Friday, 29 March 2024

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People’s Alliance (UK) Press Release

CROSS YOUR FINGERS AND VOTE AV!

The members of the new political campaigning group – The People’s Alliance (UK) – are launching their first public campaign on the 14th December.

The campaign entitled ‘CROSS YOUR FINGERS’ is calling upon the British electorate to vote YES to the forthcoming referendum (May 2011) on introducing the Alternative Vote (AV) at future Parliamentary elections.

Both of the two founding political parties – The National Liberal Party & the United People’s Party – would have preferred a vote on introducing genuine electoral reform such as Proportional Representation (PR) where all shades of opinion are represented in the Chamber. They say however that if the NO vote against any change wins, those supporting the present system (including the First Past the Post) will say “You’ve had your referendum, the matter is now settled for the next 100 years!” .

They are therefore calling upon the public to ‘cross their fingers’ and vote YES and hope this will lead onto further reform including the introduction of a form of PR.

A leaflet (bespoke versions by both parties) entitled ‘HavE YOUR SAY’ is being released on the day and will be distributed up to the vote.

The launch date of the 14th December has been chosen to coincide with the 1918 General Election which was based on the Representation of the People’s Act of that year that extended the vote to the majority of men and for the first time included (some) women. A YES vote will also result in voting reform.

End

Cllr. David Durant – National Secretary NLP natliberal@aol.org & 07761976219

Cllr. Andrew Stott – Leader UPP asg.stott@virgin.net

‘Members of the PA (UK) coalition (composed of Independent parties) are not surrendering their values or identities, but agree to promote common values in a spirit of co-operation. We are determined to put our best foot forward and work together for a cause that we all stand firmly in favour of.’

National Liberal Party (NLP) www.nationalliberal.org

The National Liberals are a (national) Liberal party in the UK that believes that the personal liberty of a nation’s citizens is paramount whilst accepting that this freedom is best preserved within the framework of a democratic nation state. A National Liberal therefore views democracy and patriotism as two sides of the same coin. They call this ‘National Liberalism’. It presently believes that personal liberties are under threat from a Big Brother state and Independence by interfering bureaucracies like the EU.

United Peoples Party (UPP) www.unitedpeoplesparty.org.uk

The United People’s Party is a political party in the UK that works to combine the ideals of nationalism with those of equality and tolerance, fighting for the freedoms of the individual and promoting national unity. This is a party for all the people of Britain, regardless of faith, colour, sexuality, disability or origin. Together, united under one banner, we will change this country for the better.


Download the NLP version of the leaflet by clicking here


Book Review: Liberals in schism – A history of the National Liberal Party

A FORGOTTEN TALE

Whilst the modern day National Liberal Party in the UK was only formed a few years ago there was an earlier version.

In 1930’s Britain the Parliamentary Liberal Party was divided over the measures they believed were required to govern a Britain rocked by a world depression. A minority had come to believe that protectionist measures, contrary to Liberal dogma in favour of Free Trade, were now necessary to save British workers jobs .

Bedevilled by personality clashes and disagreements over whether to support a Lib-Lab Coalition, a National Government or outright ‘independence’ these differences turned into a split. In 1931 a group of MPs under the leadership of Sir John Simon openly supported the formation of a National Government which vowed to introduce import tariffs. The Parliamentary Group called itself the Liberal Nationals (LN) to differentiate itself from the ‘Independent’ Liberals.

FORGOTTEN

Although the group continued in some format or other until 1968 few political commentators recall their existence let alone discuss their relative importance. The book by David Dutton Liberals in schism is an attempt to rectify this gap in our knowledge.

Dutton himself explains this collective ‘memory loss’ to three factors; the history was written by their rivals (Liberal Party) victors that sought to minimise, ridicule and focus on the LNs eventual absorption by the Conservatives, their unwavering support for an ultimately discredited National Government and the personal unpopularity of their leader amongst other political figures.

Despite all this the LN’s were crucial to sustaining the ‘National’ identity of the Governments between 1931-40 (and delivered Liberal votes), forced the Conservatives to marginalise their right-wing and contributed to the almost catastrophic decline of the Liberal Party. Indeed the author maintains that it was by no means certain that the LN would not capture the heart of Liberalism and replace the Liberal Party as its premier voice.

LN leaders themselves certainly thought so as per the quote from Leslie Hore-Belisha (an LN Minister) in 1936 ‘That day may not be distant when the Liberal Nationals will be regarded as the true preservers of our tradition’. Of course they benefited by a first-past-the-post electoral system which meant that their smaller number of unopposed (by Conservatives) candidates had a greater chance of success than the opposed Liberal Party candidates. Before the Second World War this meant that they were usually the larger group of ‘Liberal’ MPs, invariably won out in rare Liberal-LN contests and in the early 1950s even obtained the most votes.

DOOMED

Ultimately though they were doomed by the loss of personnel due to the war and the greater fusion of ideas within both LN and Conservative parties. The latter realised that the LNs needed them more than the other way round and pounced upon the LNs at their weakest moment and persuaded them to form joint Constituency organisations under the Woolton-Teviot pact of 1947. This in turn meant the smaller LNs (or National Liberals as they became known) were absorbed by the larger Conservatives (as had occurred to the Liberal-Unionists some fifty years earlier).

The Liberal Nationals are interesting because they were prepared to support coalition politics and ditch dogma in the national interest. Some believed they were upholding an honourable tradition in Liberalism that was again in the ascendant. Hore-Belisha again ‘We shall have to fight and I think take the offensive for the soul of Liberalism, maintaining that we are in the Rosebery tradition*’

Others thought that since the Liberal Party seemed no longer capable of vying for power (becoming a much smaller ‘third’ party in a two-party system) they should attempt to influence others particularly the predominant Conservatives by working within Government. Lord Simon is quoted as saying that Liberals should not ‘deplore the spread of Liberalism which had now got into so many people’s blood that it had almost ceased to be the Liberals’ own particular strain’. In other words the idea e.g. personal liberty before the Party.

Of course the alternative explanation says they were motivated by personal interest ‘to save their parliamentary seats and prepared to sell their political souls to the Conservative devil in order to gain a finger-hold on the seat of power’.

AN ALTERNATIVE LIBERALISM

Whatever the motives a number of them reflected a patriotic element within Liberalism who were attracted to the Liberal party by ‘political liberalism’ i.e. civil liberty and individual freedom i.e. independent of authority – self-employed, smallholder, home-owner. It expressed itself in different ways at different times e.g. amongst the 19th century Liberal-Unionists, ‘Rosebery
ites’ and not always in the Party e.g. 1930 Distributists. However by and large after the mid- nineteenth century It was increasingly marginalised and usually suppressed.

This book (ISBN: 9781845116675) is a valuable contribution to any study of that ‘alternative’ Liberal tradition – patriotic, ‘politically’ liberal, consensual and preference for the economically independent. Today we believe it can flourish best outside the Liberal (Democratic) Party via an alternative one, the National Liberals.

* Lord Rosebery, the last Liberal Prime Minister of the 19th century, was a Liberal ‘Imperialist’ whose aim was to turn Britain into a great property-owning democracy.


Residents Association abstains in key Essex planning vote

A motion presented by the Independent Local Residents Group (ILRG) to support the NLP backed ‘Village Green’ planning application for Abbs Cross/Hornchurch road in Essex was turned down at Havering Council’s Full Council on Wednesday evening. 

 
National Liberal campaigner David Durant said “We expected Conservatives Councillors to oppose the application as they want to incorporate the land into Harrow Lodge Park and thus still allow them to sell the land in the future. We were disappointed however to see the RA’s abstaining on the vote. Given that this included a number of Hornchurch councillors, residents will be dismayed at their behaviour!
 
Fortunately this is a planning application and it will eventually go to a planning committee vote. We still hope to win that vote and save the green”. 

NLP backed candidate wins seat

An independent candidate backed by the National Liberal Party (NLP) has won a Council seat.  Michael Burton topped the poll with 661 votes. His closest rival came a comfortable margin behind. The NLP and Third Way were criticised by ‘Nutzis’ and extremists for backing Michael just because he is black. To be fair, the BNP itself did not target or attack Michael. They fought a clean campaign. We support Michael because he is the best man for the job – and the voters have agreed! Good to see that so many saw beyond mere skin colour and voted for a positive policy agenda.

Michael tells us he aims to represent everyone in the ward to the best of his ability, including those who voted for the British National Party. He says he will listen to them and deal sympathetically with any genuine local concerns as he will those who voted for other Parties. 

Full results for the South Hornchurch (Havering by-election) are:-
Michael Deon Burton, Independent, 661
Anthony Allan Steff, British National Party, 518
Christopher Peter Richard Ryan, Conservative, 438
Graham Michael Carr, Labour, 416
Reg Whitney, Havering Residents Association, 287
Craig Jason Litwin, UK Independence Party, 64
Dr Peter Thorogood, English Democrats – ‘Putting England First!’, 28  
Malvin Paul Brown, Residents Association of London, 17
Mark Ronald Whitehead, No description, 17

 


By-Election campaign hots up

As previously reported the National Liberal Party (NLP) withdrew its candidate at the forthcoming council by-election in South Hornchurch in favour of an Independent (but part of the coalition group -The Peoples Alliance). Following on so soon from the London Assembly elections it came as a surprise to find no less than nine candidates. Already the more serious ones have begun distributing leaflets: Labour (4), Conservative (3), BNP (2), and UKIP (1). Our activists have been busily helping the Independent candidate and his team with his own leaflet(s) (which includes an endorsement from our local NLP Chairman).

Sadly some neo-Nazis have sought to attack Michael Burton on account merely of his skin colour. They have attacked the NLP for supporting his campaign. To his credit the British National Party candidate has not involved himself in this kind of naked race hate and has campaigned on the issues. The NLP message is clear. We support Michael because we believe he is the best man for the job. We will intensify our campaigning on his behalf in response to these embittered, twisted misfits.

A popular Community activist (and the only local candidate) Michael Deon Burton has an excellent chance of winning the seat. All  local NLP supporters have been urged to lend him support. As usual all the establishment parties are jumping on Michael’s bandwagon i.e. opposition to over-development (of greater local importance than national policy). Of course their concern prior to the election was noticeable by its absence and will doubtless fade again after. Hopefully voters are now wise to this establishment cycle of interest during elections and disinterest before and after. 


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