Friday 16 April 2010

Old Devil, New Devil

After this appearance on the Daily Politics show, Chris Mounsey has deleted his Devil's Kitchen blog and is now writing as a much toned-down Devil's Knife.

An explanation of the rebranding can be found here:

My boss was phoned by a very unimpressed friend who had recognised me on The Daily Politics. My boss—who, whilst knowing that I blogged, has never let it concern him—phoned me and expressed some disquiet. I should point out that he did not tell me to do anything and nor has he tried, in any way, to force me to do anything about this situation other than talk it over tomorrow.

However, it took me only a few minutes to make this decision...

The simple fact is that I love my job and I am now in quite a high-profile position: as the company grows, I am going to become yet more exposed. And the fact is, I want to be exposed.

Chris Mounsey is the newish leader of the Libertarian Party and that explains why this whole affair has been all over the British blogosphere for the last couple of days.

I guess that I'm one of the old guard of the British libertarian movement. It's close to 40 years since I first discovered libertarianism and the entire movement could have fitted inside a telephone box back in the early days. When the Libertarian Alliance was founded its purpose was to change the intellectual climate, not to run for office. And now we have a Libertarian Party in the UK.

I was skeptical at first. I haven't joined the LP, partly because I'd probably want to devote myself to making sure that the manifesto was absolutely 100% sound in terms of libertarian theory - the theory that I've been studying for over three decades. Frankly, I haven't got the time, or the energy. But I hope that the new generation of libertarians makes sure that they do read the great classics of our movement. Party politics isn't enough: ideas are more important. But politics does have its place in libertarianism and so I wish the LP well. I have sent a donation to the "F***ing Hellski" fund and I urge others to do the same.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

rinky stingpiece
epic fail. 
 
a seriously misjudged move that totally destroys him and his party. 
 
never mind what your party stands for, if you can't even do the basics of preparation for a tv interview you deserve to be destroyed. 
 
Libertarianism is a fundamentally flawed concept anyway, but this kind of effort is ridiculuous. 
 
Anyone with any sense would totally refuse to engage with the BBC and media, and build their movement in meatspace and cyberspace to a 6-figure membership before even contemplating doing a round with the regime's arsepiece (the BBC), or any of the trollpapers. 
 
Seriously, the Libertarians now need to drop the name and start from first principles and develop a thorough understanding of the game and their gameplan. 
Even the BNP can manage a half-decent show, and they take a kicking every hour of every day.

28 May 2010, 19:08:49 GMT+01:00
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APL
I noticed, his gaze is all over the place, which in my opinion made him look shifty.

18 April 2010, 12:58:03 GMT+01:00
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David Chiverton
I think you'd be very hopeful once you got the chance to speak to many LPUK members (especially on the blogs - we all seem to write one). Everyone I've spoken to has a very good knowledge of the theories and the key thinkers. I'm new to the party, but I see it as one part of a wider UK based libertarian movement which goes hand in hand with the Libertarian Alliance and the newly formed Liberty Network.  
 
Excellent blog by the way. My rather more rudimentary effort is here www.crazyelmont.co.uk

16 April 2010, 12:59:26 GMT+01:00