They’re riding high in the polls, passing the Liberal Democrats in some of them, but is the United Kingdom Independence Party philosophically libertarian? Alex Massie says no. Ed West says yes.
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In my experience, UKIP reproduces the authoritarian/libertarian divide within the Conservative Party, only more extreme and polarised. Nigel Farage, the current leader, is quite reliably libertarian with the exception of immigration.
One perspective from a similarly polarising figure within the British libertarian movement: http://libertarianalliance.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/sean-gabb-banned-by-ukip/
Bottom line, no. I liked Alex Massie’s column a lot. He writes very well.
I agree with Alex Massie, but he lost me at the very end with his snarky comment about gold. “But appealing to goldbugs is a sure sign of crankery.”
oh sod off, immediately comes to mind.