Top: Ernest Brown was the Lıberal Natıonal (National Liberal) Mınıster for Health from 1941 – 1943. He commıssıoned the Beverıdge report that ultimately led to the introduction of the NHS. Centre: Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan (1897 - 1960) was the Labour Minister of Health who formally introduced the NHS in 1948. Bottom: Elisa O’Donovan (Independent Councillor for Limerick City West, in Éire) recently revealed that the waiting time for a routine diabetes appointment is five years!

NATIONAL LIBERALS are right to be proud of the National Health Service (NHS). Introduced 72 years ago, it replaced a patchwork of private, municipal and charity health insurance schemes. The NHS provides ‘care based on need and free at the point of delivery’ and is said to be the envy of the world.

The NHS was formally introduced – via the National Health Service Act 1946 – by Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, the Labour Minister of Health on 5th July, 1948. This meant that all UK residents were given the right to access health services offered by doctors, nurses, midwives, and dentists without having to pay directly. In Bevan’s words ‘no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.’

However, it could be argued that the NHS wouldn’t have come into being without the vision and work of Ernest Brown – the Lıberal Natıonal (National Liberal) Minister for Health from 1941 – 1943. He commissioned the Beverıdge report that ultimately led to the introduction of the NHS. (Brown was a socially progressive Liberal and was also responsible for the Unemployment Insurance (Agriculture) Act, 1936 which extended social security to nearly all workers in agriculture, forestry and horticulture.)

Despite the NHS being our National Pride, it has been underfunded for years. Many people would view this underfunding as a deliberate policy as it’s obviously caused problems in terms of staffing and efficiency. This has led to people joining private healthcare schemes and calls for parts of the NHS to be privatised. Here, capitalist concerns will simply cherry pick the most profitable sevices.

Despite these many failings, spare a thought for those who suffer from diabetes across the Irish Sea in Éire. For in the general Limerick area the waiting time for a routine diabetes appointment is five years! (For those who don’t know, if diabetes – specifically type 2 diabetes – isn’t managed correctly it can lead to all sorts of complications. These range blindness, to amputations, to heart disease.)

The shocking information relating to waiting times was confirmed by the University Hospitals Group in a response to a query raised by Independent Councillor Elisa O’Donovan –https://www.facebook.com/elisaodonovanlimerick/ Councillor O’Donnovan, who represents Limerick City West, described these delays as ‘unacceptable’ and called for more ‘staff and resources living with this chronic condition.’

The problem is alleviated slightly as local GPs can perform blood sugar tests over the long term. They can also presciribe medication. However, it’s absolutely essential that new patients get specialist advice that a GP can’t provide. New patients also need to meet dieticians & may need specialised tests.

We agree with Councillor O’Donnovan’s comments about the unacceptability of the five-year waiting list. We also support her call for more staff & resources. However, the National Liberal Party feels that there’s a deeper problem here, which touches every corner of the British Isles. We feel that more urban, sedate lifestyles and inorganic diets – where many folks appear to live on junk food and sugary drinks – have played an important part.

Indeed, as the introduction to our recent Liberty & Nation debate – http://nationalliberal.org/liberty-nation-debate-3 – noted ‘we feel that there’s a lot of merit in the old saying ‘you are what you eat.’

We’d prefer a more rooted, organic and decentralised way of life. We also believe that ‘Small is Beautiful’ – thus we support ‘small government’, regionalism, localism, food sovereignty, sustainability and selfsufficiency.’

Our introduction also asked ‘how ordinary working folks could afford organic food & how the power and influence of the big agricultural companies would be delt with.’

These are huge questions when it comes to the health of any nation – and we acknowledge that it’ll be impossible to tackle them overnight. However, we hope to both examine these questions & provide answers in the future
articles.

• WE WOULD also recommend reading the following in conjunction with the above article: News From Nowhere – Poverty & Homelessness in Britain & Éire http://nationalliberal.org/news-from-nowherepoverty-
homelessness-in-britain-eire

• ALSO CHECK OUT Facebook/National Liberals https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313/

REGULAR READERS will know that the Greater London Authority (GLA) elections would have been done and dusted by now. Originally scheduled this May, Covid-19 has seen them been postponed to May 2021.  Whilst this is unfortunate, it has allowed our friends & comrades of the National Liberal Party – who were intending to stand under the banner of Self-Determination For All! – to continue organising for the election.

As we’ve previously noted in issue 2 of Nation – the Newsletter of Nations without States – fighting elections is just part of our strategy to ensure that everyone has the right to nationhood & to decide how they’re governed.

Briefly, this strategy also includes:

• Building the infrastructure of an alternative mass media of news and entertainment. Here we’ve made a couple of small steps in the right direction with the publication of Nation and our street paper Freedom, and the establishment of our Facebook site
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184919468292372

• Building both a cultural and counter-cultural movement. This is designed to provide positive alternatives – especially for our youth – to globalism and modern consumer culture, which is designed to reduce everybody to the lowest common level by abolishing all inherited cultures and identities.

• Building a social support network. It is hoped that such a network could provide help, solidarity and humanitarian aid for our peoples both here and abroad.

In respect of elections, Nations without States would encourage self-determinists to vote for the National Liberal Party – NLP – at all elections (but especially at the forthcoming GLA elections).  We believe that their idea of engaging with various self-determinists will create a whole new voting demographic.

With the above in mind, we’d appeal to all Andalusians who’re living in or near London to contact the NLP at natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible.  If you’re living and/or working in Greater London you’re eligible to stand for election.  Those living outside of Greater London can help out via fund raising, leafletting & social media.

But who – or what – are the Andalusians?  For those who don’t know, Andalusia is one of the 17 autonomous communities that make up Spain.  (Spain is a decentralised unitary state which has devolved some powers to these communities.)

Andalucia is located south of the Iberian Peninsula.  It’s bounded by the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha to the north & Murcia to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the southeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest & Portugal to the West.

There has long been a political current towards Andalusian nationalism – sometimes called Andalusian regionalism – or Andalucismo in Spanish.  Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas (1885 – 1936) is regarded as the founder of Andalusian nationalism.  He initiated an assembly in 1913 which adopted a charter based on the autonomist Constitución Federal de Antequera, which was written in 1883 during the First Spanish Republic.  Blas Infante also designed the current flag and emblem of Andalusia.

Local self-determinists regard Andalucia as a nation, with its own cultural identity.  Some want complete independence from Spain.

Nations without States is – along with our friends & comrades in the National Liberal Party – interested in all forms of Self-Determination.  We’d therefore like to hear from any Andalucians living in the UK (generally) and London (specifically).

Unfortunately – especially in respect of the forthcoming GLA elections – there doesn’t seem to be any figures relating to Andalucians living in London.  Our guess is that they’ll simply be recorded as ‘Spanish’.  With this in mind, the 2001 UK Census found that Kensington, Regents Park & Chelsea areas of West London had the highest number of Spanish-born residents.  Also, according to a 2014 report by the Local Area Research & Intelligence Association  –  https://laria.org.uk/2014/08/map-reveals-most-common-second-languages-in-london-boroughs/ – Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the London Borough of Southwark in South London.

The question is how many of these ‘Spanish’ residents actually view themselves as Andalusian & desire Self-Determination for Andulusia?  Therefore, if there are any Andalucians out there who’d like to promote their cause at the highest level in London, please e-mail the National liberal Party at natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible.

• ALSO Check out:

From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – Calling All Aborigines, Aché, Ainu & Ahwazi People …  http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-nations-without-sates-calling-all-aborigines-ache-ainu-ahwazi-people

From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – Calling All Åland Islanders Living In London …  https://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-nations-without-states-–-calling-all-aland-islanders-living-in-london

EVERYONE KNOWS that the economy is a vital – almost central – element to life. Indeed, for some people, the need to make ‘money’ represents the very core of their outlook on life. Everyone talks about the economy and economics, but we’d hazard a guess that not many people really know much about economics – or indeed, how the economy works. Even less will know what economic system National Liberals favour.

To provide answers to a very complex subject matter, issue 1 of New Horizon – the online ideological magazine of the National Liberal Party – decided to produce a series of ‘short and sweet’ articles. The first of these articles, which describes the varied ideological influences, is reproduced below.

ECONOMICS Part 1 – The Economic Roots and influences of National Liberalism
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William Morris (left) was an English architect, furniture & textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and Guild Socialist. Lord Rosebery (right) called for Britain to become (and Britons to be part of) a ‘great property-owning democracy’. Both men have influenced the economic ideas of National Liberalism.

SOME PEOPLE reading this issue of
New Horizon will have already heard of the National Liberal Party. Those that have may have a fair idea from our name what our (political) ideological roots are. Indeed, some folks may even know about a few of our policies. However, it’s probably a safe bet that not many would be aware of what economic ideas influence and guide the NLP!

Most people instinctively know that there is something drastically wrong with our economy. After all, why do we always seem to have endless cycles of boom and bust? However, trying to explain how the entire economic system works in plain and simple terms is another matter!

Therefore, we’ve deliberately kept this article short and sweet. Our intention is to produce a series of articles on the economy that will eventually form a ‘blueprint’ on how to get Britain back to work. Firstly, however, we need to trace the economic roots of National Liberalism.

IDEOLOGICAL ROOTS?

THE National Liberal Party is rightly proud if its ideological roots. As many readers may know, they largely stem from the ideas of those who formed the Liberal Nationals (LN) headed by Sir John Simon in the early 1930s.

According to David Dutton’s book Liberals in schism – A history of the National Liberal Party, an early form of economic nationalism was the driving force behind the formation of the Liberal Nationals. He noted:

‘In 1930s 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 (ultimately coalescing under the LN banner – Ed) had come to believe that protectionist measures, contrary to Liberal dogma in favour of Free Trade, were now necessary to save British workers jobs.’

The NLP’s political roots are also unique in that they represent a combination of two classical ideological trends: Nationalism and Liberalism. This fusion of nationalism and liberalism means that we give gave equal weight to ‘national questions’ (concerning all of the nations and peoples of the British Isles and in principal, beyond) as we do to ‘liberal questions’ concerning the individual.

BEYOND CAPITALISM & COMMUNISM?

This fusion of nationalism and liberalism provides us with a general position that can be best summed up as being ‘Neither Left nor Right – Neither Capitalist nor Communist.’

It’s probably easy to envisage how one can take a political position that’s ‘Neither Left nor Right.’ For instance, some subjects – like Britain’s membership of the EU and our involvement in foreign military adventures – clearly transcend the traditional ‘left/right’ political divide.

It is not so easy to see how one can advocate an economic idea that’s ‘Neither Capitalist nor Communist’? Many readers might assume that capitalism and communism are the only two economic options that have ever been advocated? Surely they’re the only two systems that have ever been tried? Indeed, can there be some sort of ‘Third (or any) Way’ that goes beyond capitalism and communism?

To answer these questions it may be best to look first at the economic ideas that influence and guide those involved with the NLP.

VARIED INFLUENCES

Some of these influences – and the people who have promoted them – include, the liberal national interpretation of classical liberal free trade, the progressive yet pragmatic Liberal National party approach to labour relations and economic affairs e.g. Earnest Brown’s tenure as Minister for Labour or even earlier, Lord Rosebery’s call for Britain to become (and Britons to be part of) a ‘great property-owning democracy’. Then there are ‘visionary’ ideas such as the Distributism of GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, monetary reform ideas (including elements of Social Credit), even some early socialists such as Kier Hardie and Bob Blatchford and Guild Socialism (as advocated by the likes of William Morris, GDH Cole and Arthur Penty). The ideas of the Co-operative movement, the Chartists and Levellers and support for small businesses and shopkeepers, and some libertarian economists, are also of interest.

Therefore, it could be said that our economic ideological roots represent a synthesis of various radical, free-thinking ideas that seek to offer a genuine alternative to orthodox capitalist and socialist (or communist) solutions.

In future issues of New Horizon we’ll take an-depth look at all of these ideas – and the people associated with them. More importantly, we’ll also look at how they relate to modern day conditions, look at some of our distinctive economic policies, how we can get the economy back on the straight and narrow including how we can get Britons, especially our young, back to work via apprenticeships and limited forms of protectionism.

• ALSO Check out:

Build New Horizon! http://nationalliberal.org/build-new-horizon

New Horizon – Head & Heart http://nationalliberal.org/new-horizon-head-heart

New Horizon – National Liberalism In Action – Civil Liberties http://nationalliberal.org/new-horizon-–-national-liberalism-in-action-–-civil-liberties

New Horizon – National Liberalism In Action – The Nature of Democracy
http://nationalliberal.org/new-horizon-–-national-liberalism-in-action-the-nature-of-democracy

New Horizon – Ecology: The Silent Fourth Pillar of National Liberalism https://nationalliberal.org/ecology-the-silent-fourth-pillar-of-national-liberalism

OUR LAST article explained how our friends & comrades at the National Liberal Party had hoped to bring the ideal of Self-Determination to the attention of millions of voters in London (1). They were going to do this by standing up to 25 candidates in the Greater London Authority (GLA) election, which was to be held on 7th May.  Sadly, Covid-19 put paid to that.  However, all is not lost as the election has been re-scheduled for Thursday 6th May next year.

To some extent, this delay has worked in the favour of all those who’re promoting the cause of the world’s captive nations.  It means that more & more Self-Determinists can become involved in the campaign to have Self-Determination For All! placed on the ballot ticket.  Hundreds – if not thousands – of volunteers are needed to raise money & spread the word, especially via various Social Media platforms.  Organising for & standing in the GLA election is no mean feat.  A simple glance at the official London Elects web-site – https://www.londonelects.org.uk/im-candidate/nominations – will easily confirm this.

As we indicated earlier, the whole raison d’étre for the National Liberal Party standing in the forthcoming GLA election is to draw attention to the fact that countless people around the world are demanding Self-Determination – whether it be some form of recognition, autonomy or independence.

With the above in mind, we’ll now take a look at the autonomous Finnish province of the  Åland Islands. Located in the Baltic Sea – at the southern end of the Gulf of Bothnia between mainland Finland and Sweden – Åland consists of around 6,500 islands – although only around 60 are inhabited – and a population of 25,000.  The largest island is Fasta Åland where 90% of the population lives.

Despite its relative remoteness and small population, the Åland Islands have been ruled – since the early 19th Century – by Finland, Russia & Sweden. Over 90% of Ålanders consider themselves Swedish and in 1917 started to organise for their own self-determination.  Three years later Finland granted them wide-reaching cultural & political autonomy.   Additionally, since 1922, Åland has had its own parliament as well as a representative in the Finnish national parliament.  This is ok to a degree – the only problem is that Finland effectively dictates Åland’s foreign policy, civil & criminal law, customs and monetary policy.

With the above in mind, Nations without States (NwS) understand that an increasing number of people are seeking independence for the Åland Islands.  Those who advocate independence say that this should be achieved by an Åland-wide referendum.

NwS would appeal to any Ålanders – currently living in London – to get in touch with the National Liberal Party as soon as possible.  Next year’s GLA election offers an excellent opportunity for Ålanders to promote their cause of self-determination to those living in Greater London area, which has a population of over nine million 9 (2).

We understand that the National Liberal Party is still looking for candidates, as well as help with their Social Media campaign & public activities like canvassing and leafletting.  Help with fund raising is also required.  If you want to promote the cause of the Ålanders – or any other group who desire Self-Determination – then don’t hesitate to email the NLP at nalliberal@aol.com

Make history – not excuses: On Thursday 6th May next year vote for Self-Determination For All!

1)  From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – Calling All Aborigines, Aché, Ainu & Ahwazi People … http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-nations-without-sates-calling-all-aborigines-ache-ainu-ahwazi-people

2)  https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/london-population

• CHECK OUT Nations without States on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/184919468292372/

WELCOME to the third in a series of debates being hosted by Liberty & Nation – The Voice Of The National Liberal Party. As with our first two debates – about Permaculture and Earthship Biotecture – this one also relates to a more holistic & philosophical way of living in tune with nature. This debate is no different, as it examines Carolyn Steel’s claim that we need to produce and eat ‘artisanal, organic, local and seasonally produced’ food.

Her article – Back To The Future – appeared in Wicked Leeks (the online magazine produced by Riverford Organic Farmers of Buckfastleigh, Devon) a couple of weeks ago. The original can be found here: https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/big-interview-environment-ethics-organics-price/back-future

Liberty & Nation is interested Carolyn Steel’s ideas – as we feel that there’s a lot of merit in the old saying ‘you are what you eat.’ We’d prefer a more rooted, organic and decentralised way of life. We also believe that ‘Small Is Beautiful!’ – thus we support ‘small government’, regionalism, localism, food sovereignty, sustainability and self-sufficiency.

With the above in mind, we’d ask our readers to carefully consider her ideas (which, in many ways, gel with our own). We’re particularly interested in how ordinary working folks could afford organic food & how the power and influence of the big agriculatural companies would be dealt with. Put bluntly, are her ideas realistic – or are they just a pipe dream? Share your thoughts on the National Liberals Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

It goes without saying that there are no official links between between Carolyn Steel, Wicked Leeks, Liberty & Nation and the National Liberal Party.

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Back To The Future

Carolyn Steel is the author of Sitopia. She believes that the only good food is that which is artisanal, organic, local and seasonally produced. Steel despises what she calls ‘big ag’, or the big agricultural companies that she argues are unsustainably destroying the planet. What do you think?

THE COVID-19 CRISIS has given us all food for thought, but for Carolyn Steel, that sense of reflection is more profound than for most.

The 60-year-old author and passionate advocate of a radically changed food system brought out her new book, https://www.waterstones.com/book/sitopia/

carolyn-steel/9780701188719 Sitopia, exactly as the lockdown was being announced. A coincidence it might have been, but it gave a sharp relevance to her topic that she never could have imagined.

As a Cambridge-educated architect who has run her own design studios and worked on a range of major building projects, Steel is well placed to have a view on how to mould a modern city. The name Sitopia comes from the Greek – ‘sitos’, meaning food, and ‘topos’, meaning place – but it’s hard to avoid parallels with Thomas More’s Utopia, the 16th century socio-political satire based around an idealistic island society. Those parallels are only heightened by a sense that she longs for a simpler time, when food and family were the overriding concern and centrepiece of every citizen’s life.

Steel argues that the lockdown offers the opportunity for a reset, a chance to rebuild society around rediscovered pleasures such as a connection with local food, family dining, and home cooking. “In Sitopia, I argue that one of the things that’s making us unhappy in the late capitalist world is we’ve lost the ability to live in time; we are always running and nobody has got any time, and of course Covid has given us that back,” she explains.

“If I were in government, I would be saying we need to be coming out of this [Covid-19 crisis] on a totally different trajectory from the one we went in on,” she continues. “We were heading towards catastrophe. You don’t need Greta Thunberg to tell you if you’re 55 per cent down on insect species you’re in trouble. We were on this disastrous trajectory.

“We have to use this time to create a new vision for what a good life looks like, to incorporate all the things that people have accidentally had under lockdown – more time with their kids, new connections with local producers, local WhatsApp groups, people baking for each other. All that stuff is absolute gold dust. A visionary government would be saying we will try to build towards allowing many of those things to continue. This is quite close to designing Sitopia.”

Steel is passionate and engaging, perhaps unsurprising given her background is a lively mix of architecture, economics and blue-sky thinking. Her credentials extend to becoming the inaugural studio director of the London School of Economics Cities Programme in 1998 and working as a visiting lecturer and researcher at the Rural Sociology Department at the esteemed Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her 2009 TED Talk in Oxford – https://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_steel_how_food_shapes_our_cities?language=en – looking at how food shapes our cities, has garnered over 1.2 million views.

Sitopia is Steel’s second book and comes with the lofty strapline of ‘How Food Can Save The World’. It takes the ideas of her debut, 2008’s Hungry City –https://www.waterstones.com/book/hungry-city/carolyn-steel/9780099584476 – forward and discusses in great detail what she calls ‘Sitopian economics’, which is to say pre-cost accounting, or internalising the true cost of food. Put more simply, she believes food is too cheap and needs to be valued again, and the food we eat must be nutritious, produced sensitively and at no damage to the environment. In her vision, the only good food is that which is artisanal, organic, local and seasonally produced, and she despises what she calls ‘big ag’, or the big agricultural companies that she argues are unsustainably destroying the planet.

“Everything else [other than organic] cannot be described as good because it has negative downsides that are killing us and are killing the planet,” she insists. “It also happens that that is the only food for which we already pay the true cost. I think everyone should eat that kind of food. It’s a long argument I make in the book. The aim has to be to eat only organically.”

Steel could hardly be a stronger advocate for organic, but that doesn’t mean she thinks the movement is getting everything right. She believes it needs a “new language” and to “start talking more in a big-bannerish way, and stress that soil is our future.” Organic associations should take the fight to the agricultural giants, she says, by adopting their catchphrase – that the big ag model is the only way of feeding the world – and flipping it on its head, claiming that organic production is in fact the only approach that can save humanity.

Big ambitions are all well and good, but what about the fact that not everybody can afford to buy organic? Steel responds that she believes society is the wrong way up: poor wages equal a need for cheap food and a race to the bottom on price. Instead, she wants higher levels of pay, proper taxation models that clamp down on the offshoring of wealth, a more equitable society. She admits that supermarkets are “extraordinary” but laments the power they wield and the industrial-sized supply chains they’ve created.

It all sounds unashamedly utopian – but then that’s the point. Steel believes that food should be the starting point around which all of society is constructed, an aspect that she explores in great detail from both a historical and modern perspective, lamenting the passing of days when markets were the centrepiece around which cities were built.

If Covid has brought one good thing, teaching people to re-learn this central appreciation for their food and families could well be it.

• CHECK out the first two Liberty & Nation debates here:

Liberty & Nation Debate (1) – Can Permaculture Ensure Self-Determination & Food Sovereignty? http://nationalliberal.org/liberty-nation-debate-1-can-permaculture-ensure-self-determination-food-sovereignty

Liberty & Nation Debate (2) Can Earthship Biotecture Help Solve Britain’s Housing Crisis? http://nationalliberal.org/liberty-nation-debate-2-can-earthship-biotecture-help-solve-britain’s-housing-crisis

• DON’T FORGET to Like the National Liberal Party on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalLiberalParty/

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AS STRANGE as it seems, there doesn’t seem to be any agreed or hard and fast definition of what really constitues ‘democracy.’ Despite this, the term is continually used (and sometimes overused!) particularly by Establishment politicians.

Everyone agrees that the term ‘democracy’ has its origins in ancient Greece. The word comes from demos, meaning ‘common people’ and kratos, meaning ‘strength.’ From this, it’s also generally agreed that the term means ‘rule by the people’. So far, so good. However, that’s where we of the National Liberal Party differ with all establishment parties. This is because we have great problems with the idea of ‘representative democracy.’

‘Representative democracy’ is the current system employed in the Houses of Parliament, at Westminster. Here, ordinary people are absent participants – therefore, politicians are chosen to act in place of the electorate for the life time of the parliament.

In reality, this means that ‘representative democracy’ only offers a façade of what could be called true democracy. Once an MP is elected, they can, more or less, do what they want – or vote how they like. They effectively do the thinking for their electorate. Additionally, no-one truly knows who they’re voting for. This is particularly so atnational level. Whilst some information is available on political candidates, not many voters know who’s really backing their wannabe MP.

And the National Liberal Party – NLP – are not the only folks to raise such a query. Indeed, the famous fantasy author Professor JRR Tolkien had this to say:

‘The true equation is ‘democracy’ equals government by world financiers. The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.’

Even if only part of what Tolkien describes is true, it becomes fairly clear that ‘representative democracy’ – especially at national level – is not fit for purpose. As we mentioned earlier, we’re really only living under the illusion of democracy. The National Liberal Party believes that this is a farcical situation and needs to be replaced.

Real power needs to be taken away from the corporate elites (including the banksters) and restored to the people. The electorate need to have more input into the running of the country than merely trotting off, like sheep, to the polling station every few years.

If we have difficulties with the farcical system of ‘representative democracy’ used to populate the House of Commons, then imagine the problems the NLP has with the House of Lords. At least the Commons pretends to be democratic – the Lords doesn’t even try!

The House of Lords consists of 795 seats. Of these 90 are filled by hereditary peers who’re elected among themselves – with another two peers who are considered ex officio members. The rest are all appointed. As most people should know by now, the political system always looks after its own. Thus, both the Tories & Labour Party tend to ‘kick upstairs’ those MPs who have served the system well. Is it any wonder that many people consider the House of Lords as some form of ‘old boy network’ with a few token females thrown in for good measure?

The NLP values loyalty. We also like tradition. However, we feel that the House of Lords represents a form of loyalty & tradition that needs to go. But what should it be replaced by?

Arthur Joseph Penty (1875 – 1937) was one person who gave this some thought. Penty was a noted Christian Socialist – who advocated a return to the Guilds – and Distributist. In his 1906 book The Restoration of the Gild System, he had this to say:

‘As to the form which the Government of the future will take it is not improbable that the division of function between the Upper and Lower Chambers will continue, with this difference, that whereas the lower chamber would be elected by the people in their private capacity the members of the Upper Chamber would be nominated by the Gilds.

Such an arrangement would seem to secure for democracy what at present it appears to be incapable for itself the leadership of the best and wisest. Accurate thinking does not readily lend itself to platform oratory, and so it happens that owing to a disability to enforce their views at public meetings the community is deprived of the services of a large section of the most thoughtful members of the community. The creation, however, of an upper chamber whose members were the nominees of the Gilds would remedy this deficit by removing oratory from the list of necessary qualifications for political life, and with the wisest at the helm the present anarchic tendencies of democracy would be checked; the principle of authority on a popular basis would be thereby established, while a balance of power between the various interests on the State would be automatically maintained.’

The NLP regards Penty as a ‘point of reference’ in that we believe he has either said and/or done things that we find of interest. We certainly believe that his views concerning an Upper Chamber – based on members of the Guilds – provides plenty of food for thought. It has some merit to it and ought to be debated as such. One thing is clear though – the House of Lords has to go! And it needs to be replaced with an institution that recognises that the people remain sovereign at all times. In short, we feel that True Democracy can only be achieved via a system whereby Personal Self Determination is ensured!

• CHECK OUT our original Democracy Posters e-posters:

Swiss Model! http://nationalliberal.org/swiss-model

Why Are The Swiss Happier Than The British? http://nationalliberal.org/why-are-the-swiss-happier-than-the-british

Our Political System Has Failed! https://nationalliberal.org/our-political-system-has-failed

Replace Westminster! http://nationalliberal.org/replace-westminster