Have Your Say!

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THE MANY problems faced by Britain – racial, economic and 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 is introducing 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 kick off with our first debate we’d like to establish a few 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, our first subject of debate is Should we bring back National Service? Allied to this main question are several others: if National Service is to be reintroduced, should it be voluntary or compulsory? How would it be introduced and for whom? Additionally, should it be purely military based – or could it involve teaching our youth a trade?

Finally, we’d also like to encourage as many people as possible to propose subjects to be discussed in future. As part of our libertarianism no subject is taboo!