Liberty & Nation Says Scrap The Cap!
Date: October 13, 2017
Categories: Party News
The National Liberal Party Says Shop Local In Alcester!
Date: October 11, 2017
Categories: Party News
From The Liberty Wall – Free Speech: How Do We Protect It? – March Of The Thought Police (Part 1)
‘We believe that Britain should have a formal constitution and bill of rights, based on the concept of civil and religious liberties for all. We also feel that a civil rights watchdog should be established to protect the people’s ability to make use of these rights.
We believe in absolute free speech with very few exceptions to this rule – say for those who promote violence. Either we all have rights – or none of has rights. We support civil and religious liberties for all.’
• Taken from the Facebook site – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1607711629485795/ – of Free Speech: How Do We Defend It?
FREE SPEECH is particularly interested in – and deeply concerned about – attempts by elements of the States to try to curtail free speech. To some extent this is our raison d’être.
With this in mind, or attention has been drawn to an article – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4612720/Tim-Farron-s-ousting-Lib-Dem-leader-left-victory.html – which appeared much earlier this year. It concerns former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron. Freedom lovers may recall that he was effectively forced to quit because of his Christian beliefs.
The following article was written by Dominic Sandbrook, a former history lecturer, freelance writer and newspaper columnist. Please note that we don’t agree with everything Sandbrook says. We feel that he focusses solely on ‘Leftist’ attempts to curb free speech. To us, both ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ are mirror images of each other – and there are illiberal liberals and totalitarians on both sides! Despite this, we feel that supporters of free speech will find his article of interest.We feel that the best way to stimulate debate on the issue of free speech is to reproduce his article in four sections. It goes without saying that there are no official links between Free Speech, Dominic Sandbrook or the Daily Mail.
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Tim Farron’s ousting as Lib Dem leader is another victory for the Left which gags free speech and imposes its own warped views
Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats. Did his Christian views bring him into conflict with illiberal liberals?
ONE OF the great myths of our age is that we live in a time of unparalleled tolerance, a paradise of liberalism, conscience and free speech.
You can think what you like, say what you like and do as you please, and nobody will ever tell you otherwise.
That is the theory. The reality, alas, is rather different. For this week came yet another worrying sign that the prejudices of our liberal cultural elite are no less stifling and no less repressive than the taboos they pride themselves on having banished.
At the heart of this is the Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who resigned on Wednesday after less than two years in the job.
I hold no torch for Mr Farron, who never struck me as an international statesman in waiting. But when I heard him say he could not reconcile his heartfelt Christian principles with his leadership of an avowedly liberal party, I wondered what had happened to our traditions of tolerance and democracy.
At the heart of his dilemma were his views on gay sex, which on several occasions he had failed to say outright was not sinful, as well as his disapproval of abortion (he later claimed to have changed his mind on the issue). But he never tried to impose those views on others. Nor did he propose to outlaw homosexuality, or to recriminalise abortion.
For his liberal critics, however, this was not good enough. As they saw it, he was guilty of what George Orwell called ‘thoughtcrime’. Only a full recantation — and presumably the renunciation of his Christian faith — would have been enough to save him.
‘I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in,’ Mr Farron said on Wednesday, ‘in which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society.’
Alas, this is not merely an issue for the Lib Dems, for the sickness of liberal intolerance is far more widespread. Seeping out of our schools and universities, the culture of hysterical outrage is now in real danger of polluting our public life, stifling debate and silencing dissent.
Just look, for example, at the absurdly strident way the Left has reacted to the prospect of a deal between the Conservatives and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists. As staunch social conservatives, rooted in the Presbyterian churches, the DUP are opposed not just to gay marriage but to the extension of abortion rights to Northern Ireland — views clearly too much for the metropolitan dinner-party elite.
Never mind that the DUP are the single biggest party in one of the four nations of our kingdom. Never mind that their views are shared by the vast majority of ordinary people in Northern Ireland, who are understandably sick of being caricatured as reactionary primitives.
To the Left, such people are thought criminals. There is no place for dissent in the modern liberal imagination, no room for those who question the new orthodoxies of the chattering classes.
So racism must always be treated as the ultimate evil.
The equality of the sexes can never be questioned; indeed, the very idea of gender itself is deeply suspect. Immigration is always good. Welfare is wonderful; capitalism is monstrous. America is corrupt; Israel is worse. Patriotism is always bad, especially British patriotism. And so on.
Date: October 8, 2017
Categories: Liberty Wall
CATALONIA & KURDISTAN: NATIONS WITHOUT STATES JOINT PRESS RELEASE
Date: October 6, 2017
Categories: Articles, Liberty Wall
From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists – Why Nurses Deserve To Get A Pay Rise
ATIONAL LIBERAL Trade Unionists – NLTU – may be familiar with NHS psychiatrist, Dr. Max Pemberton who writes for the Daily Mail. Indeed, one of his articles – http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-national-liberal-trade-unionists-debate-5-%e2%80%93-is-it-racist-to-want-nhs-nurses-to-speak-english – formed the basis of the most recent NLTU Debate in late June.
Our attention has just been drawn to another of his articles (which calls for a wage increase for nurses) this time written towards the end of July, which we’ve reproduced below.
It appeared shortly after the BBC released figures relating to its top earning actors and presenters. As this Guardian report notes – https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/19/evans-lineker-bbc-top-earners-only-two-women-among-best-paid-stars
Chris Evans and Gary Lineker earned £2.2m and £1.75m respectively. In contrast, nurses earn on average between £22,000 to £28,000 a year.
The NLTU wholeheartly agrees with Dr. Pemberton’s view that if ‘there was any public servant who deserved a pay increase, it’s nurses.’ Indeed, we’d go further and say that all medical staff should automatically have a wage increase that – at the very least – keeps up with the rate of inflation.
As usual, we’d appreciate your feedback once this article appears on the NLTU Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/277840098977231/
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Why Nurses Deserve To Get A Pay Rise
Staff demonstrating in support of the National Health Service. National Liberal Trade Unionists support their campaign for higher wages.
‘WHAT would you do with £2 million?’ asked the nurse at the sink.
‘I know – imagine it,’ came the reply from another nurse, rolling her eyes.
A patient joined in: ‘Don’t tell me you’d give up working in this place!’ They all laughed.
I’ve heard these sorts of conversations before, usually when there’s a Lotto roll-over. Not this time.
For a few days this week, on the ward where I work, the main topic of conversation was what the BBC pays top staff. Much of it was daydreaming about what they would do if, instead of the £22,000 to £28,000 that the average nurse is paid, they earned a few million, like Chris Evans or Gary Lineker.
But the nurses weren’t bitter, which made the whole thing more poignant. I suppose if it was money that motivated them, they’d packed in nursing years ago.
But it’s a warped world where someone like Casualty actor Derek Thompson is paid 15 times more to pretend to be a nurse and pretend to save lives than an actual nurse who saves actual lives.
While nurses might not go into nursing for the money, financial reward is how our society indicates the value we place on a profession’s contribution. And more fool all of us for not valuing the contribution nurses make. For it won’t be Claudia Winkleman of John Humphrys who’ll be staying beyond their shift to resuscitate you when you have a cardiac arrest, or who will be there when your child breaks their arm and needs painkillers and a kind, calming word.
Nursing is often a thankless task, and I have nothing but overwhelming admiration for the job nurses do and the gentle dedication with which they do it.
It seems strange that the argument is that nursing is a vocation – a job they do because they love it – yet the same logic isn’t applied to the BBC ‘talent’. There are plenty other excellent actors and presenters who’d do those BBC jobs for less.
If there was any public servant who deserved a pay increase, it’s nurses. But many nurses feel the only way to make a decent living is to move into management. And without them the NHS will collapse.
• FOR MORE information on the National Liberal Trade Unionists – NLTU – check out https://www.facebook.com/groups/277840098977231/
• READ ISSUE 1 of Liberal Worker – the voice of National Liberal Trade Unionists. To get hold of your FREE pdf copy simply request it by e-mailing natliberal@aol.com Also look out for more information about issue 2 in due course.
• CHECK OUT previous NLTU debates here:
National Liberal Trade Unionists Debate 1 – How Can we Achieve Our Main Aims? http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-national-liberal-trade-unionists-debate-1-how-can-we-achieve-our-main-aims
National Liberal Trade Unionists Debate 2 – What Should Be Re-Nationalised? http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-national-liberal-trade-unionists-debate-2-%e2%80%93-what-should-be-re-nationalised
National Liberal Trade Unionists Debate 3 – Bob Crow: What Is His Legacy? http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-national-liberal-trade-unionists-%e2%80%93-bob-crow-what-is-his-legacy
National Liberal Trade Unionists Debate 4 – How Should Trade Unionists View The EU? http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-national-liberal-trade-unionists-debate-4-%e2%80%93-how-should-trade-unionists-view-the-eu
From The Liberty Wall – National Liberal Trade Unionists Debate 5 – Is It Racist To Want NHS Nurses To Speak English? http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-%e2%80%93-national-liberal-trade-unionists-debate-5-%e2%80%93-is-it-racist-to-want-nhs-nurses-to-speak-english
Date: October 5, 2017
Categories: Liberty Wall
Resist Cuts To Healthcare & Education In Ulster – Sign The Petition Today!
Both schools and hospitals are under threat from cuts imposed by the Tory government. The current lack of movement at Stormont will ensure that nobody is politically able to oppose this new round of budget cuts.
THE NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY (NLP) is asking all Ulster-based readers to sign an on-line petition.
The petition calls upon the leaders of the four of the five main parties – Arlene Foster (Democratic Unionist Party), Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin Northern Leader), Robin Swann (Ulster Unionist Party) and Naomi Long (Alliance Party) – to ‘unite, fight’ and ‘resist cuts to health and education’.
The petition is organised by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Whilst the NLP has serious differences of opinion to the SDLP, we are ardent supporters of social justice. As the petition relates to the ‘bread and butter’ issue of health and education, we are happy to support it.
The petition notes that:
‘Health and Social Care Trusts across Northern Ireland have been tasked by the Department of Health to make £70m worth of cuts in the 2017/18 financial year.
Primary and Nursery schools are being forced to make cuts of £56 per pupil – meaning tens of thousands of pounds less for each school.
Our public services are on the brink of a severe financial crisis and those who will suffer most are the sick, the elderly and our children. That is unacceptable.
All political parties should commit to sitting around the same table to negotiate a resolution to health, education, budgetary and equality issues that will see the restoration of power sharing institutions capable of delivering on the potential and the promise of the Good Friday Agreement.
We, the undersigned, refuse to stand by as political paralysis threatens the lives of those around us. We call on the leaders of all the main political parties to unite, fight and resist the cuts being applied to public services. We call on the leaders of the political parties to commit to reaching a resolution in the best interests of everyone living here.’
Over 1600 people have signed already. Join them today! The petition can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/arlene-foster-unite-fight-resist-cuts-to-health-and-education/nftexp/ex5/control/212260656?recruiter=212260656&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_content=ex5%3Acontrol
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• MEMBERS and supporters of the National Liberal Party who are either sponsoring or supporting an on-line petition are ask to get in touch with the appropriate details. E-mail us at natliberal@aol.com
Date: October 3, 2017
Categories: Articles