The “democratic, libertarian” United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) just won the European elections in the UK. No “third party” has beaten the two main parties for over a century
As Nigel Farage (leader of UKIP) claims, his party has just caused an earthquake in British politics – one watched closely by the liberty movement in the USA. Robin asks the party’s Chairman of the party the $64,000 question: how libertarian is UKIP?
Original air date: June 2, 2014
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Why UKIP? The Answer Is In History – Not Bigotry
By: Robin Koerner
Originally Published: May 28, 2014
Many people regard Magna Carta as the first Constitutional guarantee of the basic liberties of the English-speaking world.
Fewer people know that Magna Carta wasn’t imposed on King John just because he abused his power (which after all has been true of most kings and governments throughout history), but because he had handed away the sovereignty of England to a foreign governing institution in Europe. That institution was The Holy Roman Empire.
John had unilaterally had handed England to Pope Innocent consent because earlier arguments with Rome had left England under an interdict (a kind of nationwide ex-communication), so John was facing the possibility of an invasion from a strong, Catholic France with a papal blessing that would have made finding allies impossible and inevitably led to John’s defeat. To split his enemies, and peel away the Church from France, John gifted the pope sovereignty over his entire country and leased it back as the pope’s vassal. For a time, Britain was ruled from Europe.