Liberal Vision

Nolan Chart for the GLA candidates

Many people have been introduced to libertarianism through the Nolan Chart
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_chart). What few may be aware of is that David Nolan died on 20th November 2010. David Nolan was a founder of the US libertarian party and a noted geolibertarian, ie one of the types of libertarian found in the Liberal Democrat Party. In honour of David Nolan I have produced a Nolan chart based on my interpretation of the views of candidates. This gives a timely reminder of how this chart can be used to inform discussions about libertarianism.

Overview
This matrix was created to try to interpret the political positions of the candidates for the Lib Dem GLA list. I believe that this is important because it allows us to determine the type of Lib Dems being elected. We need to bear in mind that the GLA is a scrutiny committee and that the party has determined policy. None the less the political positions of the candidates are, in my experience, of interest to voters and are not necessarily made obvious by candidates. This is the first time that this exercise has been attempted to my knowledge. There are bound to be discrepancies so voters should not use this to cast their vote. It is intended to inform communications between voters and candidates who can state their own positions.

Methodology
The information used to create this matrix comes from the candidates directly, the internet, the Manifesto Booklet and from general knowledge of the candidates. Some candidates seem to have a long term history of not being involved in campaigns that reveal their political ideology or have chosen not to in this campaign. I am also less sure of the political positions of Russell and Pidgeon than the rest.

Commentary
This election is marked by a low number of candidates from the right wing of the party.The Orange Book concept of a right wing leaning libertarian view does not seem particularly evident. All candidates have avoided taking left/right labels in this election, and none have explicitly defined themselves as libertarians. Masroor is an imam (1) but it is not clear how that influences his political positions. Emerson has commented that she seeks to “increase foreign direct investment” (2), and appears to be the most right leaning of the candidates. In general the candidates appear to take more left leaning positions with there being an emphasis on government intervention in the housing sector. The candidates therefore seem to be representative of our councillor base rather than the parliamentary party.

Comments should be sent to edwardtjoyce@gmail .com

(1) http://youelect.org.uk/constituency/bethnal-green-and-bow/news/19th-april-hustings-event-with-abjol-miah-ajmal-masroor-rushnara-ali–zakir-khan
(2) Manifesto Booklet

Nolan Chart GLA

Is David Cameron a wet or a liberal

David Cameron has been reported to be a liberal Conservative.

http://www.septicisle.info/2005/12/cameron-im-liberal-conservative.html

Classical lìberals in the Liberal Democrat party have been seen, not necessarily correctly, as close to the Consevatives. I believe that the onus is up to us to point out that liberalism and conservativism are incompatible.

Many will remember the arguments between the wets and the dries in the 1970′s. David Cameron is, in my view a wet, supporting the idea that the UK is one nation needing a ‘caring sensitive goverment’. Wet conservatism ran into problems because people tired of its paternalistic nature, and because it did not show an understanding of the needs of people. The problems that Cameron faced in favouring marriage are typical of the problems that this strategy has. It’s worth remembering that the wets were not popular with the electorate and the hatchet was wielded by their own party after they tired of losing elections in the period up to 1979.

What David Cameron is proposing is actually closer to social liberalism. I can’t, however, see the social liberals, many on the left of the party the party, being keen on an ideological alliance with ‘liberal conservatives’.

Since Camerons liberal conservatism is unlikely to be favoured by either wings of our party he will be forced to seek his allies within his own party. At present expediency means that they are unlikely to engage in a debate but ultimately the economic liberals and libertarians in the conservative party will be no keener on ‘Cameron Conservatism’ than the dries were in the policies of the wets.

It seems likely that ‘liberal conservatism’ will be an ideological ‘political genetic dead end’ attempting to mate with other groups but being rebuffed by all. Possibly Camerons main objective is tactical, to harvest votes from Lib Dem supporters. Whether he can do this without raising the spectre of the paternalistic one nation conservatism of the wets for which there is little support even within his own party remains to be seen.

Is the people versus Larry Flint the best ‘libertarian’ film of all time.

A discussion with fellow freedom lovers threw up the names of a number of films of interest to Libertarians. Minority Report, Amazing Grace, and 1984 have all been suggested as films of interest to those of libertarian leanings. My personal favorite is, however, the often overlooked ‘People Versus Larry Flynt’.

The story focuses on the battle between publisher Larry Flynt and Christian Fundamentalist Gerry Falwell in 1988 over the publication of arguably libelous humour. The case threatened Flynts publising empire which was built on blue collar pornography. Flynt had been crippled in 1978 following an earlier court case in Georgia . The case went to the Supreme Court where Flynt won setting a precedent protecting the rights of publishers against wealthy public figures.

Flynt is often overlooked because of the nature of his business. The People versus Larry Flynt is however a moving film for those who love freedom of speech.

So is ‘The People Versus Larry Flynt’ the best ‘libertarian’ film ever made ?

People v Larry Flynt

Is the Social Liberal Forum Dying ?

When Classical Liberals in the party formed Liberal Vision in 2008 it was natural that it would encourage an ‘equal and opposite’ reaction from the Social Liberals in the party. This came at the Spring 2009 Harrogate conference when the Social Liberal Forum was formed

The Social Liberal Forum had no less than 9 MPs listed on its site and also boasted the support of Claire Rayner. I had expected to see a fierce debate rage on the merits of the two approaches. From the Classical Liberal side there has been a large amount of activity on this forum and in other areas, but that has not been matched by the ‘Rebel Alliance.

The forum socialliberal.net now seems almost defunct. The last substantive post was from Layla Moran who recently topped the straw poll of Classical Liberals as the ‘Social Liberal we most wish was a Classical Liberal’.

Layla’s proposition was

“Choice is a chimera, a fantastical political concept that serves no purpose other than to trick the middle classes into thinking they are empowered in the decisions that affect children’s future”

This seemed a mainstream approach for Social Liberals.

The responses indicated little appetite for this approach and it may be that this lack of appetite for Social Liberalism is more deeply entrenched in the activists than those of us from the Classical Liberal side of the debate in the party realise.

It’s three weeks since the last post on the socialliberal.net forum and I have seen little evidence of activity in any other sphere and thats why I pose the question:

‘Is the Social Liberal Forum Dying ?’

Not a good result for the Libertarian Party in their first electoral campaign

The LPUK stood their first candidate in the recent local elections. They chose Wisbech in the Fenland which anyone who knows the Megawiki “Pictoral dictionary of colloquialisms” will be familiar with as the definition for the phrase ‘the middle of nowhere’. The LP came last of five standing against three paper candidates and the Tories. The seat would have been a good choice had it not been for the fact that the libertarian leaning UKIP were also standing.

LPUK 140 (6.9%)
Tory 930 (46.2)
Lab 212 (10.5)
Liberal Democrats 196 (9.7)
UKIP 532 (26.4)

I pointed in my earlier blog on this election that standing against UKIP was a poor decision since UKIP soaked up the vote that might have been available to the LP. It will be interesting to see whether the LP learn from this result. I expect that it will have given them a taste for electoral politics but whether it will encourage them to focus their resources intelligently (ie where they can develop a strategy to be successful) remains to be seen. I tend to think that they will develop the practice of electoral self flagellation where they punish themselves in order to feel good.

Editorial addition: thanks to Niklas Smith for providing this link to the full results in the comments below.