A recent CityAM.com article posed the question “Is the British political landscape ripe for a new centre party?” Alan Lockey, head of modern economy at Demos, argued that the time was right for a new centrist party, but it was Conservative commentator, Alex Deane, arguing against the motion, who mentioned the Libertarian Party in his reply. Unfortunately, Mr Deane was less than optimistic about the chances of any competition with the big two gaining traction. In that assumption I believe Mr Deane is wrong.

One thing I would say Alex Deane is right about, is that we in the Libertarian Party think we will “break the mould”. With plummeting popularity for both Labour and Conservatives, the approach of Brexit making UKIP defunct and the irrelevance of the Lib Dems, the timing is actually perfect for a new party. Not for a bog-standard centrist party, not for an obscure single-issue entity, nor for a party with £50m cash up front but nothing to stand for, but the time is right for the Libertarian Party which is none of those things.

In the big scheme the Libertarian Party is a young upstart. When you consider that the Conservatives have been around for nearly 200 years and Labour for over a century, the Libertarian Party represents the hope, vision and energy of the rising generation. In comparison the big two are the fading elder statesmen of a bygone era (with the Lib Dems their obligatory in-bred mad cousin), desperately clinging to power, all the while demonstrating they are no longer fit to hold office.

Once it was Labour challenging the status quo and promising to break the mould but, as Orwell so eloquently described, when we compare the two main parties there is very little to choose from between the farmers and the pigs. The reality is that other parties have no intention of breaking the mould, they merely want to fill it and enlarge it. They are all in love with the top down statist imposition of their ideology on everyone else. In short, they wish to mind everyone else’s business for a living. Not so for the Libertarian Party.

This is where the Libertarian Party is vitally different. As a growing and relentless, peaceful, revolution the Libertarian Party represents a total challenge to the status quo. The mould will not be broken, it will be obliterated.

The Libertarian Party is, after all, the only party that really understands the correct origins of the power of the state – which is the people.

The Libertarian Party is the only party that really understands the essential need to defend individual freedom and what that looks like in practice.

The Libertarian Party is the only party intent on protecting the smallest minority of all – the individual.

The Libertarian Party is the only party that really understands the dampening effect of big government and the liberating effect of a small one.

The Libertarian Party is the only party that really understands the vital role of liberty in a successful and prosperous life for individuals and nations.

As a party we have no desire to impose on the private lives and rights of individuals, only to provide for the defence of individuals who are being imposed upon. It is a truly refreshing, room making, alternative to the ever more cumbersome, claustrophobic and restrictive future promised by the status quo. A status quo which has no tools left but fear to hold us in check while they add more chains and more regulations.

In contrast the Libertarian Party promises the genuine, practical, hope of individual freedom and a small state that gets out of the way, leaving space for all to grow. And that is what breaking the mould really looks like.