Thursday, May 20, 2010

Maybe He Really is a Liberal

"One: we will repeal all of the intrusive and unnecessary laws that inhibit your freedom. "

A recent speech by Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister of the U.K. and leader of the liberal democrats, suggests that he may actually be a liberal—in the old sense of the word. If his deeds match his words, it could be very good news.

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I'm a liberal.

My starting point is always optimism about people.

The view that most people, most of the time, will make the right decisions for themselves and their families.

That you know better than I do about how to run your life, your community, the services you use.


6 comments:

Chris said...

Among the specifics:

'He said the ConDem coalition would veto ID cards and scrap the government database of all UK children. And he announced it would ensure CCTV was "properly regulated" in future, and the storage of innocent people's DNA restricted.'

He's making the right noises. Let's hope this really happens.

Chris Cooper

cmditch said...

It's nice to see someone redefining the word as it ought to be, in its original sense.

Chris said...

There have been a few of them pushing in this direction from 2004...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3621340.stm

Gray Woodland said...

It's a very good cry: we shall weigh the wool later.

At least this is the first government platform in recent memory, to which my immediate reaction has been to hope that they won't rat on most of it!

Jonathan said...

As an expatriate Brit, I've been rather startled by the cheerful noises coming out of this unlikely coalition government. So far it does sound like better political news than I normally hear from anywhere. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Meanwhile, the noises off that you may hear are the screams of rage from Labour Party supporters.

Mark @ Israel said...

I appreciate such a forceful speech which speaks of what's in the minds and hearts of the people liberally. This may be put into reality when the nature of freedom is fully understood. There might be some instances that one has to suffer for the sake of the majority in order to safe guard the liberty and freedom of many. Decentralization of power is essential in a state. I believe that every citizen is mature and responsible for his actions for himself and for others. This is just the right thing to do.