I wonder if they did it on purpose

David Davis

[Subsequent edit by author] Further to receiving one-star ( = very poor) I should just rectify my omission, which was clearly observed by the respondent. I forgot to mention the requirement, that will encumber any incoming Libertarian or Revolutionary-Liberalist administration, whether in England, or the UK, or elsewhere, to criminalize and proscribe the existence of any bodies calling themselves “Trade Unions”, which behave in ways shown by the 19th- , 20th-  and 21st-Century British models of same. These outfits have proved themselves, through the deliberate policies and actions of their “officers”, to be far far more insidiously dangerous to life and liberty than any “terrorist” organisation, even the IRA and “Al-Quaeda” (whatever that might be), both of whom might be thought responsible for the deaths of up to 10,000 people each. The deaths probably attributable to the prevalence of “Trade” “Union” and “Workers’ Council” actions within the past 120-odd years probably run into the millions, aside from the planned and avoidable destruction of the UK’s heavy industries, docks, mining industries, railways and shipyards. (None of this needed to happen: the ability to fire all redundant labour upon the advent of better technology, thus keeping wage rates and hours to JapoChindoBraMexican levels, was prevented.)

Roll on the custard pies and rotting tomatoes….but Libertarians ought to begin speaking for real people, not just metropolitan political intellectuals like ourselves.

The coagulation-government is getting stick and rotting-cabbages from various quarters, for seeming to allow Francis Maude (who is, I admit, a bit of a slimy toad at times) to suggest that people should stock up on motor fuels before any putative strike by tanker drivers.

But I wonder…there could be a subtext here. Perhaps some clever Tory strategist thought that by artificially creating a fuel shortage at the pumps before any strike took place, the mass of inchoate but not negligible public opinion could be turned angrily against “UNITE”, whatever sort of GramscoStaliNazi front-organization that might be. I mean to say, it describes itself as a “Trade Union”, although it’s f**k-all to do with trade, and isn’t a union in any meaningful sense with regard to its members’ welfare – only its “officers’ ” wefare, power and prosperity.

Some of this unfocussed but very public mob ire might then rub off against the “Labour Party”, which predictably has failed to come out condemning the “union” – only mouthed platitudes about “the way to solve the crisis is by the negotiations”, as if there was anything meaningful for the drivers’ employers to talk about.

I just wonder if it’s a “cunning plan”. Of course, the predictable mainstream-media-response has been to toast the coagulation for its incompetence and “dangerous advice” (I mean to say! We used to keep old Duckhams 1-gallon oil cans and keep petrol in them for year after year – I always had 6 gallons in the house at any time, when in London years ago – about two-thirds of a tankful). But them the MSM is not on the side of any administration that is not overtly and aggressively GramscoStaliNazi. Perhaps because it thinks that most people viscerally are that, inand to their very bones….and they may sadly be right. Hitler got in, after all, by not misreading the mood of the German general public.

What causes cold winters? Global warming of course. I’ve been waiting for this

by Dave Barnby

 Did anyone watch the pathetic attempt to square the cold winters of the last three years in the UK with ‘global warming’ theory on the State Broadcaster’s Horizon Programme entitled GLOBAL WEIRDING (what a weird name for a programme) tonight? I expect that will be the new buzz word having been unable to make Global Warming and Climate Change stick.

Another Hero of the Freedom Movement: Jeremy Hammond

by Kevin Carson

http://c4ss.org/?p=9987

While the anarchist, antiwar and information freedom movements focus their attention — rightly so — on Bradley Manning’s torture and detention for exposing U.S. war crimes, let’s also spare some attention for another hero: Jeremy Hammond.

Big Brother is Back – ID Cards Were Nothing Compared to This Government’s Snooping Plans

Note: I had been idly wondering when the evil of which ID cards are the public face would be rolled out again. Let’s hope this whole thing turns out to be a money pit, and that the money soon runs out. There will be no other brake to this. SIG

What are new citizens expected to know?

I took the UK Citizenship Test at http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/ to see what questions they ask. I got 14 of 24 questions right. I wonder if that means my passport will be revoked. 45 minutes are allowed for a test that takes 3 minutes.

A Militant Authoritarian Writes

Note: This was first posted here as a comment on the alcohol pricing thread. Some blogs, I have no doubt, would remove it at once. I think it is worth promoting straight to the front page. It is a classic statement of what we are up against.

Look at the statistical assertions. 80 per cent of Melbournians frightened to use the public transport there? This sounds unlikely. If it isn’t a straight lie, we can ask what questions were asked of how many people. Or “48% reduction in costly and sometimes fatal alcohol related incidents.” What does this mean. What is the nature of these incidents? How many of them were fatal? How many fatalities were caused in any reasonable sense by people whose faculties had been impaired by drink? What is meant by costly? Or “(70% assaults in Oz are down to binge drinking.” Another suspicious claim.

Or look at the debating trick. Let us assume that these laws have dissuaded people from harming others. Even if true, is it necessary to set the limits so low? If you want to discourage bank robbery, is it necessary to hang shoplifters? The obvious purpose of all this is to produce large number of convictions and to frighten people out of drinking.

Then we have the continuous assertion that the right to stay alive is a civil liberty. This is a good one to throw about in a studio. It sounds reasonable, and explaining that it isn’t requires an argument rather than a soundbite. You can argue that staying alive is not a civil liberty, but one of those things that civil liberties are supposed to guarantee. Say that, and wait for the obvious sneered riposte. You can say there are better ways to protect the right to life than abolishing all the freedoms that make life worth having. That’s weak, because it requires you to explain that most of the alleged problem is made up, or that it is more effectively dealt with by enforcement of very old laws.

Yes – has anyone an effective one line response to this point about life as a civil liberty? Michael Howard once came out with it in private. He knew he was twisting words, and backed down when I laughed at him. But I’ve also heard Tony Blair use it. Any answers here? SIG

Have a Heart?

by D.J. Webb I read today that Vice president Cheney of the US, 71 years of age, had had a heart transplant. I hope all those under 71 years of age were in the queue first. I don’t think people over 3 score years and ten should be anywhere near the front of the queue for such things.

Should Alcohol Have a Minimum Price? Radio Appearance

2012-03-23-sig-drink.mp3

Sean Gabb on LBC with Iain Dale, on Friday the 23rd March . They discussed whether the British Government should set minimum prices for alcohol.

Sean says no for these reasons:

1. The drunks who make a nuisance of themselves in public have not been drinking cheap alcohol. They have been drinking at some very expensive establishments. Sticking a pound on the price of each drink they consume will have no effect on the trouble they make.
2. The real purpose of this measure is to increase what David Webb has called fiscal embezzlement by the ruling class. This is a tax by any other name.
3. It is a tax that will hurt the poor. A few pounds of a bottle of shiraz will have no observable effect on the middle classes. No taxing or regulation of alcohol will have any effect on the Members of Parliament – they can drink subsidised alcohol all round the clock in the Palace of Westminster. But minimum pricing will hurt the poor. These are people who, more than anyone else, need the break from stress that alcohol provides. But any increase in prices will force them to choose between going without their drink or cutting down on some other necessary.

Oh, Happy Days when we did the blacklisting!

Propaganda for Fiscal Embezzlement

by D.J. Webb

I have commented on Peter Oborne’s blog on the budget, where he says “the decision to educate ordinary citizens about how their taxes are spent is inspired: it is one of those apparently small innovations which over time can generate profound cultural changes”. I don’t regard this as a positive thing, and this is the comment thereon that I left on his blog:

Minimum Alcohol Pricing: Better England Free than England Sober

Libertarian Alliance  Contact Details: Dr Sean Gabb 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk Friday 23rd March 2012 For immediate release

“ALCOHOL MINIMUM PRICING: BETTER ENGLAND FREE THAN ENGLAND SOBER,” SAYS FREE MARKET AND CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties institute, today condemns proposals to make it harder for poor people to buy alcohol . The proposals include higher taxes, compulsory minimum prices for drink, further controls on advertising, and power to close down retailers. The only disagreement between the three main parities is how far they wish to go.

LA top 30 all-time from autumn 2006

Getting Your Due in America

by David D’Amato

http://c4ss.org/?p=9947

As a chiropractic student living on 60 dollars a week (“I’m on food stamps. Don’t hate me for it,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 19), Vicki Jones March hardly fits the stereotype of average or typical “welfare mom.”

Only the little people pay taxes

by Richard North

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2012/03/only-little-people-pay-taxes.html

Not content with ripping off their taxpayers big time, nearly a hundred senior local council employees are using tax avoidance schemes to minimise the amount they put back into the pot. Although these people are paid as employees of their respective authorities, they have been allowed to set up limited companies, as fronts into which their inflated salaries are paid.

Jackboots Without Borders

by Kevin Carson

http://c4ss.org/?p=9953

More than a year ago, I reported on the mission of Frank “Bagman of Empire” Wisner to Egypt (“Egypt: Let the Looting Begin,” Center for a Stateless Society, February 4, 2011). Wisner, formerly of Enron and AIG, was Obama’s plenipotentiary to Egypt, tasked with managing the post-Mubarak succession in as U.S.-friendly a direction as possible. Wisner’s father, by the way, was another Bagman of Empire; as a founding spook of the OSS and CIA he managed the overthrow of Arbenz and Mossadegh. Wisner had co-chaired (with another noted bagman, James Baker) a commission that developed a post-Saddam vision for the governance of Iraq. Just reading the “100 Orders” issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the corporate looting pursuant to them, should give you a good idea of Wisner’s agenda.

The Roman Catholic Church: Cross in One Hand, Gelding Knife in the Other

by David Webb

Occasionally you read something that makes clear to you that there is no going back to the old culture, which had undesirable elements to it, otherwise the current cultural revolution would not have been embarked on in the first place. Was our old culture rotten? Not entirely, and in fact in many respects the modern culture with the seizure of children for no reason and prosecution for Twitter comments is just as rotten in its own right.

Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me! Vote for Me!

by Thomas Cranmer

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2012/03/ken-livingstone-pledges-to-make-london.html

Ken Livingstone has been out on the campaign trail, highlighting that the Mayor of London can be an educator of the ignorant masses because the job comes with a pulpit from which he can preach. He told the assembled faithful at Holy Trinity Brompton that he had recently read for the first time in his life the words of Jesus, which he observed ‘could have been written for today as they seem to be an agenda for all humanity’. Especially, he said, those sentences where Jesus exhorts us to love our neighbour, and that our neighbour is everyone, and that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile, nor male nor female, for all are equal in His sight. Mr Livingstone lauded the greatest commandment, which he said was ‘a creed for all of us’. In recognition of the scales falling from his eyes, he wants ‘to make sure that every non-Christian in London knows and understands the words of Jesus’, so it might stop ‘the demonisation of Christianity that is daily spewed out by poisonous papers like The Guardian‘. He wants to educate ‘the mass of Londoners who have no understanding of the words of the Son of God’. This, he says, ‘will help to cement’ London as ‘a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of Jesus’.

Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!

Mill on Liberty – Old Review

I wrote this in 1994. I still more or less agree with it. SIG

On Liberty
John Stuart Mill
Prepared by dell from the Harvard Classics edition,
published by P.F. Collier & Son, Massachusetts, 1909
Available from gopher://gopher.panix.com/misc/referencelibrary/classicsofliterature/
First published 1859, published on-line September 1993, 281.53kb, public domain

Dystopian Science Fiction

Reviewed by Sean Gabb in 1991

Tracer
Stuart Jackson
Sphere Books 1990 301pp £3.50
(ISBN 0-7474-0603-0)

I bought this novel in Lewisham High Street, remaindered at 50p. This says more about the bad taste of our reading public than Mr Jackson’s talent as a writer. He has produced a futuristic thriller that is nearly first rate. I shall be sad if its failure has put him off writing a sequel.

I’ve just had my Council Tax bill for the coming year!