What We Believe
Libertarian thought begins with the individual. It's individuals that make up our society, not our society that makes individuals, so this is the only sensible place to start.
To each and every person in our society, we say:
YOU OWN YOURSELF
Owning something means that you have the absolute right to decide what to do with it—whether to use it up, keep it, sell it or give it away. Libertarians believe that everyone has the right to ownership of their own bodies, thoughts and beliefs, and honestly acquired property, be those goods, land, or money. Owning these aspects of yourself means that you should be free to do with them what you choose.
Libertarians believe that coercive actions by individuals, or groups of individuals—for example, the State—against others can never be justified. Such actions can rightly be seen as acts of aggression, and are simply an inappropriate way of behaving towards other people. This does not mean that Libertarians are pacifists, as everyone has the right to defend the property that they own—including themselves; rather, it is the act of initiating aggression that is morally unacceptable. What this means in practice, and looking at recent international events, is that Libertarians would have supported military action in the Falklands Conflict, where UK citizens and territory were first attacked by an aggressor, but not the recent war against Iraq, where the UK (along with the US) actually initiated the aggression.
On a more personal level, the right to do with your own body as you see fit means that Libertarians have no moral problems with people using drugs in a responsible fashion. The important thing here is how your own actions impact upon the rights of others. For example, it would be wrong to drive under the influence of drink or drugs, as that would be putting the lives and property of others in danger. Yes, you have rights, but you also have the responsibility to respect the equally held rights of others.
Practical Libertarianism
There are many aspects of our lives where the choices that we have are becoming increasingly limited by the actions of others, notably the State. Examples include which school you can send your children to, and for how long, where and what medical treatments are available to you and your family, at what age you can retire and gain a state pension, and so on.
Sadly, we have recently become so used to having arbitrary limitations placed upon our lives by government that we often don't stop to think about them, other than to briefly curse when some new idiotic rule or regulation hits us for the first time. Why do our politicians think that we need treating like children, and attempt to regulate every aspect of our lives? Who benefits from this?
Libertarians believe that the role of the State should be to protect our basic rights, and nothing more. This means maintaining the rule of law, and providing us, and our country, with an effective military defence.
Just looking at one of our policies will give you an idea of the innovative—but always realistic—approach that we intend to take as a Party.
Libertarians want to let people keep the money that they earn, so that they can choose how to spend it. You currently have no choice about whether to pay Income Tax, so collecting this tax is clearly a coercive act on the part of the government. The Libertarian Party proposes moving, within the first term of a Libertarian government, purely to consumption based taxes, and then only on non-essential goods. This will effectively mean choice over the amount of tax that you pay—the more goods that you buy, the more funds that you will contribute to the State to undertake its functions. Not only is this far fairer, but it's also the only truly effective way of looking after our environment, as it will ensure that the more natural resources that an individual uses, the more that they have to pay. In short, whilst income taxes are unfair and arbitrary, consumption taxes are fair and green.
Allowing people more control of their finances will also help bring about a major resurgence in the voluntary and charitable sectors in the UK. British people are naturally generous, we often just don't seem to have enough spare cash to help as much as we would like. By taxing you less, and leaving more money in your pocket, the Libertarian Party will allow you the freedom to help others more. We are the only political party that genuinely trusts the people of this nation, and the only party that wants to give every individual the opportunity to act on their natural compassion, whether it be to help family, friends, neighbours or complete strangers.
The ideas outlined above are so sensible that you might wonder why no other party is proposing them. Is it because they can't be achieved, financially? The answer is no. The government currently spends around £175 billion a year supporting QUANGOs such as the Milk Development Council, the Home-Grown Cereals Authority, and the British Potato Council. Most people know that eating food is good for you, so what purpose do these organisations really serve? As the only tangible benefits are to the producers of these products, why aren't they funded and run by their respective trade associations? Sadly for the hard-pressed taxpayer, it's simply a case of "You know when you've been quango'd!"
It's not only in the area of quangos that there is a whole raft of waste and inefficiency, just crying out to be swept away. Everything that the State touches—from health and education, through policing and pensions—is cursed by the micro-management of bureaucracy run wild, resulting in an endemic waste of resources, and preventing key front-line staff from actually doing the important work that they are employed to do, and so desperately want to do.
The real and fundamental reason that no other party would make proposals like ours, is that to do so would weaken the power of the government over the individual. For example, if Income Tax were to be abolished, can you imagine voting in the future for a party that wanted to reintroduce it? Of course not. The Westminster parties are terrified of losing their powers over the citizens of our country, and will fight tooth and nail to keep them. Only one party isn't interested in power for any reason other than to return it to those to whom it rightfully belongs. Only one party really trusts the British people, and that is the Libertarian Party.
As we detail our policies across a whole range of areas, we'll explain how Libertarians view the challenges that our society faces, where we believe we should be aiming for, and what practical and pragmatic steps we can make towards reaching those goals.
It's taken years of neglect by our politicians to reduce our nation to its current state, and we don't underestimate the efforts needed to bring our society back together again. To move to a just society will take time, as the State, without our consent, has become intertwined in every part of our society. But if we don't start to cut back its tendrils, we will continue to lose that which is most important to us—our individual humanity.
Britain deserves better, and you deserve better. As we publish our policy positions, we will demonstrate how the Libertarian Party can offer a realistic way forwards, to set us all on the right path to a better future.