“Fed Up with Politicians?”

[An article from Free Life]

Such was the title of a political leaflet received through my door last week.

Readers familiar with my work on this blog will know that I place little faith in the mainstream, political process as the primary means of achieving a freer society in the UK. There is no point in trying to grab control of the system when it is the system itself that is rotten.

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Parallel Networks = Echo Chambers?

Part and parcel of the effort to resist and reverse the present onslaught of technocratic tyranny is the fostering of parallel networks, the aim being to achieve a decoupling from channels that are under the control of the state and corporate behemoths. In the realm of free speech, this includes the setting up of alternative platforms such as Gab, Parler, Truth Social and others.

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The Timeless Yearning for Censorship

Excerpted from Socialism, by Ludwig von Mises:

Sidney and Beatrice Webb (Lord and Lady Passfield) tell us that ‘in any corporate action a loyal unity of thought is so important that, if anything is to be achieved, public discussion must be suspended between the promulgation of the decision and the accomplishment of the task’. Whilst ‘the work is in progress’ any expression of doubt, or even of fear that the plan will not be successful, is ‘an act of disloyalty, or even of treachery’. Now as the process of production never ceases and some work is always in progress and there is always something to be achieved, it follows that a socialist government must never concede any freedom of speech and the press. ‘A loyal unity of thought’, what a high-sounding circumlocution for the ideals of Philip II and the inquisition! In this regard another eminent admirer of the Soviets, Mr. T. G. Crowther, speaks without any reserve. He plainly declares that inquisition is ‘beneficial to science when it protects a rising class’, i.e., when Mr. Crowther’s friends resort to it. Hundreds of similar dicta could be quoted.

In the Victorian age, when John Stuart Mill wrote his essay On Liberty, such views as those held by Professor Laski, Mr. and Mrs. Webb and Mr. Crowther were called reactionary. Today they are called ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’. On the other hand people who oppose the suspension of parliamentary government and of the freedom of speech and the press and the establishment of inquisition are scorned as ‘reactionaries’, as ‘economic royalists’ and as ‘Fascists’.

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Abortion and Vaccine Mandates

In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s overruling of Roe v. Wade, James Melville, a commenter in the UK, tweeted the following concerning possible stances towards abortion on the one hand and vaccine mandates on the other:

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Why Brexit Still Matters

Quite a lot has happened since the United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31st 2020. Barely two months had passed before we were subjected – with the mere stroke of a pen – to mass house arrest, compulsory mask wearing, absurd distancing rules and a general shutdown of the economy before being threatened with the possibility of mandatory or coerced vaccinations. While, touchwood, the COVID panic seems to have subsided for now, today the West is fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, the global economy is in tatters, inflation is rising, and food and energy security have become a top priority in the rich world. The infliction of impoverishment and destitution in order to fulfil globalist, technocratic agendas has met the response of widespread protests on the continent (and even more notably in Sri Lanka, which has ousted its President).

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The Cost of Government Crisis

Government Spending Must be Cut

In response to the state-induced cost of living crisis, there have been prominent calls to cut the rate of various taxes that the state imposes upon its working citizenry. One such area where this has been most pronounced in the UK is the rising cost of petrol, in which fuel duty and VAT can amount to up to 40% of the price paid at the pumps.

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In Defence of Decentralisation – Political Unionism after Roe v. Wade

[Originally Published on Free Life]

When asked to account for the inspiration behind his voluminous output, Murray N Rothbard is supposed to have replied “hatred is my muse”. In other words, he could not bear to let the scores of fallacies etched into some statist screed stand unanswered.

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Platinum Platitudes

The Fuss over the Jubilee

Britain has spent the long weekend partying in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, the only occasion on which such a milestone has been reached. Ordinarily, our cultural leftist establishment and mainstream media tend to regard Britain’s history, traditions and patriotism as either an embarrassment or an active target for denigration. Her Majesty, however, seems to be spared much of this vitriol; instead, we cling onto her as a vestige of pride in an era struggling to find little else to celebrate.

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Let them Eat Bugs

If memories of school dinners make your stomach turn, you may wish to be grateful that you no longer languish in what passes for the UK’s full time education system. Primary school children could soon be offered a course of insects as part of their daytime meals “in order to help the environment”.

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