Up until yesterday, I was willing to brave out the hard times because I had a belief that the core tenets of the Liberal Democrat party were still in place. Transparency and honesty are cornerstones of any liberal device, but it seems like that party, much like Labour and the Tories, only support honesty and transparency when it's in their interests to do so.
At the General Election in 2010, the Liberal Democrats ran on the mandate of an in/out referendum on the European Union. I knew they would support the 'in' campaign, but they did offer this referendum. To back up this position, they had an official campaign for the in/out referendum on their campaigns site.
The more tech-savvy of you will notice that this link directs to the Archive.org record of the page. This is because after I spread the URL on Twitter, the party decided to simply delete the campaign page with no formal explanation. This happened on the 21st or 22nd October 2011. In my mind, this is certainly a betrayal of transparency.
Naturally, about the only thing worse than this that they could possibly do would be to vote against the motion allowing a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, which was exactly what they did (with the notable exception of Adrian Sanders MP), with a three line whip at that. If the liberal democrat party foregoes the fundaments of liberty and spits in the face of democracy, then it's fairly hard to see how it's anything more than an authoritarian socialist party.
Many of you will probably point out that I have previously been very critical of democracy, but you will note that in all of the examples I use, a number of people are given the option to persecute a few. This is because I believe democracy is a useful tool on issues that affect everybody, for example EU membership and constitutional change.
I feel, and I'm sure many other EU-sceptics who are in the party do too, that the party has turned its back on us and left us with little option other than to abandon ship. At the end of the day, some people will put power over principle and remain in the party (I'm somewhat guilty of this on Libya), believing it's better to try to reform a party with Commons seats, but I'm unwilling to do this any more.
For me, the obvious choice is to join UKIP. I already know a number of members of UKIP's youth, and there is a real bright star of libertarianism within the party. I'm also quite aware that Nigel Farage himself is a libertarian on many issues, and feel that the party is heading in the right direction.
I've completed my application form and await my membership card so that I can participate in the UKIP forum (apparently one of the best political forums going).
I won't be able to support the party's calls to ban the burkha in public places (other than at security checks, where a motorcycle helmet would need to be removed), but I feel that it has far less fundamental issues than the big three, and the most chance of the libertarian parties of getting seats in the house of commons, especially after yesterday's utter letdown by parliament.
At the end of the day, it says a lot about our representatives that less than a quarter of them vote for a referendum on an issue that nearly three quarters of us believe we should have a say in.
