I’d like to take the opportunity to wish party members and non-party members alike a Happy and successful 2014 as we look towards what we think will be the party’s most successful year yet.

If you’re reading this as a party member you’ll know what we are about as a party and where we hope to go in 2014.

If you’re not but are thinking of joining you may like to know a little bit about other members and what formed their political opinions. A good place to start I guess would be with me.

I was brought up in inner city London in what was a Labour party stronghold and having worked hard at school I attended Sir Walter St.John’s Grammar school. I was encouraged to work hard to get a University education and hopefully have opportunities that my parents never had.

The Labour party decided to amalgamate our Grammar school with one of the poorer performing schools in the area and so my first recognition of politics affecting me directly had taken place.

I joined the Police force and witnessed first hand the atrocities of the miner’s strike. Communities and families split apart in what I now see as a deliberate strategy by the Thatcher Government to divide and conquer at all levels.

I was one of those celebrating when Blair’s government came to power but Blair’s New Labour were such a disappointment and I never thought I’d see the day when a British Prime Minister became a lap dog for the American administration but Blair was just that.

Labour’s agreement to the Lisbon treaty and an open door unskilled immigration policy seemed to me to slowly but surely assisting natural population growth in putting the country’s infrastructure, housing, hospitals etc., under an enormous strain. I began to think that we needed to have some immigration controls and that the EU was costing us more than it was earning us and that we could still trade with Europe without paying the enormous fees.

Despite my views on Europe and immigration I found myself agreeing with a lot of Liberal Democrat policy so I decided to join the party and become active.

So there I was. A Liberal Democrat. I sent my membership fee off every year and even took to the doorstep leafleting when asked to near general elections.

I was disappointed that we didn’t make the headway I’d hoped at the last general election but I also felt that the building bricks were in place for 2015. I could feel a wind of change.

Sadly I was then betrayed by the Liberal Democrat leadership. I felt that they were so hungry for power that they’d do anything to sample government including colluding with the Tories on policies that they couldn’t possibly agree with and that I hated, such as the infamous ‘Bedroom Tax’ and the raising of University fees.

My career had taken a strange path and I’d become a stand-up comedian but never would I have even attempted in jest on stage some of the things Clegg tried to justify before his famous ‘I’m Sorry’ debacle.

I looked around for a party that I’d feel at home in and found the National Liberal party. I read that they’d been formed out of a centre right think tank which made me a little uneasy but once I found out the full story and the people who were left were genuinely Liberal and wanted a fairer Britain for Britons of all colours, creeds and sexualities, I became genuinely excited by a Patriotic Liberal party who were protectors of civil liberties for all Britons and champions of a fairer society.

I became an activist and was honoured last year when I was voted in as National Secretary.

So that’s my story and I look forward to hearing yours at our next meeting.

Because we aren’t a party of career politicians and just everyday people with jobs like most of the population we need to raise cash to contest the EU elections and if you feel you don’t want to join but want to make a small contribution to help this acorn grow into an oak then all contributions are welcome no matter how small and can be made via the website.

So if you believe that our personal freedoms are under threat and need to be protected, that our democracy is too reliant upon professional politicians and should be ‘devolved’ to the people, that the UK should be a proper Federal state, and that nation-state(s) should be maintained and protected from the excesses of globalisation or the designs of supranational bodies such as the EU, then you will find your views within the National Liberal Party.

I look forward to meeting you when you join the party and would like to wish you and your families a Happy New Year with every success in 2014.

Kind regards,

Glen Maney