, environment, airline safety, electronics, waste disposal, swimming pool gradients, immigration, human rights, some aspects of monetary policy, banking regulation, food labelling, exports, health and safety, vehicle production, emissions trading etc etc etc is for the most part regulated by the EU. Westminster no longer has a say. So what does it matter which stuffed shirt lives in Downing Street?

The only things left are the NHS, education and welfare to give the illusion that we are still in control. None of which is presently sustainable with declining government revenues. Our economic fate cannot be turned around without radical changes in policy, but in areas which are no longer under Westminster influence.

Unless a party categorically says they will take us out of the EU, there is no reason to believe they understand the problems (or economics for that matter) and thus have even less of a chance of fixing them.

They say they are going to do things they are not allowed to do by the EU. That leaves one of two possibilities. Either they are lying or they simply do not know what they are talking about. Neither is particularly reassuring.

In conclusion, all I will say is that unless your candidate is unambiguous in their commitment to taking Britain out of the EU, yours is a wasted vote and a wasted opportunity. If you vote for the big three you deserve what you get, you are part of the problem and I really have to ask... How gullible are you?

Don't Forget Why We Have To Vote

Its Tough Out There On The Stump In Pewsey

I have been out delivering leaflets in Pewsey today in support of Libertarian candidate Nic Coome standing in Devizes, with other members of the SW Libertarians.

Some of the locals are quite belligerent in their political views as seen above, not for them a little leaflet in the downstairs window !

There was a logical explanation of course, I just could not image this 'being allowed' in metropolitan areas, the 'righteous' would be fainting in the streets and wanting prosecutions.

According to a few locals we spoke to the productions are always worth a visit.