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From November, the Government is introducing outside London, forty-one Police & Crime Commissioners that will replace existing county police authorities. They will set priorities, oversee the budget and hire the Chief Constable for the local force. This is a radical departure in policing for England & Wales for it introduces an elected position with little or no police background necessary. The Coalition says that Police Authorities had no real public accountability. Whether an elected Commissioner will either (given our experience of MPs) remains to be seen. Policing is of course a very serious matter and electing an impartial, professional and effective Commissioner is paramount. So much so that our Kent representative John Botting has put himself forward as a prospective candidate. Here is his manifesto.

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John Botting – Prospective Kent Police & Crime Commissioner

I have lived, worked and owned businesses in Kent for the majority of my life I was a special constable for 3 years in Maidstone during the 1980’s before relocating for a period of time to Dorset, where I continued as a special. In April 1990 I joined the British Transport Police and relocated back to Kent, but based in London with the BTP. I worked as a PC through to 1997 when I resigned to go back to the business world. During my time in the police I carried out several roles, from working in a public order unit where I also had responsibility for anti-terrorism work, to a local beat office, to working under-cover on a special project, to an admin role, to eventually being a training officer.

One of the main reasons I left the police was due to the very negative environment I found myself in, particularly in training where officers with 10 years’ service were counting down the remaining 20 years service they had to retirement! The frustration with officers allegedly on long term sick due to stress, the political manoeuvrings of senior officers in one-upmanship games to get the next promotion, witnessing regular homophobic treatment of individuals and racist behaviour. All this started to take its toll plus the frustrations of officers not really doing what they were paid to do which was POLICE!!!

Reason For Standing – Since the 1990’s my attitude to policing and society as a whole has changed. When I look at how the police service has changed, I don’t see it as being for the better. I believe that I am uniquely placed as a previously active front line police officer and also special constable to understand the police officers in Kent. However, I have also been a victim of crime on numerous occasions, burglary, my car stolen, vandalised and broken into. Also during my period on the public order unit I was a victim of bullying by the unit’s Sergeant, who was ultimately dismissed from the force. Therefore, I feel I am well placed to understand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of crime. I also feel that the Kent PCC should not be a career politician, standing merely to raise their profile in their party. I want to decentralise the power of policing back to the people from the county HQ, recognising the importance of the local area, local families, local businesses and local issues.

Politics – Although I am a member of a political party I am in no way a career Politician. As a National Liberal (note I am NOT a LibDem!) my political ideology is a combination of classical Liberalism and Libertarianism. In other words, freedom of the individual and personal Liberty, opposition to Big Brother Governments and political correctness, and policing only with the consent of the general public.

If you would like to read my detailed Manifesto please click here HERE. If you would like to support my campaign please e-mail me a pledge of money (I need over £5k for the campaign) at natliberal@aol.com.

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!

When the National Liberal Party was formed its’ first action was to take part in a by-election in Havering, Essex*. The candidate was one of the founding members David Durant who was running a local campaign to turn a green space in the Council ward (St. Andrews) into a Village Green. This space had recently come under threat of development (12 storey flats) but locals had successfully prevented the Conservative Council from implementing their plans. The Village Green application would have protected the land from being developed for ever (beyond an Act of Parliament!). The application has not been processed by the Council for fear of losing but because it is still ‘live’ no development can ever be actioned until it is.

David is now an elected councillor in a different ward. The mantle of representative for the area has fallen to Mr. Graham Littlechild. His campaigning interests are the (poor) state of the roads and local police cover. He has produced the NLP’s ward latest newsletter ‘St. Andrew’s Voice’ on these issues but includes a message from David urging locals to be vigilant in protecting our green spaces. If you would like a copy of this newsletter please e-mail head office at natliberal@aol.com. If you are interested in producing your own local newsletter let us know too!

* The result was Conservative 1828, Havering Residents Ass. 310, Labour 210, National Liberal Party 170 (6.4%), UKIP 134

THE NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY has just produced issue 1 of English Voice.

This first issue argues that the Westminster establishment systematically discriminates against England and the English people. There are three main areas of discrimination:

Firstly, every other nation in Britain has some form of self-government. The Scottish Parliament sits at Holyrood, Ulster has Stormont and the Welsh have the National Assembly for Wales. As English Voice notes, the “only people who don’t have a say in the running of their own country are the English!”

Secondly, the English are also discriminated against in Westminster itself via the West Lothian Question. This means that Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs at Westminster can vote on policies that only affect England. Yet English MPs can’t vote on policies that have been devolved to local level in Scotland, Ulster and Wales.

Thirdly, the Barnett Formula (the mechanism used by Her Majesty’s Treasury to adjust automatically the amounts of public expenditure allocated throughout the UK) ensures that England gets a raw deal when it comes to the money spent on public services.

To ensure fair play for all, English Voice – the Voice of the National Liberal Party in England – advocates Devo-Max for the English!

Describing Devo-Max as a form of ‘unity through diversity’ the publication note that “the English will be able to establish a parliament and government for England. This will have the power to raise and spend its own money.”

Under the NLPs plans, Westminster will only look after ‘UK wide’ services like defence and foreign affairs. It also means that Britain can be transformed into a federation of free and equal nations.

Find out more about the NLPs radical and innovative call for Devo-Max! To get hold of issue 1 now, simply e-mail natliberal@aol.com and ask for your FREE pdf copy of English Voice.