My journey into political awareness started at the age of 14, when I began studying History at GCSE levels. The classic tale of the teacher passionate about their subject, and the student actually keen on studying (a trait I soon grew out of, I hasten to add). The key thing to highlight is that GCSE History at the time was a study of the 20th century. I could relate to this stuff, I knew people that had lived through some or most of it. Hearing some names I recognised, and being able to fully place them and their actions in context, with their consequences, opened my mind to the idea of drawing my own conclusions, rather than blindly latching on to those of my parents (who, as far as I can tell, are “entitled socialists” for want of a better term – they yearn for socialism, so long as it’s only for tax payers).

At this age, and up until around my 17th birthday, I was a centre-left socialist, in line with the moderate “right wing” of teens. Had I been able to vote at 16, I suspect I would have voted Lib Dem in the general election. By the time the local elections of 2007 had come round, however, and I first exercised my right to representation, I voted Conservative. I find it hard to explain this transition, if for no other reason than it is all a bit hazy to me. It was around 2006 that I first started rambling to my dad about an impending financial crisis, a conclusion which I had come to largely out of gut instinct rather than observation – I was tracking the price of gold, exchange rates and the share value of banks, but not actively seeking out news to try and predict their course. It was taking an interest in gold that started the shift both from a focus on social policy to economic policy, and from the left to the right. In particular, Brown’s sale of gold between 1999 and 2002 seemed completely absurd to me, some reasons for which I did not recognise as libertarian at the time, and brought into question the validity and worth of New Labour policy. Couple this with the ludicrous claims of “defeating the boom and bust cycle” despite not really doing anything whole heartedly, and I began to seriously doubt my own credibility. Anyone who feels that way must draw the conclusion that they are holding the wrong beliefs, or lying to themselves for moral or reasons or due to coercion.

Living in Daventry District constituency, in the 2007 local elections, Labour didn’t even bother fielding a candidate. When the political parties visited my school, they had to bring a Labour representative from Northampton North BC, who arrived in a tracksuit and trainers as opposed to the Conservative, Lib Dem and two ex-Conservative independent candidates who all wore suits. By this point I was already completely disregarding Labour as a political party, but this just soured them even more, and is possibly the point at which my dislike for politics of wealth envy and those who support it kick-started – with a shallow judgement of class. Rocky foundations, perhaps, but I feel they have led to a solid construction.

In 2007, the other key event in my political development occurred – I signed up to a forum heavily populated with a typically partisan US population, as well as a small core of Commonwealth socialists both moderate and radical. Having very much stayed entrenched in European and largely British politics up until this point, I was still very much believing and trusting in the State. As recently as 2010, I was arguing the case for socialism in the UK with a hardcore minarchist from Pennsylvania, going so far as to say “if [enslavement] is the life I wish to lead, who are you to tell me otherwise?” I pity myself for saying that, as recently as 2 and a half years ago. To be fair, it came from taking offence that a man who fervently believed in liberty would not hold a stance that permitted me the liberty to live in a socialist state, but that is largely irrelevant now as I overlooked the possibility of a socialist community. I digress. Joining this forum forced me to question my views over and over again. It forced me to affirm them. In an environment as aggressive as an anonymous one, out of your comfort zone, you quickly discover what you truly believe.

I can actually pinpoint the date at which the tipping point occurred. The 3rd of February, 2012, culminating in this post over at Google+. Watching the famed rants of a single politician and finding that everything he said stuck a chord was like The Enlightenment. By this point, the forum I am a member of was wearing me down and I was beginning to see the merits of liberty and laissez-faire economics (this was largely due to a lack of reasoned arguement and sourcing from the socialists and the neo-cons). I began to heavily research the concepts of libertarianism, its roots in British culture, and the moral imperatives behind it. Everything just began to make sense, and very quickly at that.

Throughout this entire process, my empathy levels have lowered dramatically, causing a shift of focus from social policy to fiscal policy. This is probably because I started working, and went from a state of entitlement to the realisation that I have to earn my keep. I like earning money, and I like paying my own way. I’ve had skills of worth (programming) since I was 14, and I’ve been profiting from them since I was 16. I entered employment at the age of 18 and have been unemployed for just under 1 month since then, a transitional period between my placement year and some software development for a lecturer during my final year of studies. Whenever I have been entitled to benefits, I have not taken them. I have always opted for private solutions when I could afford them and they were available – my taxes have funded (until this week) 1 trip to the doctors which resulted in the miserable bureaucracy called the NHS losing my tests and not informing me for 5 months until I grew concerned enough to chase it up this week, and the roads and pavements which I’ve made use of. In the past, they have also funded waste disposal. They have also funded industry subsidies, and the bailouts, but I am opposed to both of these and like to think that what I have paid in tax has gone towards the services I have used and nothing else. As you can tell, it’s something that I think about a lot. As a minarchist, my current stance (the smallest possible state without eradicating it), I would see taxes fund the protection of individual rights – law enforcement and defence, and nothing else. I have one exception, in that I would keep the NHS in some form – but only because I fear that removing the NHS would replace it with a US style corporatist system that would likely see me bankrupted due to a penicillin allergy, unless the rest of the state were dismantled before the NHS was tackled, which is infeasible.

I am currently a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party, campaigning among my peers for votes in this year’s bye-elections and planning on going fully activist for the 2014 European Parliament elections and 2015 general election. I also intend on monitoring the defections from the Conservative party for strengthening the presence of authoritarianism within UKIP – the past few months of defections appear to be around the single issue of a referendum on the EU, which is a UKIP flagship policy, but far from its only one and most certainly more broad than the party’s focus as a libertarian one. I’ve already written to Nigel Farage expressing concerns over authoritarianism and received assurances that it will come to nothing, but this type of PR no loner holds with me. I’ve no intention on hanging around and compromising my beliefs if the party shifts – I will jump ship for the Libertarian Party without a moment’s hesitation. It would be a crying shame should I have to do so – Farage is, in my opinion, the best British politician of our generation. Him and Daniel Hannan are the only two people in politics who air honest views, as opposed to popular ones. He admits his mistakes, but more importantly, those mistakes are rare. He’s not afraid of how the press portrays him, so long as they don’t lie (the racism accusations, inclusive of those from Sked, are what I have in mind here). For a generation supposed to have lost their faith in the system, I’ve found that I can easily rally behind Farage, easily believe in him without having to close my mind to the possibility that he might not always be right, or that he must deliver everything that he promises even if his party comes third in the elections (looking at you, NUS/”student” activists).

So there you have it. Incoherent ramblings about my past. In future, I will be writing about specific stances, issues, opinions and events. Hopefully they will not be as poorly structured as this post is.