Musings of a Libertarian

Smoking kills. Didn't know that one. Many thanks to Starmer for reminding us that smoking claims the lives of 80,000 Britons a year. All attacks on our liberties are presented in this manner, some problem or threat that justifies further State involvement in our lives. A couple of weeks ago it was the far right and the removal of free speech online, this week it is lung cancer and the banning of that cheeky Marlboro outside spoons on a Friday night. Leaving aside the ethics for now, the economic impact of the proposed ban will be disastrous. Thirty pubs a week close in the UK. We have lost 15,000 pubs since the turn of the millennium, despite adding 10 million to the population. While some of this is down to changing demographics which have led to lower per capita alcohol consumption, the main driver has been taxation and regulation. Now Labour want to hit the pubs again. Many already drink at home as a result of the exorbitant prices resulting from astronomical beer taxes (the aut...

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows." (Orwell 1984) Ignoring the handful of idiotic maths "teachers" in California and Ontario who recently claimed 2+2=4 to be a statement of white supremacy, the absolute veracity of 2+2=4 is agreed on by all. 2+2=4 lacks the controversy of emotion and opinion; it is a statement of fact provable a priori. So, we are free to accept two plus two equals four. But what are we to do with uncomfortable truths, or statements of opinion, some of which have fuelled disgusting scenes such as those recently seen in Rotherham? Merriam Webster defines freedom as "the quality or state of being free, such as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action." By definition therefore, the moment speech is qualified, it is no longer free. On Sunday Jessica Simor KC took to Twitter (yes, we are still free to call it that) to politely remind us that limits on ...

Yesterday yet another election was stolen by a despot: Maduro in Venezuela. Predictably, the social media left have come out in force to pretend an absolute majority of citizens voted for a government which has butchered their freedoms and living standards. In contrast, 5000 kilometres to the south, Argentines are enjoying the first fruits of laissez-faire market capitalism. In the 20th century Venezuelans enjoyed one of the highest qualities of life in the Western world. The country boomed as it attracted migrants by the millions, not primarily from other Latin American States, but from the wealthy nations of Western Europe, struggling with the realities of a post-war economy. Let's take a look at the socialist's least favourite thing: objective measures of economic development. In 1950 only the United States, Switzerland and New Zealand enjoyed higher per capita incomes than Venezuelans. GDP has declined by 80% in ten years. In the same period, the size of the Chilean economy...

  The year is 2050 - continued government intrusion into our lives mean we all walk around as barcodes, flashing our digital ID to access public services and conduct financial transactions. This will most likely be through simply showing our faces, which will be promptly scanned and checked against a database of millions (the Home Office is already constructing such a database, using 13million of our passport photos sans consent) either on entry to a public building or through our smartphones. Sadly, this is likely to be the case in much of the developed world. Following Sunak's announcement of a smoking ban, in the UK this distopian nightmare now takes on a farcical dimension - a 41 year old's face grants them access to a packet of Marlboros while the 40 year old's face is declined. The State has simply no right to dabble in such lunacy. The authoritarian lunatic is also an economic illiterate: At the current average UK price of £11.46 a packet, a 20 a day smoker will spen...

  Penal colony FKU IK-3 is located near Kharp, a village of some 6000 people in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Russia, just north of the Arctic Circle. There, on the 16th of February 2024, Alexei Navalny- the last significant opposition figure remaining within the borders of the Russian Federation- was murdered by The State. Libertarian ideals naturally compel us to minimise the power of The State as far as possible. They compel us to view authoritarianism with revulsion. They tell us that the individual has the absolute right to free speech without fear. Having lived in Russia I have for myself experienced first-hand the effect constant self-censorship has on the human psyche. I have seen a proud and honest people once again either silenced or lobotomised by their leaders. Most would agree that Putin's regime constitutes nothing less than the antithesis of Libertarian values. More contested is the extent to which the freedom of others is intertwined with our own. After all,...