You're a left-libertarian: where do you fit in UK politics?
Where do those of us who believe in radical freedom AND meaningful welfare belong in the British political landscape?
I know exactly how I’ll vote in the next UK General Election. I also know how I’d vote if I moved to almost any other constituency. My list of priorities are the same in any seat, but how far down that list we get depends on the politics of that seat.
My first priority is to vote out this authoritarian and self-regarding Conservative government. That’s not a surprise - very, very many people who run from the firm left to the one nation centre-right want to do that. If I lived in a Tory seat, or a marginal seat of any type, I’d vote tactically to get them out. As it happens though, I live in a very safe Labour seat, and that moves us down the list to priority two - vote against a Labour party that has massively overcorrected in its move not only to the centre, but to the authoritarian flag-waving centre. I appreciate Keir Starmer had to make some changes after the catastrophe of 2019, but from any liberty-based standpoint both his policy stance and his rhetoric have gone so much further than necessary. Preferring them to the Conservatives in a two-party fight is, from a progressive perspective, sensible, but it is not in any way radical. The two parties are not identical - that’s always been a pretty unedifying accusation hurled by some - but that’s because our present party of government has moved so far to the culture warrior right it’s become a skimmed milk version of Ron DeSantis. So I’d vote liberal? Or green? Better, but neither inspire enthusiasm. I’d still be in the world of voting against, not for. For a left-libertarian like me, there are no ideal options, just are constituency-contextual least worsts.
Left-libertarianism is defined in a range of ways, but it’s usually some blend or another of material egalitarianism, social and political liberty, environmental protection and actual free trade rather than corporatist capitalism. There are differences among us in how we see the role of the state, but there is a shared general resistance to big power bases - whether state or business - and a belief in the right to social welfare, health and and education on the basis of need, not ability to pay. We differ from right-libertarians in that among other things we are as suspicious of corporate power as we are state power, and (though this is not true of all right-libertarians) we have little truck with the idea of allying with social conservatives or nationalists. My own blend of left-libertarianism wants a state that provides generous welfare, reasonable defence, support services on the basis of need, environmental protection and provisions to ensure that having your rights fulfilled and needs met does not depend on the contents of your bank account. That’s the left bit, but for me the left bit is the modifier - I want these things because they make it easier to live freely, to determine your own path and live, love and work in ways that let you flourish and be who you are, short of harming someone else or unjustly abridging their freedom to do the same. In the modern vernacular, it is for me the role of the state to maintain things to allow us to live our best lives, but not to tell us what that looks like. The left bit of left-libertarian is deductive and analytical; the libertarian bit is visceral and comes from the soul.
From where I stand, the electoral options for left-libertarians have better and worse choices, but not many outright good ones. There is a liberty tradition in the Tory Party, though not one of my flavour, but it has pretty much completely died. There’s David Davis who still flies the flag for a classical rule of law liberalism, but on many other things he’s not so much blue as navy. Whatever Liz Truss and her remaining acolytes say, they aren’t any kind of libertarian - you can’t be in the liberty business and share a platform with conspiracy-spinning Trumpians, and you can’t be in the liberty business while demonising asylum seekers. That also cuts out Reform. Both are generally unacceptable to left-libertarians at any time, but whatever the rhetoric, they are not presently friends of liberty. Never be seduced by the promise of ‘common sense’ in politics - there’s no such thing. Common sense is code for ‘a convenient set of beliefs for me that I’m going to persuade you are both universally true and comforting to you’ - simplistic claptrap.
Labour liberty enthusiasts are not prevalent in the controlling ranks of the party. If you are not wealthy - and that’s a lot more of us than it used it be in relative terms - your functional liberty is probably in a better place with even a centrist labour government, but that’s economic consequence more than genuine enthusiasm on their part. Let’s not forget the enthusiasm of the last Labour government for ID cards, surveillance and detention without trial. When the left is in charge of Labour it has some good overlap with liberty on some things, but gets collectivist and communal on many others. The biggest liberalisations of social policy of the last half century happened under a Labour government, but that was in spite of the social conservatism of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. We got the end of capital punishment, the relaxation of censorship and the decriminalisation of homosexuality and abortion because the Home Secretary of the time was liberal Labour, before eventually becoming a liberal Liberal.
While we’re on the subject, though many Conservatives and Labour MPs voted for same-sex marriage, we owe its inception to another Liberal - Lynne Featherstone. The Liberal Democrats - inside and outside government, have liberalised several key areas of law, but even then the argument is oftentimes that ‘the time has come’ for change. For the libertarian, who believes rights are inherent and not gifts of the state, that’s a progressive motivation but not one based in deep liberty. Besides, at the moment the Liberal Democrats are doing their favourite - and admittedly effective - trick of campaigning on a ‘vote for us, not them’ ticket, based on sewage, care workers, localism and a moralistic line about the character of MPs. All of these issues matter, but there’s no liberty-based narrative running through it. In the increasingly unlikely even of a hung parliament, Lib Dem influence on Labour will likely be from the economic left while rearguarding against unwarranted further intrusion from the state, but that won’t undo clampdown protest laws or the snoopers charter . The same will be true of the SNP - no libertarians they - and of the Greens. A section of the Green Party has a good line in left-libertarianism - that’s where you’ll probably find the finest single slice of that kind of thinking in UK politics - but that slice has to share a plate with a centralising form of eco-Marxism and a large wedge of left wingers who are dissatisfied with Labour and see the Greens as a straightforward transfer point for their egalitarian but collectivist politics.
So what would I suggest? Probably to do what I’m doing. Vote out the most controlling, mean-spirited and autocratic government of my lifetime but voting tactically. If you are in a seat that is safely non-Tory (i.e. probably Labour, unless you’re in Scotland) go Green or Liberal Democrat.
Then do something else - get involved with things in your community. Community doesn’t have to be your geographic neighbourhood. It can be a community of interest, of identity, of joint endeavour, or a campaign or pressure group. If you want left-leaning liberty, you likely want enough help to be free, and for others to have the same. Voluntary association, and emancipated participation - the ‘what can I do to help’ attitude - is essential. If you don’t want an overweening state AND you don’t want the loss of freedom that poverty, inequity and isolation bring, then you have to do things, contribute and help. Good democrats use the ballot box to keep their freedom; good libertarians use their freedom to keep
the freedom of others.
Thanks for reading :)