Brief Libertarian Alliance Comment on UKIP

I notice that much of our recent activity has concerned the UK Independence Party. I feel obliged, for the avoidance of doubt, to say the following:

1. People may post and comment on UKIP as much as they please. So far as this Blog is a congenial place to discuss UKIP, for or against, they are welcome to be here.

2. Several Officers of the LA are UKIP voters, and one of us is a paid-up member of UKIP. We have long been in the habit of regarding UKIP as the main libertarian voice in British politics, and I personally hope this will remain a reasonably well-justified habit.

3. Even so, the Libertarian Alliance is resolutely unaffiliated to any political party. This was so in the early days of Margaret Thatcher, when it seemed that the Conservative Party was in the position now taken by UKIP. It has remained so ever since. Nothing written on this Blog that may tend to endorse or to repudiate UKIP as a suitable party to support in any current or future election should be regarded as the official view of the Libertarian Alliance.

4. Indeed, if UKIP might perhaps be the party of choice for several Officers of the LA, one of us is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party: and I doubt whether I will vote UKIP next year.

Oh, and I will add that, for several years in the 1990s, our former Director, Chris R. Tame, was a member of the Labour Party. This may not have been for the same reasons as most other people join that rather strange party, but it is a matter of record. We are, and always have been, genuinely unaffiliated.

This statement being made, please feel at perfect liberty to continue your discussion.

Sean Gabb
Director of the Libertarian Alliance.