The Prime Minister has announced the date of the UK general election between the Party of Big Government Regulatory Statism and, er, the Other Party of Big Government Regulatory Statism.
Of course the media and quite a few bloggers will spend the time between now and then obsessing over the 3% margin in the purview of the state which differentiates them as if they were comparing chalk and cheese, whereas in fact they are arguing which is preferable for the terminally ill patient: pneumonic plague or bubonic plague.
But nevertheless we will see an endless stream of Tories harrumphing that Dave Cameron’s brand of regulatory statism is in fact both the Small Government Society Friendly Ideal, The Saviour of the National Health Service, Market Friendly, Eco-Regulation Friendly and indeed all things to all people.
And as a result, I urge people who feel the overwhelming urge to vote for anyone to put their X down for Britain’s only conservative party… and of course that means do not even consider voting Tory, unless a more inept version of Tony Blair (i.e. Tory Blair) is actually what you want.
But please be clear on one thing: if you fear not voting Tory will give Labour more time to wreck the country, that is simply not the choice on offer…nothing meaningful will change in Britain as long as the two main parties are essentially as one on the size and scope of the state, which at the moment they most certainly are…
…and if you vote to endorse that fact just because you (quite rightly) loath Gordon Brown, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Britain (still) has a wobbly albeit stable party spectrum and some clout rests with voters. In Germany they resorted to making sure you had no minority voting rights about 15 years ago – you used to be able to cast an “invalid” vote and that would have counted as a “shadow” party that would have gotten seats but not claimed them, in other words, if enough citizens had voted that way these seats would have gone missing from the incumbent parties. Alas not any more – now the parties that go beyond the 5% minimum get the votes cast for the crowded out minor parties AND even these invalid votes in relative proportion to their seats received honestly. In other words, if three people go voting (out of over 60 million) and each voted for say FDP, CDU, SPD and the remainder of 60 million either abstained, OR voted for smaler parties OR voted but for NO party, then these “voted for” parties would have about 200 seats each in the Federal Diet (it’s a bit more complicated due to 16 provinces and a mixture of direct and relative vote counting, but in the essence that’s how democratic Germany has become – Britain didn’t fully denazify it obviously.
Took the time to check out the UKIP manifesto (thanks for the reminder!) I’d have to say, if that’s what passes for a conservative party we’re in worse trouble than I thought. Expand NHS provisions, guarantee CAP-equivalent payments, create a million jobs… that’s not terribly conservative.
Much as I may have sympathy with what you are saying, the prospect of 5 more years of Brown is simply to depressing to contemplate. Hopefully we can win a few small battles through Cameron, such as the introduction of choice into the school system. While changes such as these may not seem very radical at first, they make the state/no state decision much less binary in nature, and thus make further change more palatable to the electorate. For example, once un-topuppable vouchers have been introduced, the infrastructure for topuppable vouchers will be in place. Maybe once competition has successfully been introduced into the schooling system, teachers may feel less compelled to vote labour. We can hope. Milton Friedman said that it was hypocrytical to resist small positive changes for liberty. Then again his son does not vote on principle.
Speaking as an outsider nowadays, being a resident of the Isle of Man and therefore subject to weak and ineffectual government without any political parties to speak of, I can only say “Poor UK”.
The parties and their candidates are the most undifferentiated and bland they have ever been. This no choice at all. New Labour or Blue Labour.
I agree with Perry – Vote “UKIP” or “Monster Raving Loony” if you want. Just don’t vote for the Lib/Lab/Con. Alternately, write “None of the Above”. You will then be able to say with truth and confidence “Yes – I voted” and “I didn’t vote for X” with annoyance, at least until the next election, probably in October.
I had a look through UKIPs manifesto a few days ago. Some bits of it are ok (for a conservative party) but i’m very uncomfortable with their stance on immigration. If they were a bit more liberal socially i’d vote if i had the chance. Unfortunately my home constituency is a Labour/SNP toss up with the Lib Dems and Tories absolutely nowhere and the next biggest party likely to be the Christian party *sigh*.
Fascinating thing for an outsider is to see pundit discussions that, if only Lil’Dave & the Cronies can get 40% of the votes, they will have a massive majority in the House of Commons and a mandate to do anything they want. (Subject only to the proviso that whatever they want is consistent with the wishes of the real powers in Brussels).
If 60% of eligible voters choose to vote, and 40% of them can give a Party an iron-clad Commons majority, that implies “Democracy” actually means the rule of about 1 out of 4 voters, riding roughshod (if they so choose)over the other 3 out of 4.
Houston, we have a problem!
Woops! Houston has a similar problem with the tyranny of the minority.
peter-
Which is fine IF there was a lot of time left to make small victories. But, as was stated, the difference is between pneumonic plague or bubonic plague, inherent in which there isn’t a whole lot of time. The “advanced” Western countries barely avoided a complete melt down last year. We are headed for a collapse very soon. There isn’t time for incrementals now. If we don’t grab liberty in one fell swoop we are going to have the fascist framework in place when the fe-fe hits the fan blades.
The beginning is to not vote at all as it is a waste time, and then refuse to follow laws which do not follow natural laws. The strength of the State lies in people following its bureaucratic nonsense. Wrining your hands waiting for them to dispense slightly greater freedoms with a teaspoon is a waste.
Perhaps things are different (for the better) in the UK versus the US, but we are so far in debt, and have spent so much money ($1,000,000,000,000) to get about a quarter of economic “growth” that we are in for much worse than we have already seen. We are well past the stage of hoping for a few concessions from a Two Party System that has zero interest in doing so. Friedman had time and a longview at hand. They had runaway inflation to contend with, but they still had the unused “credit card” waiting to tack on another three decades onto staving off the collapse. Now we have used up the credit card AND we are reentering an era of massive inflation. Unemployment will likely rival the 1930’s, not the 1970’s. Who are we going to go to war with to get us out this time? On top of which our unfunded entitlement programs that were supposed to be turning negative in 2018 are going negative NOW.
We are at the end of the State’s ability to manipulate with smoke and mirrors. Either we force their hands off the levers of power or they will be in place to use much less subtle forms of control. And there is just a matter of a few months to do it in.
In a nutshell the “lesser of two evils” only works with lead time. When your lungs are nearly filled with fluid and your throat is about swelled shut you don’t have a whole lot of time to wait in the waiting room flipping through the magazines.
Brad, I understand how you feel and it is not enthusiastically I will be going to the voting both. But until we have a proportional voting system there is no way a libertarian will have an alternative he is happy to support. Like it or not, there is zero chance that things will change by revolution. Instead, civil disobedience is the way forward, plus small victories where we can get them. Going Galt is another option of course – but not all of us can fit into Switzerland and Hong Kong.
I don’t want to vote for a conservative party, even if one existed. I want to vote for a liberal party.
God have mercy….if ONLY we could have a four week pre-election doda!!!! What a massive blessing it would be, and it would piss of SO many of the right people, too. The media would hate it with a passion…that would be unbelievably sweet.
I’ll be voting for none-of-the-above personally
As an outsider, Brown’s Govmint looks tired. But Cameron seems just a pretty face. The Lib-Dems seem another big-gov party. Britain has a Libertarian Party, but are they fielding enough candidates to make a difference? And what are their policies?
Why is it, and how has it come to pass that the rise of a political class has depreciated the utility of electoral choice in both our countries?
Nuke: AFAIK the LPUK is fielding very few or no candidates in this election. The only option open to them as libertarians are still a small voice in the uk, so even if a donor gave them the cash to stand across the board there wouldn.t be the activists to campaign in every constituency.
Not that this is wrong: they have chosen to fight locally and attempt to build a bottom-up movement concentrating on local elections first, taking the long view. Unfortunately we can only play the hands we are dealt and in this round statist parties have all the picture cards.
They are doing the right things. Getting people to read blogs like this one and think outside the statist box is the first hurdle amd it works: two years ago i didn’t know what a libertarian was and had sworn never to join a political party again (i was persuaded to join New Labour in 1996 by family) and this week I joined the LPUK.
wh00ps: how did you hear about it?
Of course, if Brad is right and we don’t have time for a long view… if this really is the last election then revolution will become an option. IMHO the current system only works because people are happy to live with the sham.
If a dictatorship were actually formally declared then underground opposition militant groups will start to form as sure as sunshine comes after the rain.
Some of them might even be libertarian.
Alisa: Via the comments section at comment is free, never underestimate the effectiveness of a hyperlink! In my case to Devil’s Kitchen. Right link, Right reader, Right time.
Whoever posted it spent a few minutes of their time and bought another sheep into the fold 😉
I have no vote to cast here but UKIP’s not it. Especially in casting supermarkets as undercutting and breweries as indifferent to pubs.
Thanks wh00ps, it’s useful to know how memes spread.
I agree with you about the big parties, but not about UKIP. I was a member of that party for 6 months after having read their excellent manifesto.
Unfortunately from the inside they aint so pretty. Farage is a weasel who sneaks around and stabs people in the back. He subverts the democratic process at will, engages in backroom dealing and will openly attack his political opponents in the party live on national television.
Libertarian they aint I’m afraid. I quit, and I don’t think there is a single party in the forthcoming election that I can vote for in good conscience.
Which is why my long term aim is to get the hell out of here to a place individual liberty still means something (for the time being) – the American Midwest!
That is sadly where I am too. I was hoping Pearson would turn things around by injecting some economically coherent policies into the party but that does not seem to have been the case yet… however in many ways they at least have some conservative positions, unlike the Tory party… which is why my remark re. UKIP was addressed to conservatives. Personally I am not a conservative… hence the title of the article 😀
And me, Perry. It is a crying shame that those of us with well-developed political opinions are In the same bracket as the don’t-know-don’t-cares.
Me three – I wish there was a party I could vote for with an honesty that I believed what they stood for – alas, I don’t think they exist.
While UKIP got my local vote, I would love to vote for the UKLP, but they don’t exist in my area. Even if they did, they would never get in because the UK election boundaries have been so well corrupted that a monkey with a red rosette is very likely to become my next MP – regardless if the monkey is alive or dead!
I have considered if moving is the answer, but I don’t think it is. I was born here, I like the view, I don’t want to move.
The other problem is that I think I have educated myself too much over the nature of people and politics. I have discovered that politicians are the problem. Most people never get that far. They understand that politicians are crooks, but not how crooked they really are. They never take enough interest in economics to realise when politicians are campaigning using money that doesn’t exist and promising to spend it on things which offer no value.
While this is very depressing, I don’t think its any different to how things have always been – it was always a joke – its only now, people can actually see who is writing the punchline!
As others have mentioned the problem we have now is ‘the political class’ and political parties. Due to boundary changes my ward has been moved to a neighbouring one and, today, I looked at the candidate list to see that the sitting MP (seeking re-election) is the son, grandson and gt-grandson of former MPs. There’s no way I’ll vote for this hereditary individual, regardless of party.
We now have husband and wife, father and son/daughter, brothers as MPs with some of them in the cabinet. As we move away from an hereditary House of Lords, we’re galloping towards an hereditary House of Commons who, in turn, will pick HoL members.
As two former UK Prime Ministers commented (I paraphrase): ‘Political parties are a conspiracy against the electorate’ – Lord North and ‘There’s no depth to which a political party won’t stoop to gain or hold power’ – Disraeli.
I think I wrote here that I had washed my hands of the UK about 6 months or so. My stance remains the same.
I don’t want to even try. I just can’t convince that many people of how morally obscene, logically perverse and intellectually bankrupt their political position actually is because it would require me to rewire and realign their entire perception with genuine, human reality.
The task is insurmountable. It may not be in the future.
Until then, I’d rather live in a country where success is praised and people who strive to better themselves are not cast as the evil, selfish daemons who tread on the poor.
where do you live, John?
JadedLibertarian –
Speaking as a resident of the American Midwest, you don’t have much time left. The only thing the US has on the UK these days are (a) a slightly less complacent population and (b) about 10 years. I’m not sure it buys us anything at the bank.
As of this summer, back to Hong Kong.
Sure it’s in the domain of an autocratic dictatorship and the government’s constant indulgence of cartels is an embarrassment but the people there look upon success as a virtue.
There is no shame in achieving and the low income tax/ zero capital gains tax make for an entrepreneur-friendly environment.
The civil service is relatively efficient and although the judiciary has certainly seen better days, the rule of law is still intact.
In Kettering (my home town) there is no UKIP candidate and the Conservative candidate has formally stated that he wishes to get Britain out of the European Union.
So my duty it clear – I will “vote Conservative” (in that I will be voting for the Conservative candidate) and people can mock me as much as they wish. Indeed I spent over 12 hours (from 0630 to 1900) yesterday putting out leaflets for the Conservative candidate.
However, in the near by town of Buckingham not only has the Conservative candidate NOT formally stated they wish to get Britain out of the E.U. THERE IS NO CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE (as far as I know).
The Speaker of the House of Commons (who is standing as the sitting M.P.) is not in favour of British independence – he is not even in favour of allowing the people a vote on the so called “Treaty of Lisbon” (the E.U. Constitution).
And on economic policy Mr Bercow is so far too the left (on both government spending and regulations) that even DAVID CAMERON will have nothing to do with him.
So people who refuse to vote UKIP in Buckingham (which, for all his imperfections, would at least put one extra pro British voice in the House of Commons) are really letting the country down.
To vote UKIP in Buckingham is not to “waste your vote” as they have a real chance of winning.
Support for British self rule (the only way that deregulation will not be blocked by the E.U.) and real reductions in government spending – to try and avoid national bankruptcy.
These are the issues that matter in this election.
Each person must decide for themselves which candidate (WHO HAS A CHANCE OF WINNING) would be the most likely to stand for these things.
In some places this may be the Labour candidate (such as Frank Field) in some places this may be the Conservative candidate (such as in Kettering), and in some places this may be the UKIP candidate (such as in Buckingham).
LOOK AT THE LOCAL CANDIDATE – THE PERSON ON THE BALLOT PAPER.
Find out what they stand for – and not just at election time
Look at their record over a number of years.
Do not bother looking at Brown, Cameron and Clegg – they are not worth thinking about.
Actually it was Tuesday that I spent putting out leaflets – it just feels like yesterday (at my time of life and state of health – yesterday was spent recovering and is mostly a blur).
One may not agree with everything they stand for but voting UKIP would seem to be the best strategic course. The stronger they get the more they will be able to challenge idiocy.
Gerald Warner makes sense: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100032937/only-a-revolt-by-the-great-ignored-can-transform-this-charade-into-an-election/