Home page How British political parties abuse freedom In a period of so-called globalization and in spite of basic notions of consumer rights it is odd that there are still people who want to force consumers to buy things they do not want. If a corner shop sold potatoes only on condition that the consumer also purchased a tin of beans, three jars of coffee and a toothbrush, it is highly likely that this business would soon have no customers. No matter how inventive the shop keeper became in trying to force the sale of fixed combinations of products, it is evident that his best route to success is to sell products individually, so that customers can buy the combinations they want. There is an important principle here. The shopkeeper provides the customers with the freedom to select what they want without trying to coerce them into buying something they do not want. This free flow of business also represents a free flow of information and the shopkeeper realizes that certain products really are in demand so he orders more. By providing freedom of choice and paying attention to the free flow of information both the shopkeeper and customers are happy. When it comes to political parties, there is no such notion of offering the electorate any comparable freedoms. Political parties issue manifestos or lists of “policies”, that is the list of linked products they want to sell. Like the bad shopkeeper mentioned above, they will not accept the fact that a consumer might be attracted to one policy but does not want another one. So the political party members drive themselves into a sort of intellectual grid-lock which results in the typical phrase, “As a member of the so-and-so party, I believe in policy1, policy 2, policy 3,…….. and policy n.” This has been the depressing and drab banter of British politicians for most of the last century. More often than not, the combination of policies set up at political party stalls are completely irrational. This is to be expected because such ideas are drawn up by tiny factions of enthusiasts, all of whom think alike. No single British political party has a total registered membership which exceeds 0.5% of the population. It is therefore to be expected that they are not going to come up with something which suits the general population. Although it is easy to poke fun at this phenomenon, it is a matter of grave concern to any who value the importance of individual freedom. Individuals remain free if they are provided with the opportunity to select freely what they want as well as to refuse what they do not want. In terms of policy action, this means those who support a policy can be free to submit to the terms of that policy whereas those who do not support a policy should not be coerced, indeed forced, to be subject to the terms of that policy. But such a basic and rational concept of individual freedom sounds like unbridled anarchy to any British political party adherents. British political parties, are small, so they have all opted to manage their affairs in a depressingly collectivist manner whereby they seek to force the whole population to submit to their policies, without exception. These parties and their adherents are wanting in terms of understanding what individual freedom means and are devoid of the intellectual capacity of devising ways to promote such values. As a result they always end up suppressing individual freedom in an unacceptable manner. This should not be confused for intellectual dishonesty; unfortunately for British political parties, the end, their own power, justifies the supression of freedom of choice, and, above all, freedom of refusal. All of the parties play the same game, whether Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat and these shopkeepers continue to insist on selling linked products which no one wants. So elections end up confronting the electorate with the absurdity of having to select the least bad, if they vote at all. This society is supposed to value individual freedom, and yet each general or local election degenerates into a grotesque spectacle of individuals vying with one another to represent parties bent on having the power to suppress the freedom of the majority of the people. In the last election, some 78% of the electorate did not support the party which now controls the government with a comfortable "majority". The paradox is that the party propaganda machines and a sycophantic British press do not question this insane system. People are expected, indeed encouraged, to meekly trail to the polling booths to register their choice of the least worst and rejoice that they live in a free democracy. There are even those who complain that some people do not use their vote. As long as this insulting and primitive system endures, voter turn out will be low and individual freedom for all will only remain an illusion.