The One That Is Asking Himself A Question . . .

In light of yesterday's Norwich North bye-election result, there has been quite a bit of soul searching (some would say navel gazing) over at the LPUK blog.

I've been asking myself the following question:

Do I want a government with a Libertarian bias running through it, or do I want an LPUK government?

The only answer I can come up with is that I joined LPUK because I want a Libertarian government, I don't particularly care who provides that. LPUK are the model that reflect most closely what I would like to see, at present. If another party started displaying the qualities that LPUK demonstrate, then I would be delighted.

It is the nature of the policy that is important to me, rather than any particularly named party delivering it.

As unlikely as it seems, if Gordon Brown woke up tomorrow morning and said 'Wait up people, I've been thinking about this, we've got it all wrong and what we need to do is what these guys are up to', then I'd be delighted.

In a way we've seen this happen to an extent, and we may see it continue. Labour have started trying to sound a little like the BNP with all their (futile) talk of British jobs for British workers, although this seems more like a cynical attempt to stop the drain of Labour voters to the BNP rather than a real change in the policies which are driving them to the BNP's door.

The Tories have been at it too, after about 20 years of fairly fruitless campaigining the Greens are now finding that a version of their policy is finding favour in Tory central office. An attempt to reverse the party's fortunes? Quite probably. Will it be succesful? Who knows, we all know that governments lose elections, and it doesn't really matter what the Tories say between now and the general election, the buggins rule is in full effect. Interestingly the policy which seems to most closely reflect the wishes of their natural constituency is firmly off the menu, which is why UKIP look so strong at present. I believe the Tories would be stronger if they took up the Eurosceptic line again, and they may well do so if Brown is booted out after the conference season and Labour start to recover a little ground.

Do I want us to leave the EU? Yes. Am I bothered about whether this withdrawal is brought about by UKIP, LPUK, Conservatives, BNP or the English Democrats? Not in the slightest.

I guess the question I'm asking is 'Is it more important for US to be in power, or for us to influence and change those who are in power?' I think it is the latter, not that the former wouldn't be great.