As published in www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk on Thursday, October 3, 2019
I think that most readers will have heard of the Trade Descriptions Act. This longstanding piece of legislation aims to ensure that companies do not misinform or mislead consumers about their offer.
Political parties are, of course, exempt. This is just as well - especially for the Liberal Democrats.
Before I look at how that party has shockingly traduced its own brand and reputation, a quick definitional point.
There is some confusion as to the difference between a ‘liberal’ and a ‘libertarian’. Let me clear that up now.
As outlined in my last column, libertarianism looks for a society of liberty under the law, in which individuals are free to pursue their own lives so long as they respect the equal rights of others. These freedoms are achieved through having an absolute minimum of state involvement as possible and are underpinned by free markets.
In effect, libertarianism broadly equates to the classical liberalism that originated in the eighteenth Enlightenment and grew in importance from the nineteenth century onwards.
From the early years of the twentieth century, political liberalism diverted from this tradition. Firstly, in the guise of the Liberal Party on its own, then when it formed the Alliance with the Social Democrats in the 1980s, British political liberalism became focussed on state intervention, higher taxes and micro-meddling in the affairs of both families and businesses.
This was regardless of the perverse impact of many of these policies and the loss of liberty and the increasing dependency they produced.
From its foundation in 1988, the Liberal Democrats have been strong advocates of continuing state intervention in the economy and in terms of how people conduct themselves in both their private and public lives.
So, they are not liberal in any legitimate sense, certainly not one that enhances the rights of individuals. Indeed, they are positively illiberal in many regards.
As for their democratic credentials well, new leader Jo Swinson has revealed them for the hollow promise that they always have been.
When Ms Swinson committed her party to revoke Article 50, and hence calling an end to this country’s exit from the European Union, before and without any referendum, she revealed her party as one focused on the interests of the metropolitan elites alone.
The Liberal Democrats have brazenly chosen to ignore the democratically expressed wishes of the 17.4m people – the largest single mandate in British political history – who voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
For this party, such a mandate is viewed not as a democratic imperative of a sovereign people, but as the act of almost wilful children which can be ridiculed and now ignored.
As elitists, the Liberal Democrat leadership have allied themselves with Speaker Bercow and those affluent types who have tried to thwart popular democracy through Parliamentary and legal delaying and disruption.
I’ve no time for Jeremy Corbyn on this issue – or indeed any other, but at least the Labour Party appears to be aware of the need to appeal, however much in a token fashion, to those who voted Leave.
Interestingly, Ms Swinson and her extremist Remainer party seem to have upset a minority of activists in her own ranks, including the MP for North Norfolk Sir Norman Lamb.
And from the conversations I’ve had in recent months, most of the people I know who voted Remain are now reconciled to us leaving the EU by one means or another.
The only redeeming feature of Ms Swinson’s anti-democratic pledge is that her party will need to form a majority in the House of Commons after the next election. That is highly unlikely.
And I’m sure that the good people of Suffolk will play their part in stymying the ambitions of this most anti-democratic party. After all, the Liberal Democrats have never come close to winning a Parliamentary seat in our county: we value our freedoms too much.
Ends.
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