Build Caledonian Voice (2)

MARCH 2015 saw the National Liberal Party publish Building Our Media Infrastructure, which noted that the NLP has several key strategies relating to its future political growth and success. Our article – http://nationalliberal.org/building-our-media-infrastructure – specifically looked at one of these objectives: building the infrastructure of an alternative mass media of news, information and entertainment.

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As part of our media strategy we publish several national and local publications. Whilst they are all produced on a very irregular basis, they are very popular indeed and generate a lot of positive feedback. We hope to step up a gear and produce our publications on a regular basis in the future. In the meantime, however, it’s vital that we build a much larger audience for our media. In an effort to do this, we started to feature the lead articles from each of our publications.

When these articles appear various NLP members and supporters would viral them out via social media.

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We started off with the lead article from issue 1 of Caledonian Voice – the voice of the National Liberal Party – which can be read here https://nationalliberal.org/building-caledonian-voice Here we continue with our Scottish media by reproducing the lead article from issue 2 of Caledonian Voice. Although published way back in February 2014, it’s as relevent today as it was then. That’s because of the result of the May 2014 European Elections which saw the United Kingdo Independence Party (UKIP) came top of the poll, winning 24 seats. This spooked the then Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron, so much that he later called for a referendum to decide Britain’s future within the EU. Here, the majority of the electorate – nearly 17 ½ million voted for Brexit.

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Eagle-eyed readers may note that issue 2 of Caledonian Voice called for ‘a Europe of free peoples and nations – not a Europe of bankers and super-rich elites!’ How prophetic, given the way the bankers and super-rich elites are trying to delay and deny the democratic wish of the British electorate to leave the EU!

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• To get hold of your FREE pdf copy, simply e-mail natliberal@aol and ask for issue 2 of Caledonian Voice to be sent to you as soon as possible.

For A Free Scotland In A Free Europe!

IN LATE MAY, Scots will go to the polls for the European elections. Here we have to elect six Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to look after the interests of nearly four million voters in Scotland. The votes cast here (and in September’s Scottish Referendum) will effectively determine our destiny as a nation.

In issue 1 of Caledonian Voice we looked at the Scottish Referendum. In this issue we will look at the forthcoming European elections and examine what our attitude – as National Liberals – should be to them.

First of all, we should state that National Liberals are not anti-European. However, we are very definitely anti-EU. This means that we oppose the increasingly totalitarian nature of the EU. Indeed, we feel that its bureaucratic regime and form of central planning is moving towards that employed by the old Soviet Union.

LOYALTY

Additionally, we feel that the EU holds no loyalty to the nations or peoples of Europe itself. Look at its policy of allowing the ‘free movement of capital and labour’ between EU member states. This has meant that Scottish industry has ‘upped sticks’ and chased – and exploited – the lowest wages across Europe. At the same time we have seen a massive influx of Eastern European workers, who understandably want to improve their lives but the result of their movement has placed enormous strains upon local services.

All of this is having a serious impact on the living standards of ordinary working families across Scotland. Hardly a day goes by without us hearing of unemployment, under-employment or people having to survive on the minimum wage or who are wholly reliant on benefits.

At the same time, Cameron and Clegg claim that we don’t have ‘any money’ to solve our terrible social and economic conditions – possibly some of the worst in Europe. Yet we send millions of pounds to Brussels every year! Indeed, it’s been estimated that over the last 30 years we have paid in more to the EU than we have got back in grants, etc. Caledonian Voice believes that this shows that the EU (and the political elites) exist to benefit big business and not ordinary working families and communities.

SOVEREIGNTY

Despite all this, we do see the sense in co-operating with our fellow Europeans. Historically, culturally and geographically we have much in common. Therefore, we would like to see – at the very least – a re-negotiation of our position in Europe with a focus on Scotland regaining control of its sovereignty, political powers and economy. This will ensure a move away from the centralist and bureaucratic EU towards a Europe of free nations working together where needed but at all times retaining their independence and national and regional cultural identities. For a Europe of free peoples and nations – not a Europe of bankers and super-rich elites!