Libertarianism in The United Kingdom - Political Parties

Political Parties

The Libertarian Alliance is an early libertarian educational group still active today. The Liberal Party was formed in 1989 from those opposed to the merger between the Liberal Party and the Social Democrat Party and claims 25 councillors. The Libertarian Party UK is a political party founded on January 1, 2008, which has since split over money. As of 2012, there are attempts at early stages to form new parties. The Independent Libertarian Network was founded by Gavin Webb with a "minimal party" strategy and a focus on local government. The Pro Liberty Party launched in September 2012 with a focus on awareness raising. Members of the ILN and many Conservatives have contributed to the Wiki based policial party called Carta Libertatum

Jason Walsh, in an opinion piece, held that while the 1980s economic liberalism of Margaret Thatcher was "libertarianism-lite," compared to minimal state views of more modern libertarians, which were becoming more popular after ten years of New Labour's "increasingly authoritarian policies." The Austrian-British libertarian and classical liberal philosopher, Friedrich Hayek, is considered by some to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century.

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is the oldest free-market think tank in the United Kingdom, and a progenitor of a large network of libertarian think tanks around the world, as well as greatly shaping the Thatcher government's economic policies. The Centre for Policy Studies was set up by Thatcher and Keith Joseph for the purpose of advancing classical liberalism. The Libertarian Alliance was an early libertarian educational group. It was followed by British think tanks such as the Society for Individual Freedom and Adam Smith Institute.

The Conservative Party libertarian advocacy group, the Conservative Way Forward, is led by Alan Duncan.

The leader of the Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, has since the mid-2000s sought to broaden the public perception of UKIP beyond being a party solely seeking to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union, to one of being a party broadly standing for libertarian values and reductions in government bureaucracy. The party describes itself as a "libertarian, non-racist Eurosceptic party". Whilst Farage denied in 2007 that the party's strategy was "targeting David Cameron as such", political scientist Chris Robinson opines that Farage may well have been hoping that this expansion of the party platform would attract voters disenchanted with Cameron and thinking him "too Tony Blair-like". The party's political opponents dispute UKIP's self-description as libertarian. Siân Ruddick, a journalist for the Socialist Worker, disputed the whole of its self-description in 2009, saying that "its politics are right wing and its position on immigration is racist to the core". In 2010, UKIP's call to ban the burkha in public places was criticised by Shami Chakrabarti as contrary to libertarianism.