It is hard to know who is most to blame for the Hillsborough tragedy: The Council and Football club for installing fencing and barriers to ‘control’ fans, the Police for covering up their failures afterwards, the politicians and press for blaming innocent supporters or Society for treating all football fans as ‘working class hooligans’? All bear some responsibility and reflect badly on a so-called modern, democratic society. Our resident poet reflects on the latest twist in the tragedy.

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A poet is someone who bemoans the frailties of humans
As much as he rejoices in the generosity and will to struggle capacity of human spirit.

Hillsborough was a poignant experience touching these two to
the extremes.

On the one hand, a highly acclaimed democratic system run by humans, fell to its knees,
exposing its frailties.

On the other hand, the family/loved ones of the victims, fought hard for 23 years to bring
justice to the fallen.

So Hillsborough is my latest poem and I hope you all grasp what really has happened at Hillsborough then and now.

Jason

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A Tearful Lesson of Hillsborough

A sunny day in June, eighty nine,
Hillsborough stadium turned into mayhem:
A game of soccer ended in a mess too refined
To prick the pride of UK’s justice system.

Perished ninety six, injured thousands;
Broken, in pain, hearts ripped off of loved ones.
Statute makers and justice guardians,
Collectively blamed it as fans’ ill-temperaments.

Police criminalised truth and became partisans
To Thatcher’s rightist prejudice lines;
Slurring fans as scum, juveniles and hooligans,
While parents wept for slandered loved ones.

Journalists of establishment slant,
Filled media with stories deviant
To that of truth; and joined in omission
Too were all subsequent commissions.

Proponents of democratic accountability
Were exposed to be lacking honesty.
Flag bearers for model justice system
Too were party to this slur on the system.

PMs, commissioners to commission jurists;
Indeed the whole system has failed the purists’
Dream for a democratic state and structures!
Hillsborough should remain a potent reference
Point for future changes to these fixtures!

Jason

ON MONDAY we featured a pre-publication e-poster relating to New Horizon. It announced that issue 2 of NH – the ideological magazine of the National Liberal Party – would be out ‘soon’. We’re happy to announce that it’s available now via e-mail from the NLP!

Featuring an eye-catching cover, the latest issue of NH covers two main themes – Democracy and Distributism.

The article on Democracy takes the form of an abridged article that will be a chapter in a forthcoming prestigious book, Democratic Reform: The Next Leap Forwards. Hopefully, this should be out before the end of the year. The article in New Horizon (entitled Consult The People!) argues in favour of ‘Direct Democracy’ and points to the Swiss model of direct participation in the running of the country via referendums.

NH gives over four articles to the subject of Distributism. Put simply, Distributism represents a ‘Third Way’ beyond capitalism and communism, both of which tend towards centralism. Distributism, on the other hand, is a decentralist ideology and seeks the “widest possible spread of ownership of land, property, or workplace.” One of the NH articles examines Distributism from a historical perspective. The other three provide Distributist perspectives from Sri Lanka, Romania and the Philipinnes.

There’s also much more in this new issue of New Horizon.

Look out for articles on Trade Unions, a Question & Answer session with Graham Williamson – a spokesman for the NLP and editor of NH – as well as reviews of three important books, Liberals in Schism: A History of the National Liberal Party by David Dutton, Gustav Stresemann: Weimar’s Greatest Statesman by Jonathan Wright and German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimer Party System by Larry Jones.

We’ll be looking in more detail at this latest issue of New Horizon in due course. We also hope to provide a full review in the not too distant future. In the meantime, get hold of your copy of issue 2 by simply by e-mailing natliberal@aol.com

JULY was a very productive month for the National Liberal Party as it saw the production of two brand new publications!

At the very beginning of the month we launched Caledonian Voice – the Voice of the National Liberal Party in Scotland. And towards the end of the month we produced English Voice – the Voice of the National Liberal Party in England.

Both had a common theme – decentralisation.

Our national paper for Scotland noted that (in the light of the forthcoming Scottish Constitutional Referendum) Devo-Max represented a ‘Third Way’ beyond independence and the status quo. It described Devo-Max as “the fullest devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament with only the minimum of matters such as defence and foreign affairs remaining in the hands of the Westminster Government.”

Decentralism and federalism will also feature in the NLP’s long anticipated publication, Liberty & Nation. This will serve as the party’s ‘street paper’ paper for the whole of the UK. L&N will be aimed at readers of the Daily Mail and Daily Express. However, in the not too distant future we also hope to launch another two UK-wide papers. One will be aimed at readers of ‘red tops’ like the Star, Mirror and Sun whilst the other will be more in-depth and aimed at readers of The Times, Guardian and Daily Telegraph.

With this in mind, we’d appreciate any offers of help with the production of these proposed papers. We require people to write and edit them. We’re also looking for folks who’ll be able to help with artwork, graphics or photographs. In particular, we’re looking for anyone who’d be willing to help finance printing and/or help with distribution. If you can help out in any way, please e-mail natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible.

Another ‘street’ publication to look out for is Kent Voice. It’ll be the voice of the National Liberal Party in Kent. The first issue will focus on animal welfare – with a special emphasis on the export of live animals.

However, before L&N and Kent Voice are scheduled to appear, issue 2 of New Horizon should be available. It’s the ideological magazine of the NLP and was previously the name of a journal published by the Liberal Nationals/National Liberals between 1942 – 1968.

As with issue 1 (which was published towards the end of last year) this new issue will be produced as an e-zine. Edited by Graham Williamson, New Horizon will “allow writers to dissect the philosophy behind National Liberalism, discuss the national liberal credentials of world figures, engage in political debate and promote policy ideas.”

This new issue of New Horizon will feature several articles on economics (in particular, Distributism) and democracy. NH should be out fairly soon – look out for our pre-publication publicity which will be appearing on this web-site in the not to distant future!

In the meantime, why not get hold of issue 1 of all of our existing publications? Caledonian Voice, English Voice and New Horizon are all available via e-mail. To get hold of them, just contact natliberal@aol.com and ask for your FREE pdf copies!

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Should we decriminalize drugs?

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION on the subject of drugs? Should they be banned outright – or completely decriminalised? Or maybe you feel that ’hard’ drugs – such as cocaine – should be banned whilst ‘soft drugs’ – such as cannabis – should be allowed? Also, what’s your definition of a ‘drug’? Should it also include the likes of alcohol and tobacco?

These are some of the questions that have been posed by members and supporters of the National Liberal Party on the party’s National Liberals ‘group page’ on facebook.

The debate was prompted by a link to a recent report (1) which noted that Portugal had decriminalised drugs – both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ – over 11 years ago. Despite dire warnings that “Lisbon would become a drug tourist haven” and that “usage rates among youths” would “surge”, the opposite seems to have been the case. Indeed, Portuguese officials and reports claim that the number of addicts has been halved and that “Portugal’s drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states.”

Critics of the report say it is deeply flawed. However, without being privy to all the facts and figures (and we accept that governments can and do ‘manipulate’ statistics to suit their own agenda – ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ anyone?) it’s hard to make a final judgement on these claims.

War on drugs?

However, what we can say for certain is that Britain’s so-called ‘War on Drugs’ has failed miserably. As one post noted not everyone can resist the lure of drugs so maybe the best way of handling it seems to be:

“decriminalisation because in that way we take out the crime, i.e. no benefit to the criminal to hook someone on it and the need to feed the habit by crime, i.e. not as expensive. We don’t spend trillions on fighting it anymore but simply a smaller proportion on education and rehabilitation. Those that become addicted need help rather than punishment (and that doesn’t work anyhow).”

As National Liberals we always strive to balance the rights and responsibilities of both the nation and the individual. For instance, the nation suffers because of the amount of money that the NHS – and other agencies – has to spend on dealing with addiction. On the other hand, we have to accept that many people will take the view that they can do what they want with their bodies – and to some extent, that includes ‘experimenting’ with various drugs.

Maybe a step in the right direction would be to recognise that whist many people take drugs not all of them will end up as junkies. As another post noted:

“There seems to be a misguided assumption that everyone who has used or is using drugs is a junkie. Millions of average people around the world who work 9-5, and some have families, go out on the weekend and use drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, amphetamines etc etc but they are not junkies but are we still going to label these people criminals?”

Mature debate

As can be seen by these comments, the National Liberal Party’s ‘group page’ on facebook is a place for serious, mature, informative and instructive debate. There’s no silly name-calling, threats, bombast or immature statements. Members and supporters are encouraged to say what they think, but think what they say. Sometimes one person may play ‘devil’s advocate’ – a process which enables us all to examine our views in great detail.

If you’re only interested in internet chatter, gossip and rumour, this definitely isn’t the place for you. However, if you enjoy reasoned debate and particularly like thinking ‘outside of the box’ then you’d be made most welcome.

Why not check us out today? To join the debate on Facebook, simply click here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Liberal-Party/160937907279184#!/groups/52739504313/

(1) http://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-drug-policy-decriminalization-works-2012-7

THE NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY is very proud of its ideological roots. Our combination of Progressive Nationalism (sometimes called ‘Green Nationalism’) and Liberalism means that we are totally unique.

The NLPs fusion of nationalism and liberalism means that we give equal weight to ‘national questions’ (concerning all of the nations and peoples of the British Isles and in principle, beyond) as we do to ‘liberal questions’ concerning the individual and freedom.

Thus our ideology drives our principles. And it is from our principles that we produce our policy. But how do we produce these policies?

The many problems faced by Britain – racial, economic and social – are not going to be solved by screaming and shouting. Thus, the NLP is not interested in posturing and gesture politics. These problems will only be overcome by a combination of careful thought and action.

This means that we favour informed and reasoned debate. Here we concentrate on arguments, points of view and facts. We are not interested in personalities, prejudice or promoting self-interest.

Our ideal is to create a well-informed movement. To do this, we also attempt to take into consideration as many views as is possible in open debate. Thus, NLP members and supporters are always encouraged to have their say.

With this in mind, Kent-based John Botting gives his personal view on the live export of animals. Please feel free to e-mail any comments you may have on his article to natliberal@aol.com

Additionally, you may also wish to read his article in conjunction with this one on a related subject: http://nationalliberal.org/nlp-opposes-cruelty-to-animals

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The Export of Live Animals – A personal view

EVER SINCE I was a youngster I have always taken an interest in animal welfare. I remember being at school and feeling very angry at the Beagles being made to smoke cigarettes. I was shocked at seeing the pictures in the newspapers and I signed a petition to stop it. Later on I became aware of Revlon doing tests on rabbits where they kept their eyes open and put cosmetics into them. They were called Draize tests. Again, I was angered by this and because I was now older, I decided to do something about it.

I joined a protest in Maidstone, handing out leaflets to shoppers (going into Boots and House of Frazer) telling them to boycott the stores for selling Revlon products that were draize tested. To this day, that was the only protest I had ever been on.

Recently I have become aware of the issue surrounding live exports of animals through Kent ports. It has been on the local TV & Radio news and also in the Kent papers. This is due to demonstrations taking place at the ports of Dover and recently Ramsgate, where exports have been moved to.

My understanding about this whole situation is that the calves and sheep are being transported for very long journeys, in cramped conditions and putting unnecessary stress and causing distress to these animals prior to being slaughtered. They are usually being transported to slaughterhouses in countries that are not as strictly controlled as ours are. And that is the issue as far as I am concerned.

What is the point of this whole journey? It makes no sense to me to transport these animals live. Surely it is better to transport them to an abattoir in this country, where we know the animals will be subject to being treated well prior to slaughter. But instead, we load them up onto these lorries and drive them for hours from locations in the UK to Kent. Then they get loaded up onto a ferry still in these containers and go across the channel. And then have another long journey onto the foreign abattoir where they are then slaughtered in a facility that may well fall short of the standards employed in this country. It is utter madness.

I think that National Liberals should be concerned about this for two main reasons:

Firstly as ecologists we should oppose the needless extra journeys required to transport these live animals to Kent. To me this is a ludicrous situation. Surely slaughtered carcasses would require less transport?

Secondly, we oppose ritual slaughter. However, in my opinion, we should also oppose all forms of animal cruelty. It’s just wrong no matter what form it takes. The export of live animals is just so unnecessary and puts real stress on the animals being transported. We are able to slaughter animals in this country without any problems, so why are we allowing this disgusting trade to continue?

John Botting