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Date: July 21, 2013
Categories: Party News
Category » Party News
The Empire State
On June 15th (Magna Carta Day) National Liberal supporters hung Liberty cards on designated ‘Liberty Trees’ throughout the UK proclaiming our support for civil rights. The recent revelations that Western Governments are snooping on their citizens communications and sharing the information amongst themselves, will not be a surprise to our supporters but might to most others. Our resident poet Jason, has composed a poem to reflect upon this move to a (secretive) surveillance society.
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You will be, I hope, aware of a young man on the run from the ‘Empire state’ (the US) and now held up in Moscow airport.
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The whole episode raises the question of how free are we?
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How much or how little liberty are we allowed by the state we live in?
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Liberty, freedom, right to free speech, right to free movement etc is often exalted and we get preached on by the so-called democratic block of states (the West we call in short). Yet these are empty sound bites, while we all are watched intensely.
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Are we really free I ask myself? My computer is tapped or tappable if the state so desires.
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So the Empire State poem addresses this very issue, from a poet’s perspective.
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I know I am being watched! Beware you too! Free Man & Woman? Mere Empty Rhetoric!
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The Empire State
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The vastness of sky,
Misconstrued I, as home of freedom,
The wings of winds, clouds travel by
Once I thought liberty’s home
All proven wrong,
With a young man’s standing
Against the Goliath state’s espionage ring!
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The uncontained waves of oceans,
Doves flights of peaceful missions
All stood once as the pride of humans’
Aspiration to be free; yet recent missions
And omissions of empire state and allies affirm
That freedom entwined in empty dreams –
And a state’s spying ring, the body supreme
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Exaltation and oratory of liberty,
Adulation and adoration over freedom –
Deeply webbed in jiggery-pokery, a deception in honesty;
The state spy through webs, wires and modem;
Stoop low it, for steeply vague security
Concepts of state while triggering a wild chase
Of a young man, denying his right to real liberty.
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Freedom torch held high into sky
Vouch for nothing; indeed it’s a mere stone, empty
Of real virtues; it signals, sky filled with satellites
To spy on citizens and allies.
The fast internet super high ways
All snooping weapons of finer fibres,
By which state security apparatus
Imprison the entire world – no matter what’s one status.
All prisoners of the Empire State!
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Jason
Date: July 13, 2013
Categories: Articles, Party News
Shop Local Update
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COPIES of both the National Liberal Party’s Shop Local leaflet and issue 1 of Caledonian Voice were distributed in Stirling towards the end of last month. Just one determined activist distributed around 200 pieces of literature in the city – which was once the capital of Scotland and is known as the ‘Gateway to the Highlands.’
As well as Stirling, NLP literature has been distributed in Paisley, Govan, Dunfermline, Airdrie and Hamilton.
Our activist says that he hopes to distribute more literature in Stirling in due course (… “Scottish ‘Summer’ weather permitting!”)
Whilst one of our Scottish activists is more than happy to work on his own, other folks like to band together so that they can cover a larger area or run a couple of activities back-to-back.
This was recently the case in Essex where several activists got together to distribute Shop Local leaflets and posters – some of whom are pictured above right. They intend to cover various shopping centres and parades and even did one on Magna Carta Day in June!
Other areas that have received the NLPs message in support of local shops and businesses include the Isle of Wight, Devon, Canvey Island, Stockport and Ulster.
We hope to continue our Shop Local campaign indefinitely and a whole range of materials will be published. It’s hoped that the next phase of the campaign will look at the role of the banks and their dismal failure to support the small shopkeeper, businessman and entrepreneur.
If you are interested in helping out with any aspect of our campaign – particularly with the financing and distribution of leaflets – please contact us at natliberal@aol.com
Date: July 10, 2013
Categories: Party News
Open Up Your Eyes … And Say NO To British Troops In Syria
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HERE’S the latest in the National Liberal Party’s series of Open Up Your Eyes e-posters. We’re hope that the Con-Dem Government will see sense and keep its nose out of the internal affairs of at least one country. Sadly, however, both Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague seem intent on another imperialist venture.
The NLP is always on the look-out for new ideas for our e-posters – so please send any suggestions to natliberal@aol.com
Previous Open Up Your Eyes e-posters can be found here:
Opposing Post Office Privatision: http://nationalliberal.org/open-up-your-eyes-and-say-no-to-the-privatisation-of-the-post-office
Opposing the Bedroom Tax: http://nationalliberal.org/open-up-your-eyes-and-say-no-to-the-bedroom-tax
Supporting Private Enterprise: http://nationalliberal.org/open-up-your-eyes-and-say-yes-to-private-enterprise
Supporting Local Shops: http://nationalliberal.org/open-up-your-eyes-and-say-yes-to-supporting-local-shops
Date: July 7, 2013
Categories: Party News
National Liberal Debate 5 – How Do We Solve Unemployment? – Have Your Say!
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THE MANY problems faced by Britain – whether economic or social – are not going to be solved by screaming and shouting. Thus, the National Liberal Party is not interested in ‘hitting the headlines’ using the tired formula of macho–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.
The National Liberal Party seeks to build an organisation that encourages free speech and debate. To do this, we also attempt to take into consideration as many views as is possible in open debate. Thus, members and supporters are always encouraged to have their say.
We’re also interested in encouraging people to develop their debating skills. That’s why the NLP has introduced a new series of articles called Have Your Say! Whilst each subject will be announced on this web-site, they’ll be conducted in full on the National Liberals Facebook site, which can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/52739504313/?fref=ts
Before we start this debate we’d like to remind folks of our ground rules:
- First of all, say what you think – but think what you say.
- Secondly, just debate the issue(s) raised. There should be no personal attacks.
- As previously noted, we’re simply not interested in personalities.
- Please note that we may ask selected members and supporters to play ‘devil’s advocate’. Hopefully, this’ll help sharpen the debating skills of all involved!
- Finally, it should be remembered that all of the views expressed in Have Your Say! are personal and should not be taken to be the official view of the NLP itself.
With all this in mind, we just want to ask one simple question – How Do We Solve Unemployment?
• PREVIOUS National Liberal debates can be found here:
National Liberal Debate 1 – February 2013 – Should We Bring Back National Service? http://nationalliberal.org/have-your-say
National Liberal Debate 2 – March 2013 – American Imperialism … Is President Barack Obama As Bad As George W Bush? http://nationalliberal.org/american-imperialism-%e2%80%a6-is-president-barack-obama-as-bad-as-george-w-bush-have-your-say
National Liberal Debate 3 – April 2013 – What Constitutes ‘Hate’? (12/04/2013) http://nationalliberal.org/what-constitutes-%e2%80%98hate%e2%80%99-have-your-say
National Liberal Debate 4 – May 2013 – How Do We Replace Capitalism? http://nationalliberal.org/national-liberal-debate-4-%e2%80%93-how-do-we-replace-capitalism-%e2%80%93-have-your-say
Date: June 19, 2013
Categories: Articles, Party News
NLP Scotland Update June 2013
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THE BEGINNING of this month saw the Scottish Conservatives hold their annual conference in Stirling. The party that was once simply known as the Unionists and commanded 50% of the Scottish vote in the post-war period has seen better days. The 200 delegates were outnumbered two-to-one by an anti-Bedroom Tax demonstration outside of the venue. The party is reportedly in internal turmoil over leader Ruth Davidson’s proposals to look at increasing devolution of powers to Holyrood should Scotland vote “No” to independence in 2014. Many hard-line Tories are reluctant to go down this path. Although they campaigned against devolution and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, it is through gaining seats in Holyrood that the small Scottish Tory band has had its most influence in perhaps two decades. Ironically, the most media attention surrounding the conference was not generated by UK party David Cameron’s address to the delegates, (which reportedly struggled to fill the hall), but by former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling’s speech to a fringe meeting organised by an anti-independence campaign group.
Regarding the Scottish political scene generally, it looks like support for the concept of Devo-Max, a position supported by the NLP, is growing. In the event of Scotland rejecting outright independence next year there could be a real groundswell of support for further devolution as it looks like some people took a tactical view when the referendum question was being formulated of wanting a simple yes or no question without a third option in case it split the vote in favour of remaining in the UK.
The NLP in Scotland has been continuing to work away at generally raising awareness of the party. The current UK wide campaign on the theme of Shop Local has seen leaflets and posters distributed in Paisley, Govan, Dunfermline, Airdrie and Hamilton. This will continue over the summer as new areas are visited and literature distributed.
Later this summer it is hoped that issue two of Caledonian Voice, (CV), the NLP’s paper in Scotland, will be printed and ready for distribution. Since issue one was produced in July of last year, the distribution of CV has been undertaken by a handful of members and supporters who have to fit in sessions of delivering it door-to-door in between work and family commitments. In order to make issue two possible we really need more people to get involved in distributing the remaining stock of issue one. Just about everything we need is in place for issue two but we really need to free the storage space currently being taken up by boxes of issue one! Please contact NLP Head Office if you would like to help with the distribution of Caledonian Voice.
Date: June 17, 2013
Categories: NEWS CLIPS, Party News