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Will You Represent Your People?

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WELCOME to the last in a brief mini-series of articles looking at the three main elements of self-determination.  We’re running this to publicise the National Liberal Party’s – NLP – decision to stand for election in the Greater London Assembly elections, scheduled for 7th May 2020.  Here we’ll be standing under the slogan of Self-Determination For All!

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According to a recent report – http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/london-population/ – over Nine million people live in what’s termed the London Metropolitan Area.  And according to this London Evening Standard report – https://www.standard.co.uk/news/270-nationalities-and-300-different-languages-how-a-united-nations-of-workers-is-driving-london-6572417.html – there are around 270 different nationalities living in the capital.

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Many of these people would be economic migrants – the exploited victims of capitalism.  However, many others would’ve come to London to escape political repression in their country of origin.  It’s the latter group that we’re particularly interested in – especially the three main voting banks: Kashmiri, Sikh &  Tamil – as well as the indigenous English, are still waiting for some form of national parliament or assembly, years after those in Scotland, Ulster & Wales were given theirs.

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We intend to use the GLA election to raise awareness of the concept of self-determination, gain experience in electioneering – with special empthasis on Social Media tactics – and to forge links and build alliances between various different self-determinists living in London.  With this in mind, we’re looking for candidates who’d like to represent their people & nation at City Hall.  Candidates must live in London prepared to help partly self-finance their campaigns.  If you think that you fit the bill, please contact us as soon as possible by e-mailing natliberal@aol.com .
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In the meantime, however, we thought that it would be appropriate to provide some general background material relating to self-determination and explain why we feel that it’s such an important concept.

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A general statement – relating to the concept of self-determination – has been produced by the NLP.  We’re serialising it over the next few weeks, so that fellow self-determinists can read, digest and comment on it.

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The first section related to National Self-Determination whilst the second looked at Political Self-Determination.  We conclude with Economic Self-Determination.

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As debate is free with the NLP, we’d appreciate any comments, suggestions, queries or constructive criticism relating to our statement.  Please post them (in the comments section) on either the National Liberal Party Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NationalLiberalParty/ or the National Liberals Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313/ when you see this article posted up.

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Here’s our general statement relating to self-determination – let us know what you think:

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SELF-DETERMINATION FOR ALL!

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THE DISCONNECT between professional politicians and the people has never been greater. The decisions taken by the former are more often viewed as self-serving in the eyes of the latter.

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Professional politicians, often labelled as so-called ‘elites’, are largely divorced from the everyday experiences of the great mass of people. Thus, we should not be surprised that they are often seen to take political positions and decisions at odds with most people.

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The answer to this gulf between the present day ‘rulers’ and ‘ruled’ is found in the principle of Self-Determination; i.e. Putting decision making into the hands of the individual rather than ‘others’.

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PRINCIPLE OF SELF-DETERMINATION

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This principle can be applied largely in three areas; National, Political and Economic.

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• National Self-Determination seeks to ensure decisions affecting the collective future of a nation are taken by ALL the people via referendum. This may be ‘External’, for example: the creation or maintenance of a nation state, or ‘Internal’ – framing/updating a constitution to reflect how a people should rule themselves. (We favour independent nations and liberal, democratic, states).

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• Political Self-Determination seeks to ensure that the collective will of the people as well as the variety of political opinion is reflected in decision making. Thus, for example, we favour greater use of referendums to meet the former, and PR to reflect the latter (we favour a system close to the Swiss model of Direct Democracy).

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• Economic Self-Determination seeks to distribute ownership as widely as possible and as close to the individual as practical by favouring home ownership, self-employment, small businesses, cooperatives and employee shareholdings. (We believe that ownership is the key to economic and social health: where workers obtain a just reward for their labours and gain a feeling of well-being through their having a genuine personal stake in society).

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The above principles underpin many National Liberal policies but others are rooted in common sense and usually aim to strike a balance between conflicting opinions, as befits a centrist party.

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ALSO Check out:

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• Self-Determination For All! http://nationalliberal.org/self-determination-for-all-3

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• #SelfDetermination4All http://nationalliberal.org/selfdetermination4all

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• Greater London Assembly Elections 2020 – Help Us Fight For National & Political Self-Determination For All! http://nationalliberal.org/greater-london-assembly-elections-2020-–-help-us-fight-for-national-political-self-determination-for-all

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• Read This If You Support Self-Determination … https://nationalliberal.org/read-this-if-you-support-self-determination-…