Ok, I’m just thinking out loud here, and really want to believe in a party such as LIbertas that supposedly stands up for liberty, however…
I just watched the UK Libertas Launch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4SNyP5S2ws
and a question occurred to me…
Libertas advocates democracy. Which most people take as meaning ‘rule by majority’.
But Libertas is suggesting that we should complain about the majority vote of the 27 EU parties, explaining that Britain only represents about 4% of the EU parliament.
So if that is correct, what is Libertas’ aim? To create a mass majority of itself and thus have a greater weighting in EU parliamentary votes, but banding together and creating a majority shareholding of the EU parliament, right?
Well first of all that shows tendency towards control of minorities (which is the central problem of so called democracy anyway), but it also doesn’t seem inline with true democracy where everyones vote should be counted and the natural majority sets the rules, because in fact it wants to create a coordinated controlling majority, which suggests that natural fully dispersed and divergent democracy is actually not wanted by Libertas.
Bottom line: Isn’t democracy just a means of putting people in power to rule over those without, whether the party calls itself a european union, democratic government, or pro european party for so called ‘liberty’?
When are politicians going to start talking about genuine liberty of the individual, the great republic of the founding fathers of america, individualism, individual rights, and the notion that governments are only granted powers by the people to protect the people, not to force them into obedience?
Well, that’s my rant. Any one have any feedback?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Nathan,
You are absolutely right that ‘democracy’ is a tricky issue. The whole raison d’être for Libertas is more, and better, democracy in the EU. But what does that mean?
Firstly, and most importantly, it means that people must have a say – they must have a vote in their own destiny. At the moment we have an unelected bureaucracy running the show with sham democracy via the Parliament. That’s just not good enough. Everyone taking major decisions and instigating legislation in the EU should be elected by the people, so that they are accountable and can be unelected if they do a poor job.
Secondly, they EU has become obsessed with forming a superstate, and forgotten that it should be there only to do the things that are best done at a European level. Ramming a one-size-fits-all set of micromanagement rules down the throats of unwilling member states is never going to improve European cooperation. Democracy should be handled at the level closest to the people it affects.
For example, there is no useful purpose in the EU dictating the size of strawberries that can be sold locally; it only causes waste and adds red tape. EU member nations should be left to determine their own laws internally wherever possible, and that means that we need to return some powers to national governments so that the people have democratic control locally.
Thirdly, the people must be listened to. There’s no point in having votes if the results are ignored; that simply isn’t democracy. The French and Dutch said ‘no’ to the Constitution, but the EU simply redrafted the document and called it the Lisbon Treaty. When the Irish said ‘no’ to that as well, they were told that they will have to vote again. That’s not democracy, by any definition.
In June people will be able to vote for Libertas, and we will be offering a genuine choice for the future of Europe. You can either vote for one of the existing domestic parties, who are all supporting more or less of the EU superstate, or you can vote for a completely new kind of European Union, based on democracy, accountability and openness.