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Sunday, October 19, 2014

Britain's rising libertarian generation

Rise of the New Libertarians: Meet Britain's Next Political Generation - Shane Croucher, International Business Times:

October 10, 2014 -  "In the ruins of Westminster party politics, between the crumbling pillars of broken promises and the shattered glass of optimism, you'll find Britain's young people building something new.

"They don't need or want the British state and its creaking machinery. Like feats of Victorian engineering, these tired institutions are impressive, interesting, and have their place in history. But they're not practical anymore, these dusty relics from the Age of Statism.

"This is Generation Y. The under 30s who are the most liberal generation in British history, not just on social issues such as decriminalising marijuana and gay marriage, but on economic ones too....

"Adolescents of austerity, who understand they can't rely, as their parents and grandparents did, on the one-size-fits-all state as a provider. This generation knows what it wants: the grand prize of individual liberty and personal responsibility....

"Young libertarians are also looking to Ukip's newest hero, the Tory turncoat Douglas Carswell. A free market-loving, privatisation-touting, tax-cutting libertarian rascal, Carswell just won a by-election in Clacton - increasing his majority - after his defection from the Conservatives to become to become Ukip's first elected MP....

"Generation Y marks a noticeable shift in opinion when compared to other generations. They're not that proud of the welfare state. They're less trusting of the traditional big public institutions. They're much more socially liberal, cosmopolitan, and internationalist.

"They believe more in markets, lower tax and less regulation. They want to make their own decisions, not have the state – an overbearing parent, of sorts – make them on their behalf....

"Years of austerity and public spending cuts have changed Generation Y, but not in the way some expected. Rather than fuelling anger among young people that the state is being chipped away, many are absorbing the message of individualism, of DIY solutions to personal, community and societal problems.

"They simply don't need the state anymore. You're more likely to find them working in social enterprises and charities than in the hallowed Westminster halls of Whitehall."

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/rise-new-libertarians-meet-britains-next-political-generation-1469233
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