THE WHOLE raison d’être of the National Liberal Party can be summed up in the slogan SELF-DETERMINATION FOR ALL!

This is all well and good, but what exactly is Self-Determination?  To answer this question, the online Encyclopaedia Britannica – https://www.britannica.com/topic/self-determination – seems as good a place to start.  It describes Self-Determination like this:

‘Self-determination, the process by which a group of people, usually possessing a certain degree of national consciousness, form their own state and choose their own government.  As a political principle, the idea of self-determination evolved at first as a by-product of the doctrine of nationalism, to which early expression was given by the French and American revolutions. In World War I the Allies accepted self-determination as a peace aim. In his Fourteen Points – the essential terms for peace – U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson listed self-determination as an important objective for the postwar world; the result was the fragmentation of the old Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires and Russia’s former Baltic territories into a number of new states.

After World War II, promotion of self-determination among subject peoples became one of the chief goals of the United Nations.  The UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, had also recognized the principle, but it was in the UN that the idea received its clearest statement and affirmation.

The UN Charter clarifies two meanings of the term self-determination. First, a state is said to have the right of self-determination in the sense of having the right to choose freely its political, economic, social, and cultural systems. Second, the right to self-determination is defined as the right of a people to constitute itself in a state or otherwise freely determine the form of its association with an existing state. Both meanings have their basis in the charter (Article 1, paragraph 2; and Article 55, paragraph 1). With respect to dependent territories, the charter asserts that administering authorities should undertake to ensure political advancement and the development of self-government (Article 73, paragraphs a and b; and Article 76, paragraph b).’

The National Liberal Party has previously sought to distil the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s authoritative definition of Self-Determination into something much simpler and easier to remember.  Thus, we believe that the principle of Self-Determination can be applied to three areas: National Self-Determination, Political Self-Determination & Economic Self-Determination.

Our poster (above) looks at Economic Self-Determination and indicates that this means avoiding a life of wage slavery.  The NLP has previously noted that 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).’

The following e-poster http://nationalliberal.org/liberty-nation-says-neither-capitalism-nor-socialism(produced by Liberty & Nation – the voice of the National Liberal Party) successfully illustrates what Economic Self-Determination is all about and notes that it stands in opposition to the centralising and exploitative nature of both capitalism & socialism.

NLP members and supporters will be aware that we intend to fight next year’s Greater London Assembly elections.  Here we’ll be standing under the banner of Self-Determination For All!

We intend to use the GLA election to raise awareness of the concept of self-determination, gain experience in electioneering – with special emphasis on Social Media tactics – and to forge links and build alliances between various different self-determinists living in London.

Although our campaign will largely concentrate on National Self-Determination, we also hope to use it to promote – and develop – our ideas on Economic & Political Self-Determination as well.

With the above in mind, look out for our forthcoming article and poster entitled Self-Determination is a human right. In the meantime, we’d encourage our readers to check out the following links and do whatever they can to support our campaign.  Self-Determination For All!

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• ALSO CHECK out:

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

#SelfDetermination4All http://nationalliberal.org/selfdetermination4all

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

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

Will You Represent Your People? http://nationalliberal.org/will-you-represent-your-people

GLA Candidate Meeting! http://nationalliberal.org/gla-candidate-meeting

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‘Real democracy does not mean the democratic part of the people. It means all the people; even that disgusting part with which we do not agree.’

GK Chesterton

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE that so much time has passed – and so much has happened – since our BreXit Now! article. Way back in May of last year we discussed how the Remainer (or Remoaner – take your pick!) British establishment was trying to control the Brexit narrative by demonising those who voted for Brexit, and, in turn, the vote itself. You can read the article here:

http://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-carmarthenshire-denbighshire-flintshire-youth-say-…-ignore-the-establishment-media-narrative-–-brexit-now

We’ll continue with this theme in a future article as the subject of ‘narrative control’ is an important and ongoing one. However, Liberal Future would like to use this article to look at what’s happened Brexit-wise in the last eight months.

With the above in mind, it cannot have escaped anyone’s attention that Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party absolutely walked the general election of 12th December. We’d highly recommend this National Liberal Party – our parent organization – post-election analysis of the result: 2019 General Election Result – Never Trust A Tory! http://nationalliberal.org/2019-general-election-result-–-never-trust-a-tory

As the article notes, the clear driver of the election was Brexit – so much so that it became known as the ‘Brexit election.’ And as much as it pains us to say this – as we dislike all of the pro-capitalist Establishment parties, especially the Conservatives! – the Tories played an absolute blinder.

Labour’s famous ‘Red Wall’ (where it’s said that votes were weighed as opposed to being counted) turned Tory blue. This was especially so of ‘Leave’ constituencies across Northern England and here in Wales.

Here the Conservatives took six seats off of Labour (giving them a total of 14 seats) and gained 36.1% of the total vote, an increase of 2.5% from 2017.

Some people thought that Plaid Cymru (PC) might have got more of a hiding but as this report indicates – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results/wales – voter loyalty meant that they held onto their four seats. In doing so PC obtained 9.9% of vote (down 0.5%).

It’s now more than a month after the election – and Plaid are still probably counting their lucky stars. As everyone knows Wales voted ‘Leave’ during the EU Referendum of 23rd June 2016. Here 854,572 (52.5%) voters supported Brexit, compared with 772,347 (47.5%) who wanted to remain within the EU.

Plaid Cymru – along with other ‘socialist’ and ‘nationalist’ parties like the Scottish National Party & Sinn Féin – campaigned to stay within the EU. All bizarrely want to leave a relatively small union (the UK) yet they’re more than content to remain chained to a much larger union – the EU. (Another thing that really concerns us about PC, the SNP and SF is their petty nationalism – in that they all appear to hate the English more than they love their own people.)

In respect of Wales, Plaid Cymru’s position doesn’t make sense to us. If four Plaid MPs can’t exert any influence over 650 MPs at Westminster, how on earth could Jill Evens – its sole MEP – ever hope to achieve anything within the EU?

To further put things into perspective, the 2011 census found that Wales had a population of just over 3 million. This is a fraction of the UKs population of nearly 68 million. It’s an even smaller fraction of the EU’s population of around 447 million. In terms of wielding power & influence, the numbers simply don’t add up. It’s simply delusional to think that the likes of Germany or France will be interested in what Wales has to say for herself.

The only way that Wales would even be noticed is if we were of some use to the EU – maybe in the form of some sort of bargaining chip. However, we’d be dropped like a hot potato once we’d outlived our usefulness (and we have a sneaking suspicion that this, sometime down the line, will happen to Éire once the UK leaves the EU for good). With all of this in mind, it begs the question why PC are so pro-EU?

So where does this all leave us respect of Brexit? To answer this we can do worse that take another look at the NLPs article from late December, 2019 General Election Result – Never Trust A Tory! Here we noted Boris Johnson’s lack of ideology and the fact that he’s miles away from the Thatcherite ‘small state, leave it to the market’ brand of Conservatism. He’ll also be different from Cameron and May.

With Brexit specifically in mind we noted:

‘To be honest, we think that the only real interest Boris has is in himself and how he would go down in history. With this in mind we think that he’d like to be known as the man who got Brexit done. It’ll now be his number one vanity project.’

In the month since the general election, Liberal Future hasn’t seen, read or heard anything that that has made us change our view. Therefore, we’re more than confident that we’ll formally leave the EU at 11pm on Friday – irrespective of whether Big Ben bongs or not! Indeed, we believe that many Welsh freedom lovers will be celebrating here. Others may even travel to London to join the main Brexit celebrations which’ll be held in London’s Parliament Square. We understand that some of the celebrations will be televised, so we’re hoping to see a few Red Dragon flags – Y Ddraig Goch – flying.

So far so good. However, Liberal Future wouldn’t trust Boris or the Tories as far as we could throw them. We intensely dislike the idea of a Tory Brexit – but frankly we have to blame the Labour Party for this. Why? Because Jeremy Corbyn originally said that they’d respect the referendum result. But when the vote went against the Establishment line, the back room political manoeuvring started and Labour altered its position. In fact, they altered their position so much so that – in the run up to & during last month’s election – nobody really knew where they stood.

So a Tory Brexit it is then. Serious horse trading has probably already began behind the scenes. The best we can ask for is to be fed the odd morsel of how negotiations are proceeding. Until we actually finally leave the EU, we’ll still continue using its BreXit Now! slogan as nobody really knows what way we’re leaving – and crucially what’ll be discussed and agreed behind closed doors.

With the above in mind Liberal Future would like to state that we’re not naïve enough to believe that once we’re out of the EU everything’s suddenly going to be Hunky Dory.

If we’re reading the Runestones correctly, a Tory Brexit will see the UK probably joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) once the transition period is complete. As we understand it, the WTO grew out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, together with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Therefore, to some extent, we’ll be jumping out of the fire into the furnace. However, we’ve never shared the jingoistic & over-simplistic view (mainly promoted by what we’d term as the ‘reactionary right’) that getting ‘our country back’ will be a simple matter of leaving the EU.

On the contrary, LF believes that the road to National Freedom & Social Justice would be an extremely long and hard one. We accept that – in this age of globalisation – we can’t achieve total sovereignty overnight. We also concede that we might have to leave one trading bloc – like to EU – only to have to join another one – like the WTO – until we do achieve total sovereignty.

We understand that this sounds counter-intuitive or even contradictory. However, we have to understand that Wales simply doesn’t have the capacity to become anything like self-sufficient overnight. Ironically, it would probably take something like another World War to achieve this!

Sadly, it’s a fact of life that we have to rely on imports for many every day items. These are goods that could, and should, be made here in Wales. Whether this reliance on others has occurred by accident or design is a question for another day. However, in the meantime, if we want true National Freedom & Social Justice we’ll need to start moving towards becoming as self-sufficient as possible – with a particular emphasis on food sovereignty.

Liberal Future will examine these ideas in future BreXit Now! articles. We’ll also return to the theme of how the Remainer British establishment were attempting to control the Brexit narrative by demonising those who voted for Brexit, and, in turn, the vote itself. We also anticipate reporting on the continuing twists and turns on the road to freedom. This’ll be particularly important because, as we’ve noted above, we’re now into the real nitty gritty of Brexit negotiations – and this will be carried out well away from the press and public.

Finally, we also feel that the time is right for LF to set out its own stall. Here we’ll provide some details of our (post-EU) social and economic vision for the future. Briefly stated, we have absolutely no problem with European Solidarity, in terms of the Nations of Europe co-operating with each other (indeed, we have no problem with the Nations of the world co-operating with each other). But this must be done on the basis of truly free & sovereign Nations co-operating with each other. However, to achieve this we feel that the EU has to be replaced with what we would describe as as something akin to a European Confederation of Nation States.

• THIS ARTICLE should be read in conjunction with the following:

Liberal Future: For A Europe Of Free Nations – BreXit Now!
http://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-for-a-europe-of-free-nations-brexit-now

Liberal Future: County Londonderry, County Antrim & County Down Youth Say … Independence From the EU – BreXit Now!
http://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-county-londonderry-county-antrim-county-down-youth-say-…-independence-from-the-eu-–-brexit-now

Liberal Future: Anglesey, Brecknockshire, Caernarfonshire & Ceredigion Youth Say … Blood Over Gold – BreXit Now!
http://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-anglesey-brecknockshire-caernarfonshire-ceredigion-youth-say-…-blood-over-gold-–-brexit-now

Liberal Future: Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire & Flintshire Youth Say … Ignore The Establishment Media Narrative – BreXit Now!
http://nationalliberal.org/liberal-future-carmarthenshire-denbighshire-flintshire-youth-say-…-ignore-the-establishment-media-narrative-–-brexit-now

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• UNIVERSAL CREDIT and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are the cornerstone of this government’s austerity programme.

PIP was introduced by Iain Duncan Smith – the Tory Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016 – and was supposed to be rolled-out across Great Britain in October 2013. This was delayed due to problems with reliability, the length of time it took to assess claims and difficulty in recruiting assessors. Since its introduction it has been dogged by controversy – especially when new rules were introduced in 2017 which seemed to target the disabled. Many claimants feel that PIP is rigged against them.

In October, 2010, Iain Duncan Smith announced the introduction of a Universal Credit designed to simplify the benefit system and improve work incentives. It replaced Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Income Support, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit (WTC) and Housing Benefit.

Like PIP, the introduction of Universal Credit has been roundly criticised from many quarters. A five-week delay in receiving the first payment has seen many people turning to food banks. Indeed, in April 2018 the Trussell Trust (which runs many food banks) reported that, areas where universal credit had been rolled out, had seen an average 52% rise in use of food banks compared to 2017.

Indeed, it’s been reported that many women turned to prostitution through delays in paying Universal Credit or because Universal Credit payments were insufficient to meet their basic needs.

We would encourage members & supporters of the National Liberal Party – in fact, anyone who believes in the concept of Social Justice – to help the fight against PIP and Universal Credit. A simple start would be to viral out these Scrap Universal Credit! e-posters via Social Media:

Caledonian Voice Says Scrap Universal Credit! http://nationalliberal.org/caledonian-voice-says-scrap-universal-credit

English Voice Says Scrap Universal Credit! http://nationalliberal.org/english-voice-says-scrap-universal-credit

Caledonian Voice & English Voice Say … Scrap Universal Credit! http://nationalliberal.org/caledonian-voice-english-voice-say-…-scrap-universal-credit RT

Ulster Voice Says Scrap Universal Credit! https://nationalliberal.org/ulster-voice-says-scrap-universal-credit

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• TO FIND out more about the NLPs views on decentralisation read: Regionalism – Small Is Beautiful! http://nationalliberal.org/regionalism-–-small-is-beautiful

• CHECK OUT Autonomy, Regionalism & Localism – From Northumberland To Cumbria Via County Durham And The Tyne & Wear! http://nationalliberal.org/autonomy-regionalism-localism-from-northumberland-to-cumbria-

via-county-durham-and-the-tyne-wear

• ALSO CHECK OUT Should Yorkshire Have More Autonomy? Join The Debate! http://nationalliberal.org/should-yorkshire-have-more-autonomy-join-the-debate

• TO FIND out more about Westmorland, check out https://www.britannica.com/place/Westmorland