The UK Libertarian Party today condemned the Labour government's proposals to introduce ID cards through a “soft sell”.
Party
Leader, Patrick Vessey, said, “Both ID cards and the accompanying
database fundamentally change the relationship between individuals and
the state.
“The Libertarian Party is utterly opposed to this cataloguing of the people of Britain.
“In
a truly free society, and provided that they harm nobody else by doing
so, every person should be able to go where they like, and call
themselves what they like, without having to beg permission of anyone
else.
“Instead, the Labour government feels justified in tagging
and labelling us as though we were mere livestock—bovine automata to be
herded and tracked at our masters' convenience.”
The Libertarian
Party was launched on 1st January 2008 and launched their first
policy—a pledge to scrap personal income tax entirely—on 3rd March. It
was the first policy to emerge from the new party's discussions, and
forms part of a radical manifesto to be released, in full, later in the
year.
Notes for editors
- The Libertarian Party was founded on 21 November 2007 and
officially launched on 1 January 2008. The party's website can be found
here. - Further details of their radical Income Tax proposals can be found here.
- Libertarianism is a political philosophy based on support for individual liberty.
- Libertarianism is a broad church, but the UK Libertarian Party is broadly minarchist in outlook.
