Brighton Campaign Day -- August 1st

After the success of our campaign day in Norwich the South East branch are organising our second campaign day.

The campaign day will be held in Brighton on Saturday August 1st. It is set to coincide with the Gay Pride festival and parade.

We believe this event will provide us with a great opportunity to promote and discuss our liberal policies and ideas.

Obviously we will need as many helpers as we can get. So if you want to find out more about helping and having a fun day out in Brighton please contact robert.waller@lpuk.org.

South East Members in Norwich North

Yesterday members of the LPUK from the South East went up to Norwich to help Thomas Burridge with his campaign.

We had a great day out and got some good responses from the residents of Norwich.

Thank you to everyone who came and helped. And good luck to Thomas for the rest of his campaign.

Hertfordshire -- Police for hire...

In a worrying development Hertfordshire police are trialing a rent-a-cop initiative...

A police force is hiring out uniformed officers to businesses wanting more patrols.

Traders have joined together to pay for extra police to look over their premises.

But critics claim the rent-a-cop plan is a move towards a two-tier service.

Police Federation spokesman Metin Enver said: "It's a worrying trend to get groups effectively buying policing.

"Is this a stepping stone to a two-tier policy so those who can afford it get one service and those who can't get another?"

And Mr Metin said of Hertfordshire Police's initiative: "This is a dangerous path. You can imagine a ripple effect as more people ask for extra patrols."

There are a number of issues with the above that raise concerns. First as tax payers we have already paid for a police service. So quite why we should have to pay again is beyond me.

However more worrying is the mixing of business and state. We should all be deeply concerned and suspicious of business being allowed to purchase and deploy the resources of the state. Because ultimately it gives businesses power they would not normally have.

For me this seems to be another sign of the development of the fascist/corporatist state in Britain. And we should all be concerned by it.

LGBT and the dangers of socialism

I was over at LabourLost yesterday when I noticed this rather amusing piece of Fabian internationalist nonsense from Kevin Peel.

It encapsulates the idealistic but authoritarian thinking that many socialists follow...

[F]or the most part, the decades of struggle by committed LGBT activists has paid off. We’ve got an equal age of consent, gay couples can adopt children, homophobic discrimination at work and in the provision of goods and services has been outlawed, the gender recognition act means trans people can have their true gender recognised under law, civil partnerships give lesbian and gay couples (almost) equal rights as heterosexual married couples, lesbian couples have equal access to NHS fertility treatment and we’re currently putting a shiny new Equality Bill through Parliament to tie it all together with a big bow on top.

We now need to be looking to other countries and saying ‘Why haven’t you got that?’

67 countries (don’t quote me on that) have now signed the UN’s Declaration on the Decriminalisation of Homosexuality, a groundbreaking (but nonbinding) measure put forward in December 2008 which condemned human rights violations based on homophobia. I was proud that the UK led the charge on this. It was the first time gay rights have ever been discussed in the 192 member General Assembly of the UN and marks an important point in the recognition of the world wide struggle for LGBT equality. However, it had to be proposed as a nonbinding measure because there was not enough support for an official resolution. Homosexuality is still banned in nearly 80 countries and punishable by death in 6. Including Saudi Arabia, a country I’m ashamed that we call an ally.
...
But we can’t just pass the buck to the UN or to Europe. Our own Government needs to be speaking out more against countries oppressing their citizens and stifling basic freedoms. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office is doing some great work through the diplomatic service and I was proud to see our embassies flying the pride flag on 17th May (International Day Against Homophobia), but we need to start getting tough with countries who think it is ok to treat LGBT people as second class citizens. The softly softly approach only works if you can back it up with a big stick.

The question one must ask is, how on Earth does Kevin Peel think we will achieve this? How do you stop the whole world being homophobic?

Historically speaking no-one has achieved anything like this. Not even the British Empire managed to end slavery. And they were willing to point the 19th century's version of a nuclear arsenal at people.

So if the Royal Navy -- which was the biggest stick at the time -- were unable to impose a world view on everyone. How precisely are we going to end homophobia worldwide?

Are we going to point guns at people? Or even nuclear weapons? How far would we have to go to achieve this objective?

The worrying thing about Kevin's view is it is inherently authoritarian. Because there is no way we could ever achieve such a ridiculous goal without resorting to controlling or violent measures.

And that is why everyone should be wary of socialism. Because despite the good intentions the only way to achieve their goals is through violence or control.

Liar! Liar!

shopped from an original Nicholson in Australia and courtesy of the Red Rag

From the Times this Morning:
Mr Brown should engage with reality

How long can this go on? Every week Gordon Brown is presented with new numbers, taken from the Treasury’s own documents, showing his government is planning to cut public spending from 2011. Every week he denies it, repeating the mantra that voters have a choice between Labour “investment” and “Tory cuts”. Last week he gave us a phrase that will surely enter the political lexicon: that Labour would achieve “zero per cent growth”.

Commentators compare Mr Brown with Richard Nixon, who acquired the nickname of Tricky Dicky. In fact, the late US president’s dissembling was much more skilful. No 10 advisers are getting uneasy, as are cabinet ministers, at Mr Brown’s inept efforts. He has not yet promoted a horse to the post of consul but his detachment from reality is growing daily.

Love the Caligula reference.

Norwich campaign day

As you may be aware, there is an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Norwich North.

It's not in our region, but a number of Libertarian Party South East members will hopefully be traveling up in one of the upcoming weekends to campaign for the LPUK candidate Thomas Burridge.

This is a landmark moment for the Libertarian Party- it is the first time the Libertarian Party will have contested a parliamentary constituency, and Thomas will likely be the youngest ever parliamentary candidate.

If you would like to join us on the campaign trail, please email me at richard.williams@lpuk.org. If you cannot spare some time, please donate to our election fighting fund at the link to the side of this blog.