‘What is it that encourages ordinarily sensible people to start niche political parties?…What it [ the UK Libertarian Party] will do, like the Libertarian Party has done in the United States, is to tarnish the libertarian brand, allowing the crazier aspects of libertarian thinking to come to the fore, and achieving nothing of any merit…

..The lesson from American politics is that when libertarians create parties, they end up undermining liberty by diverting campaigners’ efforts way from the mainstream. Perversely, the Libertarian Party in the United States has undermined liberty: if it becomes a noticeable minority party, the British equivalent will do the same.’

Alex Singleton in the Daily Telegraph on the folly of setting up libertarian parties.

Worth reading the Samizdata comments thread for some surprisingly vitriolic comments from ex-LP members.