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Welcome to LibertarianUK, the site that discusses how libertarian values might be practically implemented in the UK.
At least that's the snappy way of putting it: it is, if you like, the tagline. But what does it mean?
Wikipedia defines Libertarianism thusly.
A political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others the same liberty and avoid abusing their liberty.
Inevitably there are complications: libertarianism is a broad church, but whilst there is a whole spectrum of thought throughout the philosophy, there are two main and near-distinct camps.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of libertarians: consequentialists and rights theorists.[1] Rights theorists hold that it is morally imperative that all human interaction, including government interaction with private individuals, should be voluntary and consensual. They maintain that the initiation of force by any person or government, against another person or their property, with "force" meaning the use of physical force, the threat of it, or the commission of fraud against someone, who has not initiated physical force, threat, or fraud, is a violation of that principle. This form of libertarianism is associated with Objectivists, as well as with individualist anarchists who believe opposition to the state is consistent with this principle.
Consequentialist libertarians do not have a moral prohibition against "initiation of force," but believe that allowing a very large scope of political and economic liberty results in the maximum well-being or efficiency for a society - even if protecting this liberty involves some initiation of force by government. However, such governmental actions are limited in the free society consequentialists envision. This type of libertarianism is associated with Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek. Some writers who have been called libertarians have also been referred to as classical liberals, by others or themselves. Also, some use the phrase "the freedom philosophy" to refer to libertarianism, classical liberalism, or both.
Of course, this is all very well as a theory but how does this translate into practical policies? How would a libertarian country actually function? To what extent, for instance, should welfare exist? How should crime be policed? What are the fundamentals and what are the practical options? In what stages should we aim to implement such policies? And what are our current administration doing wrong (or right)?
It is these practical questions that the writers at LibertarianUK.net aim to explore.