Choose

DK seems to have got himself into a bit of a fire fight over a drunken post he wrote, where he suggested that you are either a Libertarian or a de facto totalitarian (and a lot more besides). The full post can be found in the comments section if you want to read some full on, sweary ranting. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it does demonstrate a simple truth. You are either Libertarian, or you believe in the State. And there is a further simple truth that follows on – the three main parties support the State, and the intrusion of the State into the private life of the citizens.

Therefore, if you are a Labour supporter, a Lib Dem supporter, or a Tory, you support the State. Yes, the Tories might be less Statist that Nu Labour, but you are being staggeringly naïve if you believe that, on balance, the Tories will be much better than the Labour party. Their instinct is to make government the solution to society’s ills; they just see different ways in which government can be the plaster on society’s issues. Mark my words, Cameron will do some vague Libertarian posturing whilst he is still popular. But come the first dip in popularity, he will show himself to be just as Statist as those governing at the moment. A clampdown on drugs or something else that The Daily Mail sees as utterly evil will happen as soon as the voters start to question the Cameron brand. Just as the Nu Labour bastards started nationalising as soon that economy started to go down the shitter.

And it will be the naivete, and the complete failure to understand that people have a right to a private life and the right to live without the constant, suffocating, draconian presence of government, that will lead to further little yet damning erosions of freedom in this country. Take this policy – admirably dealt with here. The government sees that it has the right to tell you how fat to be, and if you dare to deviate from the path the State has decided for you, then it will send minions to come up to you and insult you to your face. Yes, this is a local government initiative, but it sums up the mentality of those in government nicely. Their question is “how can we legislate to *help*?” Not “do we need to intervene here?” Or “will any good come from us intervening here?” Nu Labour, Tories, Lib Dems – the arrogance of our ruling class is such that regardless of their rhetoric, deep down they feel they know better than you. And that is all of them – all the main parties. Brown, Cameron, Clegg; ignore the liberal lip-service and get down to the truth. They know best. And they will tell you what to do, because they believe that they know better than you on how you should live your own life.

I don’t know how the Libertarian Party can push itself into the political arena properly. I do know that all those who prop up the Tories in a hope that they will suddenly rip of their mask and become Libertarians once in power are on a hiding to nothing. And those that think they can convince the blue rinse brigade (the backbone of the Tories) that a socially conservative, paternalistic government isn’t the way forward are on a hiding to nothing. Real change isn’t coming through the three main parties and their cosy consensus. Right now any real change is going to come from outside of Parliament.

So this it it – you are either Libertarian, or you tacitly support the Statist status quo. If you are Nu Labour, or a Liberal Democrat, or a Tory then you support the State. Which is fine; it is your democratic right. But if you are a Tory, please don’t pretend you are helping the Libertarian cause. You are propping up part of the problem, not being part of the solution.