OK, I'm Listening...

Those of you who were with me in early January will know that I was distinctly unimpressed with the launch of the Libertarian Party. I'd been hoping for something a bit further advanced that a couple of web pages. Like a few policies, for example. And some evidence that they would be different. Well, now we've got it.

The first policy proposal is the abolition of income tax. Now, before you all write this off as lunacy, consider this. Apparently income tax raised £143bln in 2006/07. Total government expenditure in the same year was 534bn, which constituted a rise of £156bn from the levels of government spend seen as recently as 2001/2. And can anyone around here identify any specific benefits that have accrued from that hike ?

I remain to be convinced about this idea. I'd be concerned that it may be overly regressive. The article I link to above argues that it would help the poorest taxpayers and encourage work by increasing the benefit of paid employment over-and-above welfare payments. I haven't done the maths and I'm not going to. I haven't checked the taxation and expenditure figures quoted above, and I'm not going to do that, either. And the idea that this can all be done within two years seems a trifle optimistic.

What I do know is that government expenditure - and hence taxation - is at a ridiculous level and the ever-increasing influence of the State carries profound risks for our prosperity and freedom. There is a seemingly endless ratchett effect at play and no one in "maintstream" politics has the will or the imagination to do anything about it. Something has got to change, and it needs to be radical. This is radical. Interestingly Iain Dale has kindly given it some free publicity on his own blog and has slated it, without raising one coherent argument against it. In the comments a number of other Conservative Party sympathisers have done the same thing. That in itself should tell us something.

Anyway, the Libertarian Party has done one thing if nothing else; it's got my ear.

Is That It ?

I don’t quite know what to make of the launch of the UK Libertarian Party. It seems a little - how can I put this nicely ? - low-key.

It’s not that I don’t like what they’re saying. I do. It presses the right buttons for me: too much legislation; no trust placed by government in individuals; politicians serving their own interests; indoctrination of our children.

I’m not the only one this kind of agenda is likely to resonate with, either. Many people are completely sick of what’s on offer from the political classes in this country and would love to see a change (although the claim that this explains why 17 million didn’t vote at the last General Election is a little far-fetched !)

There is unquestionably an audience out there (how big, I’m not quite sure) waiting to be captivated by an organisation prepared to take on the “accepted” political thinking of the day, to challenge wholesale the roll of the State in our lives and to put forward a set of arguments for fewer laws, more freedom, and less interference from those whom we elect. The trouble is, for the audience to be captivated, their attention has to be captured in the first place. And as launches go, this is pretty subdued.

I have to say I was hoping for a bit more than the odd web page. I was hoping for some signs of leadership, some names and profiles, the semblance of a party structure, perhaps a draft constitution, and, most importantly of all, signs of a campaigning strategy. Instead, we’ve got some very high-level philosophy and an assurance that there’s more to come. If you delve a bit, you can come across an invitation to get involved in policy-making in the party forum (which I’ve tried to subscribe to but the mail it claims to have sent me appears to have been blocked by our over-authoritarian mail sweeper tool). So this is less a launch than a call-for-papers. Well, OK, now I know that I can wait a bit longer, and perhaps even contribute at some point.

I hope there is more to come, because it would be so good to have a proper debate about the role of the State in this country. The political elite need to be held to account and they need to be challenged in a new and different way. They need to be shown that they cannot go on treating us like kids. They need to see us as a threat, not as one collective servant of their own ambitions.