To thine own self be true

Friday April 30, 2010

Free Society columnist Martin Cullip is standing as a candidate for the Libertarian party in the general election. In a frank article, he explains why he has been driven to take a stand for civil liberties and personal freedoms.

One of my earliest political memories is pounding the streets of Sutton and Cheam in 1974, at twilight with my father, delivering Xeroxed black and white leaflets in support of the then Tory MP, Neil MacFarlane. I’d ask my dad, as we pushed the flimsy pieces of paper through fiercely snapping letter boxes, why we were doing it. He would try to explain the policies which encouraged him to forsake home comforts in favour of being an unpaid postman, but I didn’t really understand them. I just knew it was important to him and that he felt he should do something.

After that, I kept a keen eye on politics and understood more and more about the machinations of government. Once I turned 18 I always voted but never held any particular ambition to be involved myself. Of course I’d get annoyed at some policies, and be very happy with others, but mostly politicians were benign and only tinkered on the outskirts of our lives.

It wasn’t until late 2005 that I noticed something more sinister happening. Politicians were intruding on how we live more than ever before. Each morning the radio would report a new ‘crackdown’, proposed ‘ban’, or other illiberal initiative. At times, it resembled a government which had declared war on its own people – they no longer seemed to be legislating to fit in with the way people wished to live their lives, instead the state was passing laws to tell us what to do, whether we liked it or not.

Others noticed it too but, by this time, a different way of governing had been embedded. Spin and game theory were being used to ensure that voters felt increasingly marginalised and excluded. Dissatisfaction was all around in hard-working friends, but no-one felt able to do anything about it, which is exactly how the whole process had been crafted. During one discussion with others who were equally frustrated, as I urged them to write to their MPs, one response struck an alarming chord.

“You can’t fight the government, Martin”, they stated, dejectedly.

I hadn’t mentioned my ‘war on the people’ theory but that was the way it had subconsciously been received nonetheless. We weren’t faced with politicians who were working with us anymore – they were a perceived enemy and too powerful to even consider objecting.

Being stubborn, I wasn’t ready to admit defeat so easily. Some communication with my Lib Dem MP took place but I knew it was never likely to bear any fruit. Paul Burstow, being true to his SDP roots, has never been very liberal and quite likes a ban ‘for our own good’. In 2008, I found out that Philippa Stroud was to be the Tory PPC and advanced ideas of liberty in that direction. She was very approachable, and at least listened, but Conservative policy isn’t really something she can decide so it was a case of waiting and seeing what would be on offer for the upcoming general election.

It wasn’t worth the wait.

It is business as usual, with all three main parties willing to perpetuate this upside-down democracy whereby their will, bolstered by manipulated consultations and adherence to their own preferred interest groups and quangoes, trumps the choice and freedom of 44 million voters in the UK. Even UKIP, admirable in actually recognising there is a problem, have still been suckered into a proscriptive mentality by advocating a ban on the burqa and, recently, a minimum alcohol price requirement for supermarkets.

We are three leaders’ debates down and acres of column inches have been dedicated to the election, yet still there is barely a word from politicians about the restoration of civil liberties and personal freedoms which are much lamented by vast swathes of the public who feel they have no way of protest.

In fact, even protest itself has been restricted as part of nearly 4,000 new laws created since 1997. From selling a goldfish to a minor, through ID cards, at pain of imprisonment, for Shetland ponies (I kid you not), to arrest for photographers, and prohibiting anyone from looking at a cigarette packet, we are increasingly terrorised into meek submission.

Common law, which used to underpin our society through the court system, has been replaced by a regime of legislative micro-management of every aspect of our lives.

The answer to every problem – and every unintended consequence of previous legislation – is not repeal or amendment, but a blinkered belief that the only way forward is more regulation, more laws, more bureaucracy, more bans and more infantilising state intervention.

My father wasn’t under any illusion that he would have much impact on the 1974 general election, but he felt he had to do ‘his bit’. Likewise, as a candidate for the nascent Libertarian Party, I’m not kidding myself that my standing will do much more than raise a few eyebrows.

I can’t contemplate not voting, though, and if there is no party to vote for when none of them show any interest in restoring the liberties that they have all contrived to take from us, what else is there for a guy to do but stand up for his beliefs and for those who have been similarly disenfranchised?

And, if nothing else, at least I can now vote for someone I know I can trust.

Martin Cullip is the Libertarian party candidate for Sutton and Cheam