ST. PATRICK’S DAY (17 March) saw a meeting of the National Liberal Party’s Steering Committee. Held in Central London it discussed ways of building – and promoting – Progressive Nationalism throughout the British Isles.

THE National Liberal Party will soon be contacting Alex Salmond concerning the proposed draft Scottish Constitutional Referendum Bill.

David Kerr – pictured left – a member of the NLPs Steering Committee – has been tasked with drawing up our submission to the Scottish Government. This is the body which will consider all details and options relating to the vote on Scotland’s future.

The NLPs submission is likely to focus on two main areas.

The first is the need to have a truly democratic vote. As it stands at the moment, this is not possible as Scots will only be allowed to choose between two options. These are independence and the union.

We feel that this is unfair and unjust. The NLP believes that at least one other option should be provided. This ‘third option’ would be Devo-Max, an idea which is gaining ground in Scotland. (Briefly, Devo-Max will keep Scotland in the United Kingdom but it’ll have the power to raise and spend its own money. Westminster will only look after ‘UK wide’ services like Defence and Foreign Affairs. The NLP believes that Devo-Max is an important option that many people would prefer.)

To this end the National Liberal Party is busy campaigning in Scotland on the issue of having a ‘third option’ on the ballot paper.

The second objective of our submission will be to raise the idea of a Scottish Preferendum – as opposed to a Scottish Referendum.

A preferendum is a multi-option voting process for use in decision-making. The procedures for a preferendum cover both the debate which precedes the vote, as well as the vote-and-count. A referendum, on the other hand, is a direct vote in which an entire electorate are asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal.

Although they may sound similar, a preferendum is much more democratic that a referendum. A preferendum also ensures that more people are happier with the eventual outcome. Here’s how:

Say the Scottish Referendum only allows people to vote for one of two choices. At the moment that’s either independence or remaining part of the union. Even if a majority – say 51 per-cent voted for the union – that leaves a sizeable minority (49%) opposing it.

Additionally, if the Scottish Referendum included Devo-Max on the ballot paper, many people can also be left bitterly disappointed.

Say 31 per–cent of Scots vote for the union. 30 per-cent may vote for Devo-Max and 29% for independence. Here it can be seen that overwhelming majority (59 to 31%) have voted against union.

With a referendum, the largest minority wins! Such a referendum can’t really be said to truly reflect the mood of a country. It can’t really be said to be a truly democratic vote.

However, in a preferendum, the electorate can cast a vote in favour of a whole spectrum of ideas.

Say there are three options – the union, Devo-Max and independence. The voter can cast 3 points for their most preferred option, 2 points for their next favourite and 1 point for their last choice.

At the count, all the points for each of the options shall be totaled and expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score as a level of consensus. The option which gets the greatest number of first preference votes wins.

The National Liberal Party feels that this would be a much more democratic way of conducting business. It leaves the vast majority of people happy – and, importantly, less people will feel cheated.

As we noted in a previous article – Scottish Update of 24 March 2012 – those interested in helping out with the NLPs submission should contact us at natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible.

We hope to have our submission in towards the end of this month, so look out for more news on this in the very near future.

In the meantime, information about Preferendums can be found here: http://www.deborda.org/faq/what-is-a-preferendum/

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REGULAR READERS may recall that Glen Maney – National Secretary of the National Liberal Party – was interviewed some time ago by the Isle of Wight County Press. We’ll, he’s in the news again! This time he’s been interviewed by the NLPs very own Isle of Wight Voice.

The original article (1) just noted Glen’s intention to stand for the NLP in one of the Island’s two seats at the next General Election. It also mentioned that the “former LibDem said he joined the party after becoming disillusioned with Nick Clegg.”

The NLPs follow up article (2) provided a brief history concerning the strength of liberalism in the general area. It announced:

“The National Liberal Party of today wants to build upon that original support and is back with Glen with new ideas it hopes will attract local support.”

It also provided full details of Glen’s statement to the press. In it, he outlined the dire situation many on the Island face:

“The Isle of Wight is like everywhere else suffering from the credit crunch with, for example, high youth unemployment, unacceptable levels of crime, high hospital waiting lists and an erosion of standards of living as prices rise, whilst wages stagnate. The National Liberals say that it doesn’t have to be this way.”

He then outlined the NLPs vision of spending money getting people back to work. For instance, it would crack down on tax avoidance by giant capitalist firms such as Vodaphone and wouldn’t waste money on imperialist ventures like foreign wars.

Glen also outlined a raft of measures such as introducing “into law the use of Referendums.” This would allow the people to vote on issues of national importance such as immigration, Britain’s membership of the EU, nuclear power and so on.

The NLP would also “introduce a Civil Liberties watchdog.” This would ensure that neither the Government nor private institutions could “take away our freedoms.”

Subjects such as civic service and the environment were also covered.

Now, in an exclusive new interview with the Isle of Wight Voice, Glen has returned specifically to the theme of unemployment on the Island.

Describing unemployment levels as “a disgrace” Glen hits out at the Con-Dem Government, which needs to do much more to solve the social and economic problems faced by Islanders.

Youth unemployment in particular needs to be tackled:

“Nearly five per cent of those on the Island aged between 16 – 64 are unemployed. That’s higher than both the South Eastern regional average of 2.7% and the national average of 4%. It’s an absolute disgrace.”

Still on the theme of unemployment, he notes:

“It’s said that for every job available on the Island, there are around 16 people applying for it. Sadly, it’s a figure that you’d normally associate with deprived inner-city areas of London, Birmingham, Liverpool or Manchester.

Here we are in one of the most beautiful parts of England and we’re sitting on a social and economic time-bomb. If Islanders can’t find work, we’ll start facing the serious social problems associated with long-term unemployment.”

As with the County Press interview, Glen tells the Isle of Wight Voice that he feels that there’s plenty of money in the UK pot, but ordinary working families just don’t get a look in.

“Each year the super-rich avoid paying around £420 billion in tax. Three years ago, the government managed to find £45 billion to bail out the Royal Bank of Scotland. How much has our involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya cost us? How much did the MPs Expenses Scandal cost us? How much does it cost us to stay in the EU?”

He concludes by saying:

“They need to clamp down on the super-rich and knock some of these payments on the head. The money saved should be put towards creating jobs for Islanders – especially the young!”

Members and supporters of the National Liberal Party are urged to get hold of their copy of the Isle of Wight Voice – even if they don’t live anywhere near the Island! To get hold of it simply e-mail natliberal@aol.com and ask for your FREE pdf copy of the Isle of Wight Voice (Issue 1).

(1) http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/comic-to-stand-as-mp-41781.aspx

(2) http://nationalliberal.org/national-liberal-national-secretary-says-we-are-back

The popular 80’s and 90’s show ‘The Minder’ featured a character called Arthur Daley, the classical second-hand car dealer selling a product of dubious value. The NLP’s National Secretary, Glen Maney, narrates a video that looks at a modern and political version of such a character……

South-West Regional Organiser Glen Nicklasson addresses the NLP's Steering Committee

The National Liberal Party Steering Committee met last Saturday (17th March) at a prestigious site in Central London to discuss the party’s future plans. Ultimately these are to build the organisation into one that can iinfluence political development in the UK (and potentially globally) by implementing in whole or part its ideological beliefs. For example, decentralising power, reforming the electoral system including the introduction of regular referendums, enshrining civil liberties in a written constitution, mmaintaining an independent but neutral nation(s) state, turning the British economy into one where owners work and workers own as self-employed, partnerships and cooperatives, and protecting our ‘green & pleasant’ land.

The Committee believes however that this can only be achieved as part of a ‘centrist’ coalition ranging from centre-left to right. The Committee discussed plans to launch just such an cooperative alliance in the very near future.

Presently the party would build its organisation by raising awareness by promoting themes that reflect its ideas e.g. supporting the Falkland Islander’s right to self-determination (nationalism), fighting the war on drugs by decriminalisation of their use (libertarianism), and backing employee rights (social justice).

Tamil MP Mr. Sockalingam Yogalingam is welcomed by the NLP's Graham Williamson onto the forthcoming Nations Without States

Ways of promoting these ideas were discussed, including the use of video’s and social media. Reports were read out from various activists, including Glen Nicklasson of the popular South-West Region. Details were revealed of a new section on the party website to be known as the ‘Liberty Wall’, hosting pages and links to campaigning groups sponsored or supported by the party. One such new group is the Nations Without States. This will promote the principle of self-determination and help coordinate all those groups based in the UK campaigning for small nation’s throughout the globe. Apart from the NLP’s Steering Committee’s Graham Williamson this includes a Tamil MP and a leading Sikh activist. Attendees attended a social at the end of the meeting and raised a toast to the future.

EARLIER this month, we noted that issue 1 of the Isle of Wight Voice – the Voice of the National Liberal Party on the Isle of Wight – would be out fairly soon. The NLP is happy to announce that it should be out towards the very end of March.

We intend to build a media that will appeal to all sections of British society. Our media will be targeted at various levels so as to appeal to those who’d normally read the Sun, Star or Mirror right through to those who read in-depth and thoughtful publications like the Times and Telegraph.

Why not pre-order your copy of the Isle of Wight Voice? Simply e-mail natliberal@aol.com and ask to be sent a FREE pdf copy of the Isle of Wight Voice as soon as it’s published!