Musings of a Libertarian

  Ed Davey took to the stage at the Liberal Democrat conference yesterday, waxing lyrical about “British values” – citing tolerance, decency, the rule of law, and individual liberty. Yet this sermon on freedom comes in the very same week his party proposed dropping their opposition to a national Digital ID system. The hypocrisy is glaring. Digital ID represents one of the clearest threats to individual liberty in the modern era: an infrastructure for surveillance, centralised control, and the slow erosion of personal privacy. To champion “freedom” while embracing such tools of state power is not just inconsistent: it is dishonest. The mask has slipped. The Liberal Democrats, once a party that at least paid lip service to civil liberties, now line up with Labour and the Conservatives in offering nothing but different shades of the same statist authoritarianism. The rhetoric may differ, but the trajectory is the same – more control, less autonomy. British values worth defending are n...

With the dust beginning to settle on the latest reshuffle, it’s time to take a closer look at our new—and not so new—overlords in the Whitehall bureaucracy. David Lammy – Deputy Prime Minister & Justice Secretary In David Lammy we now find the roles of Deputy PM and Justice Secretary rolled into one—a troubling centralisation of power given the intellectual faculties of the man behind the position. Lammy’s record on Mastermind speaks volumes: Henry VII succeeding Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette winning a Nobel Prize, and Red Leicester identified as a blue cheese. But while comic ignorance might once have been harmless, Lammy’s authoritarian instincts are not. He has long championed restrictions on speech and openly called for a second Brexit referendum. Under his stewardship, expect an even deeper politicisation of the judiciary. Shabana Mahmood – Home Secretary On Mahmood’s very first day as Home Secretary, 1,000 illegal migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. Yet we are e...