Director's Bulletin
26th March 2010
Greetings to all. Here are some of the latest doings of the Libertarian
Alliance:
1. The third Annual Chris R. Tame Memorial Lecture and Drinks Reception
Date: Monday 10th May 2010 between 6.30pm and 9.00pm at the National
Liberal Club, One Whitehall Place, London SW1 (nearest tube Embankment).
Subject: Public Goods and Private Action: How Voluntary Action Can Provide
Law, Welfare and Infrastructure - and Build a Good Society
Speaker: Dr. Stephen Davies
The dress code for this event is lounge suit or smart casual.
To confirm your attendance please RSVP Dr. Helen Evans at
Dr. Stephen Davies is Program Officer for the Institute of Humane Studies.
He joined HIS from the UK where he was Senior Lecturer in the Department
of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He
has worked at IHS before, in 1991 and in 1992-93, as well as teaching at
many Summer Seminars and events over the years. He has also been a
Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling
Green. A historian, he graduated from St. Andrews University in Scotland
in 1976 and grained his PhD from the same institution in 1984. He was
co-editor with Dr. Nigel Ashford of The Dictionary of Conservative and
Libertarian Thought (Routledge, 1991) and wrote several entries for The
Encyclopedia of Libertarianism edited by Ronald Hamowy (Sage, 2008),
including the general introduction. He is also the author of Empiricism
and History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and of several articles and essays
on topics including the private provision of public goods and the history
of crime and criminal justice. He has recently completed a book on the
history of the world since 1250 and the origins of modernity. Among his
other interests are science fiction and the fortunes of Manchester City.
Dr. Davies works on many of the Institute's educational programs, teaches
at summer seminars, liaises with the HIS faculty network, and provides
academic career advice and support to graduate students.
2. Public CIB Meeting - Free Admission, Saturday 17th April 2010, 2.30pm
to 4.30pm
CARRS LANE CHURCH CENTRE, Carrs Lane, Birmingham B4 7SX (10 minutes walk
from city centre New Street station) See website www.carrslane.co.uk for
directions
TIME FOR TRUTH: Who Speaks for the People of Britain?
In the Chair: GEORGE WEST - Chairman, Campaign for an Independent Britain
Speakers
Dr. SEAN GABB, Director The Libertarian Alliance
FIONA McEVOY, The Taxpayers Alliance, West Midlands
STUART NOTHOLT, Vice-Chairman Campaign for an Independent Britain &
organiser of General Election "Candidate 2010"
Published by The Campaign for an Independent Britain
www.eurosceptic.org.uk For 35 years, CIB has led efforts to safeguard our
3. Sean Gabb in The Daily Express
The front page headline in today's issue of The Daily Express is "New EU
Gestapo spies on Britons" (http://tinyurl.com/y85av9r). This is all about
the latest outrage from the European Union, and carries a long quotation
from the Thoughts of Director Gabb. He says: "It doesn't surprise me that
Europol has been handed these rather frightening powers,... We now live in
a pan-European state so it was to be expected that it would have a federal
police force with powers over us....There is a real danger that opposition
to EU policies could make an individual liable to arrest.... For example,
if Brussels adopts a hard-line stance on climate change, it's conceivable
that someone who broadcasts their scepticism of climate change may be
accused of committing an environmental crime because they have undermined
the EU's efforts to save mankind."
4. Sean Gabb in Vdare
I have written two articles this year for Peter Brimelow's on-line journal
VDare (http://vdare.com/gabb/index.htm). These are both about the
persecution by the British State of the British National Party. I have had
a few displeased comments on these. However, what is now being done to the
BNP provides a good summary of how totalitarian England has become in the
past few decades. It would all have been unthinkable back in the days when
I used to amuse my friends with predictions of a police state. Another
point worth making is that libertarians are allowed to defend the BNP, but
only in this way: "I hate and deplore these evil men. I am myself
Jewish/gay/transgendered/one-third-Tibetan. But, purely from a (possibly
misguided) commitment to old-fashioned liberalism, I do beg you not to put
them in prison." To take this line is to concede moral hegemony to the
left. You probably get away with defending the rights of the BNP in much
the same way as camp entertainers like Liberace and Larry Grayson were
seldom denounced as homosexuals. You do nothing to defend freedom of
speech. A better defence is as follows: "Nick Griffin and his friends
should have an absolute right to speak as they please on public issues.
This was an unquestioned right in England before 1965. So far as it is no
longer a right, we no longer live in a free country."
5.Sean Gabb on Television
On the 7th March 2010, I went on the BBC1 television programme "The Big
Questions". My subject was whether voting should be made compulsory. The
assumption behind the debate was that: voting is good, people are not
voting in the right numbers, and so what should be done to raise the
turnout? I disrupted proceedings by pointing out that people are not
voting because the politicians are all scum. You can view my contribution
6. Speech on Libertarianism
On the 17th March 2010, I gave a speech to the Politics Society of The
Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School on libertarianism. I only had twenty
minutes for may own speech, followed by twenty of questions, and this had
to be a basic introduction. But I think I covered the main points. You can
find the speech here:
7. Libertarian Alliance Meetings
Our friends over at the other Libertarian Alliance continue with their
monthly meetings. I can hardly ever get up to London to attend these. But
they always look very interesting, and I receive endless reports of how
interesting they have been. For details of the next meeting, contact David
McDonagh for details: mcdonagh_d@yahoo.co.uk
8. Richard Blake Activities
Just before Christmas, my dear friend Mr Blake put the finishing touches
to his masterpiece "Blood of Alexandria". This is a sensitive account of
land reform and mass-murder in late Byzantine Egypt. It will be published
by Hodder & Stoughton in June 2010. You can pre-order copies from Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/yb4qvms He is now putting the last touches to his
9. Sean Gabb on Facebook
I was nagged into joining this a few weeks ago. Unlike Linkedin, that was
a complete waste of time, this has been most interesting.
--
Sean Gabb
Director, The Libertarian Alliance (Carbon Positive since 1979)
sean@libertarian.co.uk Tel: 07956 472 199
Wikipedia Entry: http://tinyurl.com/23jvoz
Buy these novels by Richard Blake: "Conspiracies of Rome"
<http://tinyurl.com/l8uj8r> ("Fascinating to read, very well written, an
intriguing plot" Derek Jacobi); "Terror of Constantinople"
<http://tinyurl.com/n9ugw3> ("Nasty, fun and educational" The Daily
Telegraph) "Blood of Alexandria" will be published in June 2010, "Sword of
Damascus" in June 2011. Reserve your copies now on Amazon
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