On liberty

Despite the psychic political torture of the last three-and-a-half years, the coming UK General Election promises to be a doozy of epic proportions. For the hard of recall, here is a summary of what the three major British parties promised in their 2017 manifestos regarding the most pressing issue of the day (at least to  this correspondent), namely Brexit. The Conservative Party pledged to “deliver a smooth and orderly departure from the European Union”; the Labour Party said that it “accepts the referendum result and.. will put the national interest first”; the Liberal Democrat Party announced, somewhat uncompromisingly, “Stop Brexit”. (Its unofficial campaign slogan is unsuitable for a family-friendly newsletter.) So the Conservative Party promised to deliver on the result of the 2016 referendum, Labour prevaricated, and the Liberal Democrats pledged to overturn a legitimate plebiscite altogether. (In days of yore the latter behaviour would not have been termed either liberal or democratic, but it might have been called treason.) For Leave voters and Brexiteers, the choice seems unusually clear.

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