Bemused Wolf: July 2009

Reposted from the Yorkshire Libertarian Blog:

Let’s talk.

I need your help.

After a conversation with Andrew Withers, chairman of the LPUK, last week, I have taken on the role of regional coordinator for the Yorkshire region of the LPUK.

How many of us are there? How many LPUK members are in the Yorkshire region, and, indeed, how many people are reading this from Yorkshire, who are perhaps considering joining us, or want to know more about us, and the philosophy of liberty?

I’d like to try and arrange a meeting of some kind. Informally, so we can get to know each other a little. We can discuss Libertarianism in a nice pub somewhere.

I was at the LPUK AGM in York last year, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations we were all having together. Just speaking, and listening to like-minded people made the LPUK all the more real to me.

I think that is the problem we have at the moment, within the LPUK. So many names, but no faces. No genuine contact.

It feels to me sometimes, reading the LPUK member’s forums and to a lesser degree the main blog, that there are a lot of pissing competitions going on. Schoolyard ‘I’m more Libertarian than you’ nonsense, which can sometimes make me feel like we will never get anywhere.

I believe face to face contact, and a good old natter over a few bevvies is the best way to try and get things rolling. The LPUK internet presence has it’s place, it’s time and purpose, but now we need to be looking at taking real physical action.

We need to be getting the LPUK word out, in preparation not necessarily for the next general election, but for the one after. We need to be arranging meetings, getting our name out there, and getting people’s attention. I believe we need to be looking at getting a few LPUK bottoms into some local council seats if we have the people willing to stand.

I believe there is something for everyone within the LPUK. I honestly believe we can offer the change, a new direction, and next level of ‘democracy’ to this once great Country.

Great Britain has been viewed as the Mother of democracy throughout the free world, but now that democracy has become tainted, and spoiled. It no longer serves the people of Great Britain the way it was intended. It has been exploited, and abused, and manipulated to serve only the few, and not the majority.

It’s time for the next stage of democracy. It’s time for a change, and time for a new kind of freedom to all who would embrace it. A freedom that has been erroded, and withdrawn from us over the last twelve years.

This is where I need your help.

I am no politician, I’m barely any kind of organiser, or coordinator. I’ve stepped up to take this position because, quite simply, nobody else did. If someone more able were to come along tomorrow, and ask to take my place here, I would gladly step aside and watch them do a better job than I.

I am doing this because I believe it is the only way we are going to get ourselves known outside the internet.

The current by-election campaign in Norwich North has shown us that the mainstream media has no interest in us. Even as a legitimate, campaigning political party, with the youngest ever parliamentary candidate, we have struggled to get much coverage. Not that this was unexpected, we knew from the start that it would be difficult to get noticed, but what we do seem to have found however, is that the people that our campaigners in Norwich have been able to speak to, face to face, have been reacting positively to our policies, and direction.

I believe we will get the votes that we need to get our deposit back, and you have it here in writing!

But, back to Yorkshire, and the help I need from you.

Where are you all?

Yorkshire is a big region as we are all aware. I myself am in York, in the North riding. I’m fairly certain we have members in Bradford, in the West riding, but other than that, I have no idea where you are.

Who are you?

Are you a leader? Do you have experience in politics that you could share with the LPUK, to try and move ourselves forward? Would you be interested in becoming a parliamentary, or local candidate for the LPUK further down the line?

What can you do?

Do you have contacts, or skills that would be useful in getting the LPUK’s message out there? Can you stuff envelopes, or pound the streets, or deliver leaflets? Can you make a donation to the LPUK, to help us with future election fees?

What do you want from me, your regional coordinator?

Tell me.

I believe that the LPUK is the only alternative now. All the other parties are merely differently coloured rosettes, but with almost the same ultimate ambitions and final outcomes.

They all want to rule you, and tell you how to live your life, while serving only themselves.

They are supposed to be working for YOU, you do not serve THEM.

Only the LPUK would give control of your life back to YOU. Only the LPUK will work to make YOU better off in every aspect of your life.

Let me know how I can serve you best, as your regional coordinator.