Dear Liberal Democrats, please rebrand as the European Party. Please.

It's a long while since the Liberal Democrats were in any recognisable way either liberal or democratic. This makes the idea - mooted by Richard Dawkins - that they become the European Party a sensible one:

Writing to the Guardian, the 74-year-old, said: “Following its victory in the Richmond by election, I write to suggest that the Liberal Democratic party should change its name to The European Party.

“We of the forgotten 48% are surely more numerous today, now that Brexit’s rudderless fiasco is becoming as obvious as the shameless lies earlier told by its advocates.”

The reason why this is a great idea isn't that the 48% will flock to its banner but rather that this leaves the way clear for a genuinely liberal and democratic party in Britain. Right now Farron's Euro-fanatics, by hogging these words, are preventing a genuinely liberal, free market and internationalist message from being heard.

Indeed the Liberal Democrat Party's obsession with Europe has, even in those moments when there were glimpses of actual liberalism, meant that the cause of big government has sat at the heart of its policies and programmes. It's clear that today's Liberal Democrats are more comfortable with the eco-fascist Green Party, complete with crashing the economy and living in mud huts while scraping a living from a vegetable patch.

Here in Bradford, our liberal democrats prefer to patronise regular folk in the cause of public health - vaping one month, fizzy drinks the next - rather than admit to the idea of choice, responsibility and agency.

So get on with it Mr Farron (who's pretty much a communist) and rebrand your Party so we can set up one that argues for free markets, free speech, free trade and free enterprise.

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