WELCOME TO THE third and final instalment of our mini-series of articles which has looked at the various forms of Self-Determination.   

Whilst the whole raison d’etre of the National Liberal Party is Self-Determination, this mini-series was specifically written with the last Greater London Authority – GLA – elections in mind.  Here the National Liberal Party (NLP) had intended to stand up to 25 candidates (who’d represent the various diaspora now living in London) on a ticket of Self-Determination For All!  

Our election campaign mainly concentrated on National Self-Determination.  However, we also looked at matters relating to Economic Self-Determinationand Political Self-Determination.  

To date, this mini-series has examined Economic Self-Determination – http://nationalliberal.org/for-economic-self-determination – and Political Self-Determination – https://nationalliberal.org/a-referendum-is-an-act-of-self-determination  

Therefore, we now look at the major issue of National Self-Determination.  

So what do we mean by National Self-Determination?  

The NLP succinctly defines National Self-Determination as a system which ‘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).’

Our friends & comrades of the pressure group Nations without States – NwS – aim to highlight the plight of peoples who aspire to nationhood.  Their Facebook site – https://www.facebook.com/groups/184919468292372 – provides more in-depth information relating to the meaning of National Self-Determination. 

For NwS, it ‘might be based on peoples or tribes based within a state or even across borders that may or may not have been independently organised in the past. They might have a linguistic or historical separateness from their neighbours or fellow citizens. All will aspire to recognition, autonomy or independence.

As Self-determinists the group NwS will support the right of all such peoples to determine their future whatever they wish that to be. This includes for example the Kurds, Flemish, Sikhs and Tamils. A genuine Self-determinist supports the right of self-determination globally where it is based upon a sound and just position and is supported by the majority of its ‘national’ community. The slogan ‘what is right for me is right for you’ simplifies why genuine nationalism is actually an inter-nationalist creed, quite separate to chauvinism which seeks advantage for one nation at the expense of others.’

It’s with the above in mind that the National Liberal Party contested the GLA elections.  The delay in the election helped us reach out to activists who represented the many different people now living in London who desire Self-Determination for their respective homelands.   

Our GLA election campaign was fought largely on-line (although there was some targeted leafletting).  Here we produced posters, a manifesto & videos for distribution via social media.  And, although our candidates specifically representing their various national communities, they spoke up for ALL self-determination communities and causes. They obtained 2,860 votes but the main purpose was to promote self-determinist ideas. 

For more information about Self-Determination, check out the following Facebook sites:  

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

• Facebook/National Liberal Party  https://www.facebook.com/NationalLiberalParty  

• Facebook/Nations without States  https://www.facebook.com/groups/184919 468292372

MAJOR Clifford Hugh ‘C. H.’ Douglas (1879 – 1952) was a British engineer & economist.  Whilst working at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, in 1916 he noticed that workers were paid (via wages, salaries & dividends) less than the factory was generating costs.  In layman’s terms it meant that people didn’t have enough money to buy the goods they needed.  

To avoid the endless economic cycles of boom & bust, Douglas proposed a that the government should make purchasing power (‘money’) available to the public to match the goods & services available to them.   

The money to be issued would take the form of a ‘National Dividend’ – distributed equally to everyone over & above their earnings.  He also advocated a price adjustment – known as the Just Price – which would reduce retail prices & stop inflation.  The overall idea became known as ‘Social Credit’.  

One man who became attracted to his ideas was the charismatic John Hargrave.  Douglas opposed the entry of the Social Credit movement into parliamentary politics.  But Hargrave didn’t.  In 1935 he formed the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – SCP – to fight the forthcoming General Election.  

Four years later Hargrave’s SCP produced The Fighting Programme Of The Social Credit Party.  We’ll be reproducing it over the next few months as we think that Social Credit offers an exciting alternative to the tired old dogmas of capitalism & socialism.  Over 80 years since it was published, we feel that it offers much food for thought  

This Introduction gives a rough idea of what’s to follow.  We find the use of some phrases like liberation ‘from the Dead Hand of Finance’ & the ‘Hidden Government of Finance’ intriguing.   They provide some clue as to whom Hargrave thought was the real enemy of progress.  

It is also important to note that the National Liberal Party is not a Social Credit party per se.  As always, our intention is to promote lively but mature debate.   

Let us know what you think (of Hargrave’s SCP ideas) in the comments section when you see this article on the National Liberal Party’s Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/NationalLiberalParty – or our National Liberals Facebook page –   https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313  

The NLP would be interested to hear from both supporters & opponents of Social Credit.  We’d particularly like to know from readers if they think that there’s anything in this Fighting Programme that might be useful today.     

The Fighting Programme Of The Social Credit Party – Introduction  

Front cover of John Hargrave’s The Fighting Programme Of The Social Credit Party. First published in August 1939, it still offers a radical alternative forward. The Social Credit ideas here offer an exciting alternative to the tired old dogmas of capitalism & socialism.
We regard John Hargrave as a ‘point of reference’ in that he said or did things that we find of great interest. As we’ve mentioned previously (in other articles) that doesn’t mean that we place him, or any other ‘point of reference’ on a pedestal, so to speak.
It is also important to note that the National Liberal Party is not a Social Credit party per se. Our intention here is to provoke a debate as to whether there is anything in this Fighting Programme that might be useful today.

The Fighting Programme Of The Social Credit Party was first produced by the Social Credit Party of Great Britain & Northern Ireland in August 1939 – a month before World War II started in Europe.  A second edition was issued in 1941.  

According to the SCP leader, John Hargave, the programme was ‘proclaimed the basis for action throughout the British Isles at the National Assembly of the Social Credit Party, held in Wynch Bottom, Buckinghamshire, May 28th, 1939.  

However difficult or dangerous the task may be, the Party is determined to fight its way forward, step by step, towards the fulfilment of the 12 Points of this programme – and the leaders of the party themselves never to swerve from this objective’.  

The 12 Points that Hargrave referred to were:  

1.  Finance:  Establish a Sane Economic System  

2.  Government:  Make the Will of the People Effective  

3.  Work:  Abolish Unemployment And Wage Slavery  

4.  Defence:  Create Effective Defence Forces  

5.  Food Supply:  Regenerate the Soil  

6.  Health:  Regenerate the People  

7.  Industry:  Increase Mechanisation  

8.  Building:  Demolish the Slums: Build New Towns and Cities  

9.  Transport:  Reorganise the Transport System  

10.  Education:  Provide Equal Opportunity for All  

11.  Culture:  Make Leisure Available to All  

12.  Foreign Policy:  Abolish War  

The publication was debated, written & produced prior to World War II.  But it must have been absolutely clear was on the horizon, as in another introductory section,  we read that ‘War Demands A Debt-Free Britain!’  

This is followed by a declaration that ‘The British People must have direction and leadership in order to:-  

1.  Break The Stranglehold Of Finance.  

2.  Free The Individual By Establishing A Sane Economic System.  

3.  Regenerate The Nation By Implementing A Definite Programme Of Reconstruction.   

Words are not enough.  We must gather the most vigorous intellects and the most energetic fearless, and unrelenting types from all classes and sections of the community to build up, consolidate, and direct the determination of the British People to liberate themselves from the Dead Hand of Finance, by developing a National Movement which shall bring pressure to bear:-  

1.  Inside Parliament.  

2.  Outside Parliament.  

The Social Credit Party has formulated, and is pledged to put into effect, this Programme of Social Economic Regeneration, immediately power has been wrested from the Hidden Government of Finance.’  

•  IN THE next part of our series we’ll take a look at how Hargrave would have established an economic system. 

THIS IMPORTANT ARTICLE recently appeared on the Independent Australia (IA) news & media website.  IA was established in June 2010 & believes in speaking truth to power and ‘holding governments to account.’   

According to IA, its main editorial focus is ‘on federal politics, democratic government, the environment, human rights, Australian identity, Indigenous issues, world affairs, economics, finance, health, law and the justice system.’  

The article was  written by John Pilger, the well-known & very well-respected independent journalist.  You can read his original article here:  https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/john-pilger-silencing-the-lambs–how-propaganda-works,16753  

Please note that there are no official links between the National Liberal Party, Independent Australia & John Pilger.  We’re reproducing this article as we feel it has a lot to say about mainstream media – MSM – and to encourage debate about the issues it raises.  

JOHN PILGER:  Silencing The Lambs – How Propaganda Works  

(Top) The Mark David cartoon which appeared with the original article on the Independent Australia news & media website. (Bottom) John Pilger is an Australian journalist and filmmaker. He is a well-known anti-imperialist, outspoken critic of mainstream media & a supporter of free speech advocate Julian Assange.

For decades, propaganda has steered the course of the mass media’s narrative, dominated by the needs of state and corporate power.  John Pilger (1) explains that nothing has changed in today’s world.  

IN THE 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl (2), whose epic films glorified the Nazis.  We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer.  She told me that the “patriotic messages” of her films were dependent not on “orders from above” but on what she called the “submissive void” of the public.  

Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? I asked.  “Yes, especially them,” she said.  

I think of this as I look around at the propaganda now consuming Western societies.  

Of course, we are very different from Germany in the 1930s.  we live in information societies.  We are globalists.  We have never been more aware, more in touch, better connected.  

Are we?  Or do we live in a Media Society where brainwashing is insidious and relentless, and perception is filtered according to the needs and lies of state and corporate power?  

The United States dominates the Western world’s media.  All but one of the top ten media companies are based in North America.  The internet and social media – Google, Twitter, Facebook – are mostly American-owned and controlled.  

In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies.  It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries.  It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless.  It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries.  It has fought to supress liberation movements in 20 countries.

The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported and unrecognised; those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life.

In the years before he died in 2008, the playwright Harold Pinter (3) made two extraordinary speeches, which broke a silence (4):

U.S. foreign policy could be best defined as follows: kiss my arse or I’ll kick your head in.  it is as simple and as crude as that.  

What is interesting about it is that it’s so incredibly successful.  It possesses the structures of disinformation, use of rhetoric, distortion of language, which are very persuasive, but are actually a pack of lies.  It is very successful propaganda.  They have money, they have the technology, they have all the means to get away with it, and they do.  

In accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pinter said this (5):

“The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about the.  You have to hand it to America.  It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good.  It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.”  

Pinter was a friend of mine and possibly the last great political sage – that is, before dissenting politics were gentrified.  I asked him if the “hypnosis” he referred to was the “submissive void” described by Leni Riefenstahl.  

“It’s the same,” he replied.  “It means the brainwashing is so through we are programmed to swallow a pack of lies.  If we don’t recognize propaganda, we may accept it as normal and believe it. That’s the submissive void.”   

In our systems of corporate democracy, war is an economic necessity, the perfect marriage of public subsidy and private profit: socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.  The day after 9/11 (6), the stock prices of the war industry soared (7).  More bloodshed was coming, which is great for business.   

Today, the most profitable wars have their own brand.  They are called “forever wars” (8): Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and now Ukraine.  All are based on a pack of lies.   

Iraq is the most infamous, with its weapons of mass destruction (9) that didn’t exist.  NATO’s (10) destruction of Libya in 2011 (11) was justified by a massacre in Benghazi that didn’t happen. Afghanistan was a convenient revenge war for 9/11, which had nothing to do with the people of Afghanistan.   

Today, the news Afghanistan is how evil the Taliban (12) is – not that U.S. President Joe Biden’s theft of $7 billion of the country’s bank reserves is causing widespread suffering.  Recently, National Public Radio (13) in Washington devoted two hours to Afghanistan – and 30 seconds to its starving people.   

At its summit (14) in Madrid in June, NATO, which is controlled by the United States, adopted a strategy document that militarises the European continent and escalates the prospect of war with Russia and China.  It proposes multi-domain warfare against nuclear-armed peer competitors.  In other words, nuclear war.   

It says (15):  

‘NATO’s enlargement has been a historic success.’  

I read that in disbelief.   

A measure of this ‘historic success’ is the war in Ukraine, news of which is mostly not news, but a one-sided litany of jingoism, distortion and omission.  I have reported a number of wars and have never known such blanket propaganda.  

In February, Russia invaded Ukraine as a response to almost eight years of killing and criminal destruction in the Russian-speaking region of Donbas (16) on their border.   

In 2014, the United States had sponsored a coup in Kyiv (17) that got rid of Ukraine’s democratically elected, Russian-friendly president and installed a successor whom the Americans made clear was their man.   

In recent years, American “defender” missiles have been installed in eastern Europe, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, almost certainly aimed at Russia, accompanied by false assurances all the way back to former White House Chief of Staff James Baker’s (18) “promise” to Gorbachev (19) in February 1990 that NATO would never expand beyond Germany.  

Ukraine is the frontline.  NATO has effectively reached the very borderline through which Hitler’s army stormed in 1941, leaving more than 23 million dead in the Soviet Union.  

Last December. Russia proposed a far-reaching security plan for Europe.  This was dismissed, derided or suppressed in the Western media.  Who read its step-by-step proposals?  On 24 February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (20) threatened to develop nuclear weapons (21) unless America armed and protected Ukraine.  This was the final straw.  

On the same day, Russia invaded – according to the Western media, an unprovoked act of congenital infamy.  The history, the lies, the peace proposals, the solemn agreements on Donbass at Minsk counted for nothing.  

On 25 April, the U.S. Defence Secretary, General Lloyd Austin (22), flew into Kyiv and confirmed that America’s aim was to destroy the Russian Federation — the word he used was “weaken”(23). America had got the war it wanted, waged by an American bankrolled and armed proxy and expendable pawn.

Almost none of this was explained to Western audiences.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is wanton and inexcusable. It is a crime to invade a sovereign country. There are no “buts” — except one.

When did the present war in Ukraine begin and who started it? According to the United Nations, between 2014 and this year, some 14,000 people (24) have  been killed in the Kyiv regime’s civil war on the Donbas. Many of the attacks were carried out by neo-Nazis.

Watch an ITV (25) news report from May 2014, by the veteran reporter James Mates (26), who is shelled, along with civilians in the city of Mariupol, by Ukraine’s Azov (26) (neo-Nazi) battalion.

In the same month, dozens of Russian-speaking people were burned alive or suffocated in a trade union building (27) in Odessa besieged by fascist thugs, the followers of the Nazi collaborator and anti-Semitic fanatic Stepan Bandera (28).  The New York Times called the thugs ‘nationalists’ (29).

‘The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment,’ said Andreiy Biletsky (30), founder of the Azov Battalion, ‘is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival, a crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen’.

Since February, a campaign of self-appointed “news monitors” (mostly funded by the Americans and British with links to governments) has sought to maintain the absurdity that Ukraine’s neo-Nazis don’t exist.

Airbrushing, a term once associated with Stalin’s purges, has become a tool of mainstream journalism.

In less than a decade, a “good” China has been airbrushed and a “bad” China has replaced it: from the world’s workshop to a budding new Satan.

Much of this propaganda originates in the U.S. and is transmitted through proxies and “think tanks” such as the notorious Australian Strategic Policy Institute (31), the voice of the arms industry, and by zealous journalists such as Peter Hartcher (32) of the Sydney Morning Herald (33), who labelled (34) those spreading Chinese influence as ‘rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows’ and called for these ‘pests’ to be ‘eradicated’.

News about China in the West is almost entirely about the threat from Beijing. Airbrushed are the 400 American military bases that surround most of China, an armed necklace that reaches from Australia to the Pacific and Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea. The Japanese island of Okinawa and the Korean island of Jeju are loaded guns aimed point blank at the industrial heart of China. A Pentagon official described this as a “noose”.

Palestine has been misreported for as long as I can remember. To the BBC (35), there is the “conflict” of “two narratives”. The longest, most brutal, lawless military occupation in modern times is unmentionable.

The stricken people of Yemen barely exist. They are media unpeople. While the Saudis rain down their American cluster bombs with British advisors working alongside the Saudi targeting officers, more than half a million children face starvation.

This brainwashing by omission has a long history. The slaughter of the First World War was suppressed by reporters who were knighted for their compliance and confessed in their memoirs. In 1917, the editor of the Manchester Guardian (36), CP Scott (37), confided to Prime Minister Lloyd George (38): “If people really knew [the truth], the war would be stopped tomorrow, but they don’t know and can’t know.”

The refusal to see people and events as those in other countries see them is a media virus in the West, as debilitating as COVID-19. It is as if we see the world through a one-way mirror, in which “we” are moral and benign and “they” are not. It is a profoundly imperial view.

The history that is a living presence in China and Russia is rarely explained and rarely understood. Russian President Vladimir Putin is Adolf Hitler. Chinese President Xi Jinping is Fu Manchu (39). Epic achievements, such as the eradication of abject poverty in China, are barely known. How perverse and squalid this is.

When will we allow ourselves to understand? Training journalists factory-style is not the answer. Neither is the wondrous digital tool, which is a means, not an end, like the one-finger typewriter and the linotype machine.

In recent years, some of the best journalists have been eased out of the mainstream. “Defenestrated” is the word used. The spaces once open to mavericks, to journalists who went against the grain, truth-tellers, have closed.

The case of WikiLeaks (40) founder Julian Assange (41) is the most shocking. When Julian and WikiLeaks could win readers and prizes for The Guardian, the New York Times and other self-important “papers of record”, he was celebrated.

When the dark state objected and demanded the destruction of hard drives and the assassination of Julian’s character, he was made a public enemy.  Vice President Biden called him a “high-tech terrorist” (42).  Hillary Clinton asked (43):  “Can’t we just drone this guy?”

The ensuing campaign of abuse and vilification against Julian Assange – the UN Rapporteur on Torture called it “mobbing” (44) – brought the liberal press to its lowest ebb.  We know who they are. I think of them as collaborators: as Vichy journalists.

When will real journalists stand up?  An inspirational samizdat (45) already exists on the internet: Consortium News (46), founded by the great reporter Robert Parry (47), Max Blumenthal’s (48) Grayzone (49), Mint Press News (50), Media Lens (51), Declassified UK (52), Alborada (53), Electronic Intifada (54), WSWS (55), ZNet (56), ICH (57), Counter Punch (58), Independent Australia, the work of Chris Hedges (59), Patrick Lawrence (60), Jonathan Cook (61), Diana Johnstone (62), Caitlin Johnstone (63) and others who will forgive me for not mentioning them here.

And when will writers stand up, as they did against the rise of fascism in the 1930s?  When will filmmakers stand up, as they did against the Cold War in the 1940s?  When will satirists stand up, as they did a generation ago?

Having soaked for 82 years in a deep bath of righteousness that is the official version of the last world war, isn’t it time those who are meant to keep the record straight declared their independence and decoded the propaganda?  The urgency is greater than ever.

(1)  https://independentaustralia.net/profile-on/john-pilger,294  

(2)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Riefenstahl  

(3)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter  

(4)  https://yquotes.com/quotes/harold-pinter/

(5)  https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter

(6)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

(7)  https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0911/how-september-11-affected-the-u.s.-stock-market.aspx

(8)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war

(9)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

(10)  https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html

(11)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya

(12)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban

(13)  https://www.npr.org

(14)  https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_197574.htm

(15)  https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_52838.htm

(16)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbas

(17)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity

(18)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baker

(19)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev

(20)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

(21)  https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/russia-warns-us-to-stop-arming-ukraine-zelenskyy-warns-of-nuclear-threat/

(22)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Austin

(23)  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/russia-weakedend-lloyd-austin-ukraine

(24)  https://tass.com/world/1289095

(25)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mates

(26)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Brigade

(27)  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/ukraine-dead-odessa-building-fire

(28)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera

(29)  https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/world/europe/ukraine-conflict-puts-culture-in-crossfire.html

(30)  https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/08/12/udfm-a12.html

(31)  https://www.aspi.org.au

(32)  https://www.smh.com.au/by/peter-hartcher-hve0w

(33)  https://www.smh.com.au

(34)  https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-chinese-interests-power-struggle-is-about-sovereignty-20160905-gr94hs.html

(35)  https://www.bbc.com

(36)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian

(37)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Scott

(38)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lloyd_George

(39)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Manchu

(40)  https://wikileaks.org

(41)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

(42)  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/19/assange-high-tech-terrorist-biden

(43)  https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/782906224937410562?lang=en

(44)  https://www.reuters.com/article/wikileaks-assange-un-idUSL8N23647C

(45)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat

(46)  https://consortiumnews.com

(47)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parry_(journalist)#Publications

(48)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Blumenthal

(49)  https://thegrayzone.com

(50)  https://www.mintpressnews.com

(51)  https://www.medialens.org

(52)  https://declassifieduk.org

(53)  https://alborada.net

(54)  https://electronicintifada.net

(55)  https://www.wsws.org/en?redirect=true

(56)  https://znet.company

(57)  https://www.ich.org/page/news

(58)  https://www.counterpunch.org

(59)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges

(60)  https://www.thenation.com/authors/patrick-lawrence/

(61)  https://www.jonathan-cook.net

(62)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Johnstone

(63)  https://caitlinjohnstone.com

MANY PEOPLE believe that we’re now living in a post-truth era.  According to the online Cambridge Dictionary – https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/post-truth – 

this relates ‘to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts’.  Some would also argue that ‘post-truth’ means that particular facts – and even entire histories – might be fake.  

With the above in mind, Liberal Future feels that it may be an opportune time to restate our position relating to Europe & the European Union (EU).

First of all, many people (some deliberately?) confuse Europe & the EU.  They believe that one equals the other.  Let’s make it clear from the outset that this is completely wrong.  Europe & the EU are not one and the same.

Europe is one of the continents that make up the world.  It’s normally considered to be the area bordered by the Artic Ocean to the North, the Atlantic Ocean to the West, the Mediterranean Sea to the South & the Ural Mountains in the East.

Europe has a population of around 745 million & covers an area of about 3.93 million sq miles (10.18 million km²).  Russia is the largest country – in terms of population & physical size – in Europe.

The EU, on the other hand, is a political & economic union.  It has a population of around 448 million & covers an area of 1,634,469 sq miles (4,233,255 km²).  Crucially, it doesn’t include Russia.  

As we noted in part 1 (see link below) of Days In Europa:  

‘It is important to distinguish between the European Union (EU) and Europe itself.  We feel that the EU is a rich man’s club for powerful corporate big business and banking elites. Here, their underlings – also known as politicians – are happy enough with the trappings of power.  

For us Europe isn’t about money, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or profit margins.  Europe – from the Atlantic in the West to the Urals in the East & the Arctic Ocean in the North to the Mediterranean Sea in the South – represents a shared culture, history & heritage.  In short, for us Europe is about people.’  

To put it in a nutshell, Liberal Future believes that the EU is institutionally corrupt.  It’s all about elites, control, money & power.  We view Europe in terms of freedom, nations & ordinary people.

Now that we’ve made a clear distinction between Europe & the EU, it’s time to consider our place is in Europe.  

We live the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland.    And, as we’ve made it clear, we’re more than happy to be considered Europeans.  Why wouldn’t we be?  The UK is geographically part of Europe & the indigenous people of the UK are Europeans.  

Sadly, however, many imperialists, jingoists & reactionaries believe that one cannot be both British and European.   

They seem to harp after the ‘good old days’ of the British Empire.  But those days have long gone – and the Commonwealth is also changing.  There is absolutely no way that the Empire can be revived.   

Also, there’s absolutely no way that the UK can stand alone in the world, as it did when Britannia ruled the waves hundreds of years ago.  Those who genuinely believe that we can ‘go it alone’ are deluded & have completely closed their eyes to the realities of the modern world.  

Liberal Future absolutely despairs of these narrow-minded points of view.  

We believe in Self-Determination for all.  It’s literally our raison d’être.  This means that we have absolutely no wish or desire to tell other peoples & nations how to run their lives.  

Therefore, our position is one of rejecting the EU but supporting European co-operation and solidarity.  In addition, we believe that it’s absolute madness for the people and nations of Europe to be at each other’s throats.  We’re progressive nationalists, so we completely reject petty nationalism & infighting.   

Once again, we’re more than happy to be considered both British and European.   

The first part of this article has been about exploring the differences between Europe & the EU.  The second part – as is usual in this series – will explore the beauty of Europe, particularly through its architecture.   

Palma in Mallorca (which is one of the Balearic Islands) is arguably one of the most beautiful capital cities in Europe.  And one of its most iconic buildings is the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma (more commonly known as La Seu, or simply Palma Cathedral).  

It sits within the old (Roman) city and enjoys spectacular views over the Parc de la Mar and the Mediterranean Sea.

The cathedral was begun by King Jaume (James) I of Aragon in 1229.  However, it was only finished in 1601.  It sits on the site of Moorish-era Mosque & is built in a Catalan Gothic style with – intriguingly – Northern European influences.

In addition to this, both Antoni Gaudí and Miquel Barceló  have been involved in subsequent works.

Anyone who has visited the cathedral will know how vast it is.  Indeed, it’s one of Europe’s largest Gothic cathedrals – with a length of nearly 400 feet (121 metres), a width of 131 feet (40) metres & a height of 144 feet (44 metres).

The cathedral remains one of most famous monuments of the Mediterranean.  It is still very much alive and hosts many events during the year.

• ALSO CHECK OUT:  

Liberal Future – Days In Europa (1) – St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia https://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-–-days-in-europa-1-–-st-basil’s-cathedral-moscow-russia  

Liberal Future – Days In Europa (2) – Parliament Buildings (Stormont), Belfast, Ulster  https://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-days-in-europa-2-parliament-buildings-stormont-belfast-ulster  

• FOR MORE information about Liberal Future – the youth wing of the National Liberal Party – check out:  https://nationalliberal.org/liberty-wall-3/liberal-future  

• LIBERAL FUTURE would like your views on both this article & our ideas for a future Europe.  Simply post your comments when you see this article posted on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/706779429376233 and/or the National Liberals Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313  

• READERS MAY be interested in the logos which feature at the bottom of this third Days In Europa poster produced by Liberal Future – the youth wing of the National Liberal Party.   

The circular black & orange logo (on the left) symbolises the fusion of progressive nationalism and liberalism.  Here we give equal weight to ‘national questions’ (concerning all of the nations & peoples of the British Isles and in principle, beyond) as we do to ‘liberal’ questions (concerning the individual and freedom).  

The square orange logo (centre) is the official symbol of Liberal Future.  We’ve used it since 2014 when the idea of creating a youth movement for the National Liberal Party was first mooted: https://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-–-a-manifesto-for-our-youth  

The logo on the right represents Mallorca.  It features the distinctive red & yellow colours of the Senyera, which is based on the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon.  A castle (adopted from the flag of the Kingdom of Majorca) also appears on the logo.