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http://libertarianalliance.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/boycott-tescos/

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE
In Association with the Libertarian International

Release Date: Friday 21st May 2010
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Dr Sean Gabb, 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk

For other contact and link details, see the foot of this message
Release url: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr080.htm

"BOYCOTT CORPORATIST AND ANTI-WORKING CLASS  TESCO'S" SAYS FREE MARKET AND
CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties
institute, today calls for a boycott of Tesco's because of its support for
plans to stop the poor from drinking. [The company has welcomed a promise
by the Coalition Government to ban shops in England and Wales from selling
alcohol at below cost price.]

Speaking today in London, Dr Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian
Alliance, comments:

"The Government's proposal, and the welcome given it by Tesco's, amount to
an attack on the poor. The ruling class politicians who continually whine
about alcohol will not be affected by minimum pricing or the abolition of
special offers. I might add that none of them can be affected by such
laws. Income aside, anyone who lies his way into Parliament can look
forward to round the clock drinking in the Palace of Westminster of
untaxed alcohol.

"But the measures will hurt poor people, for whom alcohol will become
cripplingly expensive and hard to find. They have the same right to drink
as the rest of us. Bearing in mind the problems willed on them by our
exploitative ruling class, they often have a greater need to drink.

"The claim that drinking 'causes' public disorder is nonsense. Alcohol
does not run about the streets. People do. If people are making nuisances
of themselves, the police should be reminded that they are no longer New
Labour's equivalent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and told to start
protecting life and property again.

"But, going back to Tesco's, this is also another attempt by a joint stock
limited liability corporation - which has no right to exist - to limit
competition and raise profits. We have no doubt the Company will use the
good publicity got from supporting this wicked policy to win planning
permission appeals to build more superstores. The incidental misery into
which millions of our poorest fellow citizens will be thrown never crosses
their privileged, high-salaried minds.

"On behalf of the Libertarian Alliance, I call on all progressive people
of good will to boycott Tesco until it stops supporting this attack on the
poor and on free competition.

"Drinking is not just for the rich."

The Libertarian Alliance believes:

* That all the licensing laws should be repealed;
* That all controls on the marketing of alcohol should be repealed;
* That alcohol taxes should be reduced to the same level as the lowest in
the European Union, and that there should be no increase in other taxes;
* That not a penny of the taxpayers' money should be given to any
organisation arguing against the above.

END OF COPY

Note(s) to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. His book,
Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England, and How
to Get It Back, may be downloaded for free from http://tinyurl.com/34e2o3.
It may also be bought. His other books are available from Hampden Press at
http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.He can be contacted for further comment on
07956 472 199 or by email at sean@libertarian.co.uk

Extended Contact Details:

The Libertarian Alliance is Britain's most radical free market and civil
liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets
and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms.
These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Our postal address is

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199

Associated Organisations

The Libertarian International - http://www.libertarian.to - is a sister
organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate
various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the
world.

Sean Gabb's personal website - http://www.seangabb.co.uk - contains about
a million words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and
conservatives.

Hampden Press - http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.- the publishing house of
the Libertarian Alliance.

Liberalia - http://www.liberalia.com - maintained by by LA Executive
member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and
English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of
documentation on these issues for students and scholars.