Musings of a Libertarian

  Taxation, on the living- is theft. Thieving from the deceased represents a whole other layer of wanton avarice on behalf of The State. The supposed justification for taxation is for the provision of public services. Apparently it's not theft if you get something back, even if you don't want or need it. The dead don't use public services. At least not today. The Ancient Greeks placed an obol in the mouth of the deceased to pay Charon the ferryman to cross the River Styx to the underworld- at least they got something for their death tax. (They should have had the right to opt-out and refuse the journey or seek alternative ferry providers at market rates regardless.) So assuming after death we are not presented with a first-class ticket on some sort of heavenly HS2 whisking us away to the next life, inheritance tax is pure theft. As much as the socialists may whine about the need to ensure sufficient public funding, inheritance tax makes up less than 1% of total tax receipts...

Following the recent announcement of an upcoming vote on the contentious issue of assisted dying, many social commentators were quick to decry the potential for individuals being pressured into ending their lives early. Their concerns should not be dismissed. There are plenty of greedy grandchildren who would like to get their hands on Gran's inheritance early. Plenty of children, who exhausted by the emotional and financial cost of looking after an aged parent, would consider it a mercy (for themselves) to suggest a one-way trip to the clinic. Perhaps even darker is the potential for State misuse of assisted dying rights. How long will it be until the infirm are told that they have become a burden on the NHS, and their GP informs them that their treatment should be withdrawn for the benefit of others? How long until an expectation to die is forced on those who are not terminally ill, but simply disabled? Canada is a case in point, where people have been offered access to assisting...

It's mushroom season. In gardens, parks and on fields across the country countless species of funghi are sprouting from the soil as the weather gets cooler. But one of them is special. The Liberty Cap is a relatively unassuming mushroom, averaging about 5-6cm tall with a cream to brown coloured head, topped with a distinctive nipple. It grows naturally in this country, in well-grazed fields and commons, from the onset of autumn until the first hard frost. The Liberty Cap is so named due to its similarity to ancient headgear of the same name- a conical cap associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe, Anatolia and Asia. Most likely stemming from their use by emancipated Roman slaves, the cap became associated with the pursuit of liberty and republicanism during the French and American revolutions. Sadly, its fungal namesake is anything but free. His Majesty's government categorise this little mushroom as a Class A substance- the same category as crack cocaine a...