Libertarian Alliance Director's BulletinContact Details: Dr Sean Gabb
07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk
Tuesday the 2nd October 2012
Immediate release
07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk
Tuesday the 2nd October 2012
Immediate release
Dear All,
Summer is finally over. So almost is the writing of my new novel. We haven't been idle, however. Over the past few months, we've been concentrating our outreach on the Libertarian Alliance Blog. This continues to pick up readers, and is now the most active and varied libertarian blog in England. All publications listed below are on our main website, but I mostly link to their presence on the LA Blog, because that is where you can comment on them if you please.
Here we go, then, with the listing of our activites:
New Books by LA Authors
N.G. Meek: Conservative Party Politicians at the Turn of the 20th/21st Centuries.(London, Civic Education & Research Trust, 2012, 390 pages, ISBN 9781471700804.)
The book is an objective, quantitative, multi-focus analysis of the attitudes, behaviour and background of Conservative politicians at the turn of the 20th/21st centuries. Respondents were MPs, Peers, MEPs, Scottish MPs, Welsh and Greater London Assembly members, and local councillors in Scotland, Wales and England. Topics include: business, labour relations, welfare and the economy; the environment; Britain, Europe and the wider world; the United Kingdom, ethnicity, citizenship and national identity; society and culture; the conduct of politics; the political parties; religion; the 2001 Conservative Party leadership contest; and general political ideology.
There is a foreword by Dr Syed Kamall MEP.
It is already on the shelves of leading academic institutions. It is now available for sale from Amazon and other online retailers priced £55: http://tinyurl.com/c2njkfa.
The Ghosts of Athens by Richard Blake
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date : 7th June 2012
Pages: 448pp
Paperback Version : £13.99
Kindle Version £5.99
ISBN: 978-1444709704
Richard Blake's new novel The Ghosts of Athens, has now been published by Hodder & Stoughton. His earlier novels have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Slovak and Complex Chinese. This is the fifth in his series of critically-acclaimed and internationally best-selling historical thrillers.
612 AD.
Decadent, desperate Athens is the Roman Empire’s most vulnerable city.
Aelric – senator of the Roman Empire, fresh from a bloodbath in Egypt that may or may not be regarded in Constantinople as his fault- is forced to divert the Imperial galley to Athens for reasons the Emperor has neglected to share with him.
He finds a demoralized and corrupt provincial city threatened by an army rumoured to contain twenty million starving barbarians.
Not to mention an explosive religious dispute, an unexplained corpse, and hints of something worse than murder. Is he on a high level mission to save the Empire? Or has he been set up to fail? Or is the truth even worse than he can at first imagine?
He will have to call upon all his formidable intellect and lethal ingenuity to survive his enemies inside and outside the city walls . . .
New Publications
David Davies on the death of Eric Hobsbawm: One down…only a few million to go
DJ Webb on the British Constitution: The Oaths and Vows That Bind Our Society Together
Prunella Jordaine's wildly provocative defence of freedom of speech: Vox Populi, Vox D.E.I.: Division, Derision, and the Death of Free Speech
A long discussion paper on the obscenity laws: NCROPA on “Obscenity”
A draft Freedom of Expression Bill: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BILL
Robert Henderson on freedom of political speech: Political speech and action in Britain: What is legally permitted ?
An essay on syphilis that has nothing to do with the libertarian argument, but that is fascinating: Syphilis and Theories of Contagion
David Davies on the Football Association: The “Football Association” is now a “Court” – official.
D.J. Webb on land value taxation: WHY LIBERTARIANS SHOULD SUPPORT A LAND VALUE TAX
Sean Gabb on whether British citizens should ever be extradited (especially to be raped in an American prison): Should British Citizens ever be Extradited?
Sean Gabb's obituary of David Alec Webb: Obituary: David Alec Webb, 1931-2012
A reprint of Sean Gabb on Epicurus: Epicurus: Father of the Enlightenment
Sean Gabb on the immorality of foreign aid: The Immorality of Foreign Aid
Sean Gabb on the scandal of foreign aid: The Scandal of Foreign Aid
Sean Gabb on limited liability: Thoughts on Limited Liability
Robert Henderson on the right of self defence: Killing no murder – the right of the individual to defend their home
D.J. Webb on the right of self defence: False arrest of victims
Sean Gabb on a shockingly evil suggestion: Should there be Video Cameras in School Toilets?
D.J. Webb on evil social workers: Social Worker Police State
David Davies on libertarian strategy: The allure of socialism, or “Fighting Zombies”.
Film review by Robert Henderson: Politically incorrect film reviews – The Sweeney
D.J. Webb on those wicked pictures that no true Englishman should behold: The Duchess of Cambridge’s assets
A book review by Richard Blake: Richard Blake Reviews “Sword of Marathon” by Jack England
A most unflattering review of one of Mr Blake's novels: Lucid tentacles test ‘n sleeved – Hysterical Navels: Oh Aelric!
A much nicer review of one of Mr Blake's novels: Nice Review of Richard Blake’s Συνωμοσίες στη Ρώμη
A very nice review of Mr Blake's latest: Ghosts of Athens, Reviewed by The Historical Novels Society
D.J. Webb on the British Constitution: A Constitutional Daydream
Robert Henderson on Emma West: Emma West trial adjourned for third time
Sean Gabb on the Pussy Riot convictions: Pussy Riot: From a trumpet with an uncertain voice
D.J. Webb on the House of "Lords": The Other House
Sean Gabb on Scepticism: Old Essay on Scepticism
Sean Gabb on Rape: RapeCrisis: yet another “fake charity”?
Robert Henderson on the Olympic Opening Ceremony: The 2012 Olympics and the deep sporting culture of Britain
Sean Gabb on the Olympic Opening Ceremony: The London Olympics Opening Ceremony: A Grotesque and Sinister Pantomime (2012), by Sean Gabb
In General
Some of these essays - I think in particular of Prunella Jordaine - are very controversial. However, if you believe in freedom of speech, you defend freedom of speech wherever it is attacked. You don't pick and choose. We opposed censorship in the 1980s and 90s, when it was used against pornographers and sexual minorities. We oppose it now, when it is used against political dissidents - eg, Emma West for commenting on immigration, and Babar Ahmad for running his pro-terrorist websites. Anyone who is uncomfortable with that should examine his own belief in freedom of speech.
You are welcome to comment on these essays. Our policy is never to edit comments, and only to remove them if they seem likely to get us into trouble.
Love to some of you, best wishes to many of you, greetings to the rest of you.
Sean
Note
The Libertarian Alliance is Britain's most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 800 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available athttp://www.libertarian.co.uk
Our postal address is
Our postal address is
The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199
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Two more multimedia files:
Interview with Sean Gabb on Radio Free Market:
On Thursday, the 9th August 2012, Sean Gabb spoke in Bratislava to the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS
) on the subject of “Libertarianism: Left or Right?”
He made the following points:
1. That libertarianism is a child of the Enlightenment, and is a champion of rationalism and humanity. As such, it was inevitably opposed to large elements of the European Old Order. This can be seen in the writings of John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Frederic Bastiat, and in the speeches and writings of Cobden and Bright.
2. That, during the 1880s, libertarians in England became increasingly alarmed by the progress of state socialism in its various forms that they entered into an alliance with the landed aristocracy, which was itself worried about the tendencies of the age. The most obvious sign of this alliance was the Liberty and Property Defence League.
3. That the decline of the landed interest after 1914, and the global challenge of Soviet socialism required libertarians to go into a new alliance with corporate big business.
4. That this need has evaporated since 1989, and libertarians are free to choose their friends in ways that were not possible before.
5. That, while the English landed aristocracy was perhaps the most liberal ruling class in history, and that compromise with it was natural and even desirable for libertarians, corporate big business is little more than the commercial arm of an utterly malign ruling class that legitimises itself by cultural leftism and maintains its global hegemony via the military-industrial complex.
6. That libertarians are perhaps mistaken when they worship actually existing capitalism as if it were a variety of a genuinely free market, and when they implicitly regard the poor as enemies and dismiss the complaints of the poor as hostility to free markets.
7. That libertarians should focus more on showing how the established order of things hurts the poor – by using the tax and regulatory structures to raise the minimum scale of output and stop the poor from starting micro-businesses that would free them from the oppresion of bad employers and the welfare authorities.
Much else is covered, including intellectual property and whether Britain and Slovakia should leave the European Union.
For technical reasons, this is an audio file only.
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