Liberty Alone

But Mark wants freedom for unhealthy things!

According to Samizdata one of the candidates said this. Which one was it?

Of course, I’d agree with Mark, how can it be called freedom if you are not free to choose unhealthy things? I despair if the thinking in this party is now that freedom means restricting access to things deemed unhealthy by the powers that be. That is disgusting nannying and the party should have nothing to do with it. The fact that it was uttered by one of the two leadership contenders just gives fire to those who accuse us of being illiberal, nanny state, interfering busybodies who want to control people’s lives just as much as the other two parties.

If freedom is to mean anything then it must include the freedom to make bad choices, otherwise we are engaging in doublespeak.

I think I will be voting for Clegg, not because of anything he’s done, but because of the behaviour of many Huhne supporters and the Huhne campaign in general.

This is unfortunate, but I don’t think that the message I’ve got from the Huhne camp is going to be conducive to a party which can most fully utilise all the talents we possess and I don’t think it will be open to debate. Nick Clegg has manage to unify the so-called wings of the party, he does not seem to be ideologically opposed to any part of liberalism.

I think what has happened is that Huhne has appealed to a certain sector of the party, the section which I’ve always had problems with, those who made a big thing about the Orange Book and the ‘evils’ of economic liberalism, although they don’t seem to understand the ideas.

There are some Huhne supporters who I have a great deal of respect for, and I hope that their support means that my fears will not be realised if Huhne becomes leader, but the behaviour and the campaign I’ve seen in the last few weeks doesn’t leave me with much hope.

Its a shame, I really wanted to support a candidate for positive reasons, but right now the feeling is that my vote must go against a candidate, not for one. At least Huhne’s election would not be a resigning issue for me, I would definitely give him a chance as leader, but I don’t want to chance it if possible.

I’ve just realised one of the things bugging me about Chris Huhne’s campaign is his choice of colour.

He’s ditched the comforting gold/orange/yellow and gone for green. I assume this is trying to bolster his green credentials, but I can’t help wonder whether its a hint at a New Labour/New Tory style rebranding… (Labour of course toyed with dropping red, using purple instead…)

I’m sure that’s being silly, but no tradition Liberal/LibDem colour* is a bit disconcerting. Okay, orange is now associated with the dreaded Orange Book, something Huhne is probably keen to distance himself from given his campaign, but yellow is perfectly respectable, its association not tarnished by such ‘right wing’ ideas…

* This is where some wag pipes up and points out that some local party used green as their colour, just as some local Tory parties used to have red as theirs.

I recall a bit of fuss over the campaign emails getting spammed and things.

To redress the balance, once I’d tracked them down (in amongst the increasing amounts of email I don’t have time to deal with) I found them both in my inbox.
In a reversal of other trends though, Nick Clegg’s was flagged as a possible scam by Thunderbird… (his looked prettier though, he’s not just a pretty face, he can send pretty emails too!)

On more serious things, I’m still undecided. Chris Huhne managed to annoy me, but has since managed to reassure me, Nick Clegg has some good rhetoric but no reason for me to make a positive decision. They’ve got a bit longer and I hope one of them does something to make me sit up and think ‘That’s it, they’ve got my vote’.

He’s come down against individualism and choice in public services, paying homage to the myth that localising bureaucracy is the only way to improve services and that denying people freedom is the liberal way forward.

There is no difference between a bureaucrat in my local council or one in Westminster - neither can understand the needs of an individual and respond to them. Individual choice is the only way to provide a fair service.

As a party we need to embrace the individual not the politician or bureaucrat. The problem is ensuring everyone has access to services not that everyone has the same service.

I’ve avoided commenting on the leadership election because I am definitely undecided.

I do lean towards Nick Clegg, but its not clear to me that he is the best candidate. I’m even considering not voting if I seriously cannot choose between them, not as a negative, but because they’re both good candidates. Last time, there was a definite anti-Hughes vote from me, this time I’d be very happy with either. Huhne has managed to irritate me a little, but he’s also got some excellent ideas, the same will, I’m sure, go for Clegg, so that’s no reason to favour either. I think it comes down to neither of them managing to alienate me or one of them really impressing me followed by how I think they’ll boost the party’s image and gain us votes.

This may well be my only post on the leadership, unless something drastic happens. I’ll leave it to others to comment in more depth, its being well covered across the blogs.