The Manifesto of the Libertarian Party of UK has been built on 5 basic principles:
- That the overall effect of all our policies together shall decrease the size and power of the State.
- That the rights of the individual are paramount and should be nurtured.
- That the individual is better placed to understand what is in their best interest than the state.
- That those who have power must be held accountable for their actions.
- That power should be devolved so it is as close to the people who are affected by it as possible.
The Libertarian Party believes that we are at a cross roads in British Politics in which the next few years will decide the direction of travel for the foreseeable future. The parties who make up the Westminster cabal have shown that they believe that the people are there to serve them, not the other way round.
We are entering a period in which the two main parties are descending to their extremes which for the Conservative Party is in-fighting, and chaos, and an abandonment of the free market. For Labour it is a push to take private property by force, for example, to nationalise healthy companies in an ideological shake-down as well as to add an ever increasing burden of taxation on middle earners and future generations, yet at the same time stoking class divisions to ensure there is always someone else to blame.
Luckily, we are also seeing a great deal of awareness in the general public who are starting to see how rigged the system is and are looking for an alternative. We are that alternative. We are the party that puts the rights of the individuals ahead of the rights of unions or donors. We are the party that will remove barriers to trade allowing the economy to stand on its own feet unencumbered by unnecessary regulations. We are the party that wants to remove political interference from your everyday life, freeing important services like Health Care and Education from political point scoring and putting them in the hands of the service providers or users: the people who know what is most needed. We are the party that wants to ensure that this country has a Constitution that protects the individual and treats all parts of the country in an even manner.
In this Manifesto we will set out our policies for a future confederation of free states where power is devolved wherever possible and innovative, modern solutions are used to create the good in an efficient way (in place of that which is beloved by the other parties: the status quo). The Manifesto of the Libertarian Party has been built on five basic principles.
- That the overall effect of all our policies together shall decrease the size and power of the state.
- That the rights of the individual are paramount and should be nurtured.
- That the individual is better placed to understand what is in their best interest than the state.
- That those who have power must be held accountable for their actions.
- That power should be devolved so it is as close to the people who are affected by it as possible.
Alongside these principles we have also called on the experience of other countries basing our policies, wherever possible, on systems that have been tried and tested elsewhere and which the evidence shows work well. This Manifesto provides an alternative to more of the same, a pathway away from the Westminster rule we know to somewhere more prosperous, less authoritarian and less dangerous, more protective of the citizen and less willing to boss her around for her own good or, as is more commonly the case, to her harm.
Our respect for each individual is embodied in the procedures of our party, such as our policy creation procedure, declared in the policies in our Manifesto which fuels the lamp with which we light the way to the place where we hope you will find your political home as a member, or supporter, of the Libertarian Party UK. We are the party that will set you personally above the collective and by doing so free the country to be better than ever before.
Adam Brown
PartyLeader
“That government is best which governs least.”
– attr. Thomas Jefferson
The Libertarian Party believes:
- In having a written Constitution that holds the Individual to be above the State.
- That a limited government with both horizontal and vertical separation of powers, and vigorous checks and balances, will best preserve the Liberty of the People.
- That Great Britain should be a Confederation of Free States, and that the People determine their own policies.
- That it should be confirmed in Law that the People are Sovereign.
- That the Monarchy should be permitted only as long as it has the formal approval of the People, and should be subordinate to the Constitution.
- That all public servants should swear allegiance to upholding the Constitution, and be liable in Law for misconduct and fraud.
- That the First Past the Post voting system should be replaced with a form of Proportional Representation.
- The general government be funded equally by the States.
- The general government shall consist of a bicameral legislature, a Constitutional Court, and an Executive.
- The Monarchy continue only in a private manner, subject to the will of the people.
- The lower house of the Legislative branch consist of a chamber elected by the people of each State to be a guardian of the rights of the people, a reflection of the broad range of values and attitudes of the people, and to hold the key of the treasury of the Confederation.
- The upper house of the Legislature consist of a chamber elected by the State legislatures to be a guardian of the sovereignty of the States and the presiding body of the Confederation, especially tasked to the Confederation as a whole and to foreign matters, and of approving appointments made by the Executive.
- The Chief Executive and his deputy be elected by an electoral college so as to allow the people of each State a say, avoid demagoguery, and keep the States from being disenfranchised.
- The Chief Executive be First Ambassador, have a line-item non-blocking veto over laws, and be commander-in-chief of military forces in time of declared war.
- Officers be susceptible to impeachment; elected officials to expulsion; members of the upper house open to recall by State legislatures.
- Only the Legislative branch shall have power to declare war.
- Military power be the bailiwick of the States and not the general government.
- The general government have no power to borrow money.
- The general government have no power to erect corporations.
- Bills require passage in both houses, can be vetoed by the Executive, must be short and pertain to one subject, and have a sunset clause of not more than 10 years.
- A yearly budget bill list spending and costs for the year.
- The State court in any state is the final court of appeal in that State, and that no case can be appealed or brought to the Constitutional Court unless it is strictly a matter of a federal nature.
- A two-thirds vote of State Legislatures can veto a decision made by the Constitutional Court; and individuals and states can sue for injunctive relief against laws deemed unconstitutional.
DEFENCE POLICY “CARDWELL 2.0”
We will make no nation our ‘natural enemy’ and will seek good diplomatic relations and trade with all countries.
The only legitimate role of the State is defence. From the time of the Saxon Kings the role of the people in mutual defence as the ‘Fyrd’ was paramount. To serve was a matter of honour and duty. A Libertarian Government would seek to re-establish the connection between the ordinary citizen and the defence of the country.
This is not a new concept, ‘Trayned Bands’, Militias and Yeomanry have fought with distinction whenever the country has been threatened. We are not seeking to re-establish the days of National Service which survived the Second World War, but to establish a personal responsibility to defend our way of life and hard-won freedoms.
This controversial policy was overwhelming endorsed by the membership of the Libertarian Party in a free vote.
Firstly, a Libertarian Government would seek to avoid war, we will make no nation our ‘natural enemy’ and will seek good diplomatic relations and trade with all countries. However, any potential aggressor should be in no doubt of our willingness to defend our way of life and freedoms. There have been too many expensive wars and lives lost in foreign adventures on behalf of, or in alliance with other powers. A direct threat to British territory should be the gauge with which we decide to consider deploying the armed services.
Currently the three armed services are competing for resources leading to waste and misdirected priorities. We will establish a unified British Defence Force starting immediately with the most senior officers (who will cease to belong to a single service).Each of the three arms are currently acting as independent forces but we will seek to integrate them. This will be part of our root and branch re-appraisal of defence which we call Cardwell 2.0 after the last major reform (1868-1874) following the debacle of the Crimea War.
A Libertarian Government will prioritise defence in conjunction with the aim of avoiding foreign entanglement except in so far as required by our mutual defence pact with the other members of NATO, which has proved to be the guarantor of peace in Europe since 1945. As party policy is firmly to leave the European Union, a Libertarian Government would not require British Servicemen be part of the ‘European Army’.
This ambition is exemplified by our most important defence policy, namely, to establish a Yeomanry.
We take as our model the Swiss Defence Force.
Switzerland has a standing army of 60,000. It can mobilise 20,000 air force reservists within 48 hours, a further 8,000 army reserves within eight days and an additional 35,000 within ten. An additional 1,040,000 former reservists (aged 22 to 34) can be recalled, more slowly, to a muster of 1.16 million men. By contrast the UK, with a population eight times larger, can only mobilise an army nine tenths smaller (115,000).
To mobilise a larger army would take months of training and shortages of equipment and basic infrastructure.
A Libertarian government will therefore make defence cost effective, and reinforce the connection between duty and freedom, by establishing a Yeomanry and a Civil Defence Corps. Participants, will be free to choose a non-combat role such as Fire Service, Paramedic, Nursing, Engineers and Coast Guard.
1 . YEOMANRY
A Libertarian government will establish a 1,056,000 strong Yeomanry and a 430,000 strong Air Yeomanry. The yeomanry will be required by law to serve only on British territory.
BENEFITS
A Yeomanry will give citizens the opportunity to become responsible through service. It would also free a larger portion of the professional armed forces to serve overseas. Professionals will continue to be volunteers.
2. AN INCREASE IN THE SIZE OF THE PROFESSIONAL ARMY FROM 81,000 TO 94 ,000
A Libertarian Government will increase the professional regular army. In addition, we will make about 7.5% of the army support forces roles, in particular the ceremonial and legal element, argely redundant though these personnel would be offered the chance to move to the combat element.
BENEFITS
By strengthening the Army, relative to the Navy and Air force, we would tailor our defence to the message that we are a peaceful nation though at the same time one better able to repel enemy invasion of our shores and to honour our mutual defence pact with the other members of N.A.T.O.
NOTES The Yeomanry will be capable of being mobilised within seventy-two hours. To achieve this a member of Yeomanry own personal equipment and arms would be stored in a sealed steel lockable box at their home. Following the Swiss model, ammunition would be kept in secure local locations, only to be issued in times of imminent threat.
The Yeomanry will be organised into eight corps (East Anglia, Mercia, London, Northumbria, Wessex, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) and composed of a thousand and fifty-six battle groups (e.g., 1st Essex etc.) combining into county organised brigades.
The cost of the Yeomanry per capita would be 25% of that of the Swiss Militia. The Yeomanry will receive thirty days of basic training followed by thirty days of reserve training over eleven years. This contrasts with the Swiss figure of 245 days over fourteen years. Britain will train its Yeomanry lightly to limit costs but judge that its effectiveness and deterrent power would not diminish pro rata.
Each citizen in the age group between 18 and 22 inclusive would be tested for fitness to join the Yeomanry in the year following their sixteenth birthday.
Both Military and Civil Defence Corps individuals will be paid. There will be a higher rate for service in the Yeomanry, recent difficulties recruiting for the Territorial Volunteer Reserve suggests this policy is right.
NOTES A Libertarian Government will fund a 100% increase in front line deployable divisions (from one to two) plus an additional strike brigade to be added to the Rapid Reaction Force.
3. AN ADDITIONAL OFFSHORE PATROL SHIP EVERYTEN MONTHS FOR TEN YEARS
The Libertarian Party would finance a 400% increase in the number of offshore patrol vessels (from three to fifteen).
BENEFITS
This policy would increase the number of offshore patrol vessels from seven now (six in the British Isles one in the Falklands) to nineteen. The Home Fleet will take priority in Naval expenditure.
4 . FIVE ADDITIONAL HUNTER KILLER NUCLEAR SUBMARINES
This would take the British nuclear hunter killer submarine inventory to twelve.
A Libertarian Government following advice from serving and retiring naval officers, would not commit to the construction of any further aircraft carriers. The concept of aircraft carriers ‘projecting power’ is a fallacy unless used against a far weaker opponent. Such blue water capital ships add little to Home Defence. They are also easy prey to cheap shore based anti-ship missiles. It has been argued that the Aircraft Carrier concept had reached the end of it’s useful life by the Battle of Midway in the Second World War over seventy years ago.