Seven years ago I left the Conservative Party and have opposed it’s claim to be a vehicle for libertarian reform. I have contested two local elections as an Independent Libertarian candidate, and would do so again.
Now it seems that “libertarian” Conservative candidates and members of parliament believe that they may have to leave and set up their own party. I agree.
If the libertarians in the Conservative Party really take inspiration from John Galt, they should look at the closing passage of my alternative budget, published in 1995:
“There are many who will hope that the day never comes when a Libertarian Party is founded, to compete in the present electoral system. Whether or not we descend into the pit of party politics, I can see no reason for refusing to challenge those libertarians who remain in the Conservative Party. They are despised and feared by their supposed allies, and only suffered for their money and election time support.
Those libertarians who campaign for the Conservatives, without believing half of the bland collectivist verbiage they are told to support should ask themselves how far they are prepared to go, in the words of Francisco d’Anconia in “Atlas Shrugged”:
“[…] if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater the effort the heavier the world on his shoulders – what would you tell him to do?”
“I… don’t know. What… could he do? What would you tell him?”
“To shrug.”
