I can't abide the Lib Dems. They are an opportunistic bunch of wets, prepared to say anything at any time that will get them ahead. It pains me enormously to find myself agreeing with them. As far as civil liberties in Britain are concerned, they are currently - alas - the only show in town.
Blair and the Brownies are vying with each other to paraphrase Soviet justifications for treating individual liberty as a selfish, bourgeois concern. The Tories are so scared of Labour that they cannot even stand up on an issue which historically is theirs. The bulk of the population is too complacent to care. All the average voter wants to do is pay this month's mortgage and pretend the credit crunch is never coming.
So it's left to the Lib Dems to speak sooth, almost by default. They are not a naturally libertarian party, despite their name. They have a history of seeking to interfere in the minutiae of our lives. But on this occasion, they are right. More power, provisionally, to their wet lettuce elbows.
the Mail online | Mail - news, sport, showbiz, health and more | Lib Dems vow to fight terror powers
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
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2 comments:
Well, we aren't a libertarian party, we are a Liberal party...
Sometimes we get things wrong, Liberal decisions are not always easy (take smoking, we shouldn't stop individuals smoking if they wish to, but we shouldn't let them submit others unwillingly to their second hand smoke)
We are however the only party with a longstanding and ideological committment to civil liberties and limitation of government power, which is why I joined the party.
I personally am on the more libertarian wing of the party and would like the party to voice its committment to Liberalism much more strongly, even (or perhaps especially) if it pushes away some of the left which has sought refuge with us.
No-one is naieve enough to expect intellectual consistency from a party which has to appeal to more than half the population. But the LibDems are consistent only in their inconsistency. They are right on civil liberties, but that gives the appearance of almost being a random hit on the bullseye by a drunk with a policy Uzi.
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