Britain is a mess. The incoming ID-cards-for-all idea is just mad. That’ll be the final step towards completing the police state. Already they’ve got council staff using CCTV to perv into woman’s bedrooms… Numerous local councils admitting to use anti-terrorist legislation to snoop on residents who do not recycle properly… Plans to force mobile phone buyers to supply passports at the point of sale… The list goes on.
Socialism is so ingrained here; inefficient bureaucracy is their way of life. It’s sickening.
It’s a pity there isn’t a viable libertarian figure to look to in this country. Instead people are turning to the fascistic whites-only British National Party for something different. When you combine that with the bizarre asylum policies that lead to known terrorists finding haven in Britain, you have to wonder where this country is headed.
Lucky for me, I’m due back home to the 3rd freest economy in the world in June. I think I’ll leave my copy of ‘The Road to Serfdom’ on the tube on my way out.
Indeed, NZ is a very nice place. I was there for a few years. But they are socialists just like Canadians are socialists. The advantage in a place as small as NZ though, is that it is tiny enough for agorism to have some effect, and for people to avoid the massive urban police state experiments of Europe and North America.
And if you’re a minarchist, infinitely easier to become involved and relevant in local politics.
As a proud redneck and Southerner, I resent that if meant in bad taste!
In all seriousness, liberty seems to be fairly non-existant in Europe, all but the most tiny countries (Liechtenstien, Switzerland, Monaco, etc). Say what you will about the US’s evil foreign policy and general statism, but most Americans have liberty in their blood. If Obama announced convescation of firearms, he would have a revolution on his hands. In Europe they quietly handed them over (Ireland in the 70s, UK in the 90s), much to my dismay.
Well, I do have to say that I love the idea of southerners, as expressed in films, literature etc, but some of them do come across as intolerant, ignorant, traditionalists.
But it was a joke
You’re right though - most people here don’t care so much about liberty. Indeed most everyone I know is a “social democrat”
Maybe close on national sovereignty, but I just Youtube’d him, and watched the first video of his that came up, in which he began criticising the European Central Bank for not lowering interest rates like all the other central banks of the world. Erm…
For the country which was at the forefront of the liberal revolution, it is a sad shadow of the place it used to be. People just blindly accept the ID cards, the smoking ban, the endless fake charities used to produce recommendations to government, the end of freedom of speech .. the literal march to a police state.
If ever there was a vivid illustration of Hoppe’s theory that democracy leads to socialism, the state that occupies part of the British Isles is it. It’s a depressing place to live in.
No doubt that Thatcher was good economically (though she didn’t do anything about hard currency). She helped reverse some of the horrendous damage of previous Labour governments. She also gave the country a shove towards the police state, however.
The classic difference between the rhetoric of conservatives and their actual actions. In fact, Thatcher once stated “This is what I believe in” in respect to F.A. Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty.
No they don’t, perhaps they have what Big Brother might call “liberty” in their bloods but that’s about it, in terms of action they’re no different to Europeans.
As for Switzerland, the Swiss are far more liberty orientated than anybody else I’ve seen. Also, Americans adore the state and politics in way that nobody can imagine in Europe. You’d never see an Obama like character anywehre in Europe.
I watched a video of the french mass protesting for their saviour Sarkosy to do more to save the economy.
People are idiots everywhere, but yeah, many Americans are obsessed with the Founding Father mythology. I had some guy tell me the other day that Franklin fought the British and Lincoln was a Founding Father. The guys who get fanatical about Colonial Scrip are too much too.
I expect the BNP and UKIP will become a lot more popular over the next few years with the recession/depression. I asked on another forum for Ron Paul of the UK and people said the UKIP and BNP were those yet there views are very contradictory.
