Alex Ram

The New Party describes its philosophy as follows:

The New Party is a party of economic liberalism, political reform and internationalism. We stand for individual freedom and personal responsibility in preference to state control. We believe that only by empowering individuals and their families to take more control of their lives can we promote a spirit of mutual responsibility and respect in society as a whole.

The New Party favours small government with a flat-tax regime and measures to increase individual freedom and self-reliance, as well as deregulation of business and industry. The party recommends wholesale reform of the welfare state with measures to reduce welfare dependency, and reduction of state control of public services, including reform of the National Health Service.

The New Party proposes various reforms of parliament, including adopting the Alternative Vote system for electing the House of Commons, an appointed and non-political House of Lords, and measures to strengthen the independence of the Civil Service.

The party regards itself as internationalist in outlook, which it interprets as support for democratic governments and human rights worldwide. The party is rather more cautious with regard to international organisations such as the European Union and the United Nations. After espousing a robust eurosceptic position, the party has latterly reverted to a more equivocal stance towards the European Union. It has also been critical of the United Nations as an undemocratic body without moral authority.

In foreign policy the party has adopted a liberal interventionist or neo-conservative approach and has been strongly supportive of the War on Terror, and British and American military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The most recent published policy statement of the New Party is the ''Manifesto for a World Class Nation'', published in 2005.


Adapted from the Wikipedia article The New Party (United Kingdom), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki