From Free Life, Issue 27, September 1997
ISSN: 0260 5112

It is the 12th January, and I have just received my copy of Free Life No. 26. It is dated December 1996, has a picture of holly on the front cover, and wishes me a "Happy Christmas".

Is this incompetence, Sir? Or is it merely postmodernism gone mad?

Yours in disgust,

Frederick Fairlie,
Cumberland.

Sir,

Why do you consider the Referendum Party to be an obvious refuge for Tory votes? [Free Life No. 26, December 1996 - "Editorial"]

The Referendum Party is a single issue organisation, hopelessly confused on its aims and how to achieve them. This is because its founder obstinately refuses to face the realities of the European Union. These are that the imperatives of the governing élite make its institutions incapable of reform, and make the political drive to a superstate irresistible

Alone of all political parties, the UK Independence Party, that collection of "embarrassing old fart dinosaurs" [Free Life No. 25, May 1996, Brian Micklethwait's "Jottings"], recognises these facts and has a clear policy on the European Union, from which it advocates withdrawal. Additionally, libertarians will find themselves in agreement with UK Independence Party policies on a range of issues. These include opposition to identity cards, and a diminution in the role of the State and in the number and power of its functionaries.

Unlike the Referendum Party, the UK Independence Party will continue to exist after the next election. The UK Independence Party is the natural choice not merely for those seeking revenge but also for anyone concerned with the continued existence of Britain as a nation state with the liberties of the subject within that state. That description fits readers of Free Life, who should join the "embarrassing old fart dinosaurs" in support of the UK Independence Party.

Yours sincerely,

Fabian Olins,
London.

Sir,

In your last Editorial [Free Life No. 26, December 1996], you recommended that in the forthcoming General Election we should all vote for the Referendum Party. You offered as a main reason the prospect of imagining with delight the faces of "John Major and the other traitors and buffoons who presently rule this country... as they sit down together the morning after the next election, and work out how many votes they lost in each seat to Sir James Goldsmith's intervention, and how many seats they thereby lost."

But will they be able to make these calculations unless they have some means of telling how many of those who vote for the Referendum Party would have voted Conservative had there been no Referendum Party candidate? Surely, in order to achieve the result which you desire, you should have recommended voting only for those Conservative candidates who are clearly Eurosceptic. If, but only if, these do significantly better than the Europhiliacs will John Major et al. be discomfited in which you (and I) desire.

Yours sincerely,

Antony Flew,
Berkshire.

Sir,

In your last Editorial [Free Life No. 26, December 1996], you advise your readers to stop voting Conservative.

In at least my case, this advice is redundant, as I have never voted Conservative in my life.

Yours in pity,

Stuart Pemberton,
Yorkshire.

Sir,

In your last Editorial Jottings [Free Life No. 26, December 1996], you wish a Happy Christmas to all your readers.

Have you ever stopped to consider that not all your readers are followers of the Nazarene Zealot?

And is it worth complaining that I only received this Christmas issue in February?

The answer to both these questions, I am sure, is perhaps not.

Yours sincerely,

Aaron P. Krellburger,
Florida.