libertarian

19 days ago

If you are feeling happy the antidote is tonight at 7.30 a free online seminar with Dr Doom

I am not being paid to promote this but flag it up anyway as libertarian gloom monger David Scott is always entertaining, as well as always bearish about the world we live in. Thus, if you are at a loose end tonight at 7.30 and fancy coming away really depressed, he is holding an online zoom seminar. Accessing it is simple.

70 days ago

Will wretched Wrexham Tory MP, Sarah Atherton, dare knock on my door tonight?

Hell I voted for her, something for which I must again apologise for to everybody else in Wrexham, but surely that merits a personal visit. It seems as if Wrexham Athletic is here in the last village in Wales tonight. At the school gates M, a fellow young mum who is a true libertarian as is her husband D, greets me with the news that flyers are out saying Atherton will be “door knocking” tonight. M says that D has a few words for our MP in this red wall seat and one suspects that Ms Atherton will not enjoy that monologue.

273 days ago

Video: Politicians swinging from lamposts, mass starvation, a mammoth European recession - and that is the best case scenario

Again I present this as a counter viewto a one way traffic in the MSM. I can’t say that I agreewith all of what follows. Libertarian commentator Tom Luongo does not hold back.For starters he believes social media should be reserved exclusively for puppy and unicorn videos. As a hardcore libertarian he believes in human rights and is therefore against war as a matter of principle. Wars support the state and they are the worst possible outcome of human interaction.  He says that the Ukraine war is full of disinformation and bias from the media and as always the first casualty in war is the truth and that Russia appears to generally be less biased in its reporting. The Russians feel this is the least bad action they can take regarding Ukraine at this time.

319 days ago

Video - the decade of the Greater depression

Some folks talk of how this will be an inflation-fuelled roaring twenties as if inflation is a good thing. But, as I explained in Bearcast yesterday, history shows how it rips society apart. The poverty it causes for many is an evil.  Doug Casey, the libertarian author and speculator, follows this theme in the latest podcast from Palisade Capital. He may be more eloquent than I, certainly he delivers fewer “ers”.

328 days ago

Tyranny in the USA – Joe Biden, the #WorstPresidentEver, drives the censorship of Ron Paul for sharing a video & the VP, insanely, compares Trump to Bin Laden

The opinion polls suggest that Americans now rate Joe Biden as the worst President Ever. After more than 40 years Jimmy Carter has lost his crown and can breathe a sigh of relief. Folks see through the lie that Trump caused vast covid deaths as the body bag toll has gone through the roof under Biden – this was a disease not a political football weaponised by  the Dems in 2020.  Inflation is is the thief in the night and Americans feel robbed every day as they buy gasoline or groceries, just as they feel humiliated by events in Afghanistan.

380 days ago

Video: Maybe They're the loons - new Dominic Frisby song

This comes in two parts and is a gem from my pal Frisby, the UK’s top liberatarian comedian/singer songwriter/bitcoin loon. Enjoy.

387 days ago

Is nature telling the Doom Goblin Greta Thunberg and others that this winter will be an inconvenient truth?

As I have noted previously, as we observe extreme cold in Russia and China, in “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder,  an admrable libertarian but now like most dead white authors now officially a racist, nature warns the Ingalls family that the “extreme weather” occurring without man made carbon emmisions will be brutal. So what is in store for the UK this year?

419 days ago

I suppose I must view it like the Ingalls’ grasshoppers, massive setback at the Welsh Hovel

Joshua and I are now almost at the end of On the Shores of Silver Lake the fourth of the books by the great libertarian author Laura Ingalls Wilder. My old babysitter, DD, is also re-reading the series, just for her own pleasure, and is now a book ahead of us in The Long Winter. She says I must store up well at the Welsh Hovel as tough and cold times lie ahead. However, on that front, today saw a gut-wrenching setback.

497 days ago

Photo article from the Greek Hovel: From hell towards heaven

I do not like Kardamili. A few hours detention in its Police station thanks to a bent cop and an even more bent hotelier did not cause my dislike but it did not help the cause. Though a pretty town, Kardamili is very expensive and, worse still, it attracts the biggest tossers in Europe, swarms of them. The Mrs, however, quite likes it.

517 days ago

Video: the great Ron Paul warns dollar panic will lead to economic collapse

Ron Paul for President! Sadly he never made it past the Republican Primaries. America is not ready for a honest, sound money libertarian yet. But the good doctor is still my hero. In this new video, Dr Paul discusses the need to reduce the size and scope of government. He argues that people today rely on the government too much, and politicians can’t resist taking advantage of this dependence. It’s like an addiction, and stopping it is a problem. The plunge protection team has done a miraculous job of propping up the market. But, unfortunately, Paul argues, the dollar will continue to decline, and inflation will result in the prices of everything going up.

544 days ago

Video: Mining Stocks Will Become Epic Bubble

Libertarian philosopher, speculator, and author Doug Casey kicks off by suggesting paying for a University education is a misallocation of time and money to have your head pumped full of Marxist ideas.

569 days ago

Video: Fiat is Dead – Trade it for Real Value

Investor Rafi Zarber is a libertarian and an Austrian school economist so clearly can do no wrong at all in my eyes. He recently penned an article on money as a gold substitute where he defines the meaning of sound and hard monies. Money needs to be predictable in what it measures and have a predictable supply. Debt substitutes and paper promises become problematic over time, and the entire system becomes unbalanced. These imbalances cause price and supply disruptions across sectors, including commodities like mining.

605 days ago

Video: Hyperinflation is here

Libertarian investor Rafi Farber is an economist of the Austrian school so clearly a sound chap. He outlines the treasury market operations and the massive increase in debt issuance. Much of this debt is now being redeployed under Janet Yellen and will require an enormous amount of additional issuance to finance the infrastructure spending under Biden. This debt will be raised through ten-year and two-year treasuries, and the Fed will have to monetize nearly all of it. And that will have only one result.

659 days ago

A sneak preview - a new song by Dominic Frisby goes live at 7.30 PM tonight

My pal Dominic, with whom I recorded a pretty funny but informative video interview just a couple of weeks ago (episode 17 HERE), has a new libertarian song out at 7.30 tonight. The link to where to watch it is below as are a few stills from the video. I cannot wait. Make sure you turn up the volume and have a Guardian-reading lefty, like the Mrs, with you at 7.30.

677 days ago

Tom Winnifrith Video Shareshow No 17: Well over 2 hours with a professional comedian and a bloke who runs an AIM listed company. Boom Boom.

It is such a good joke I think I make it about 5 times in what follows. And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with  Harry Adams of Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI), where i am a loyal shareholder expecting the shares to double or more by mid year, and also Dominic Frisby. The singer, songwriter, comedian, gold guru, bitcoin expert and libertarian is on great form especially on the bitcoin/gold issue and tips the only AIM stock he owns and explains why. You will laugh and learn with him. You can access the show HERE

697 days ago

Now big media, Facebook, comes for Ron Paul... stop pretending this is about anything other than gagging dissent

To we libertarians former Congressman Dr Ron Paul is our idol. The good doctor has campaigned against pointless US wars, for sound money and budget responsibility, against the Patriot Act and for free speech and to protect the constitution for years. In recent times he has questioned the efficacy of masks and lockdown but also suggested that the damage they cause to liberty and the economy is not worth it. He is a good guy. He is not inciting violence, he abhors it. He is a brave voice often castigated by his own Party, the Republicans, and one that should be heard. But facebook does not want that voice heard. Big tech is now deciding who can or cannot question Government but it is only libertarians and conservatives who it is muzzling.

708 days ago

The Top 30 Most-Read Articles on TomWinnifrith.com in 2020

This rather surprises me. I was convinced that the top 30 would be packed full of waspish, libertarian or anti-woke articles. But it seems that many of the most read pieces on this website are the ones the Mrs thinks no-one reads, about life at the hovels here in Wales but also in Greece. Anyhow, here are my top 30 non financial articles of 2020.

717 days ago

Awesome Video: Rand Paul explains the economic folly of Rishi Sunak, a madness which the deadwood press just laps up

Old Ron Paul, my ultimate libertarian hero, would be proud of his son today. Senator Rand gave a speech which tears apart the lunacy of Modern Monetary Theory, the money printing that is happening in the US and, on steroids, here in the  UK. The left leaning mainstream media, notably, the ghastly and innumerate BBC, lavishes praise on Rishi Sunak for his wisdom in pursuing these policies, indeed the media and political classes enage in obvious GroupThink in supporting Sunak’s folly. The fourth estate needs to listen to Rand and then to challenge the Government rigorously. Of course it will not. MMT is madness. Senator Paul explains why, in language so simple even a BBC economics correspondent can understand it, and also has the real answers. Enjoy

723 days ago

Ash Sarkar, did you really go into journalism to do this?

I do not agree with the politics of communist journalist Ash Sarkar and she says some remarkably silly and insensitive things. But, as a believer in freedom, I defend to the utmost her right to say and write as she pleases, just as I defend other figures such as Sasha Johnson of BLM. Her right is to offend me with her ludicrous views. I also have a lot of sympathy for Ash for the way that she is attacked.

733 days ago

We're all criminals! A song for 2020 by Right Said Fred

Yup that Right Said Fred. I’m too sexy from 1991. I kid you not. The Freds are still going and in this era of masks, lockdown and “strongly encouraged” vaccination, they have emerged as spokesmen for freedom. I’m not sure what their politics are but, as a libertarian, I’m struggling to disagree with their active tweeting @TheFreds at this moment in time.  With apologies to Dominic Frisby, the song below released last week must be the theme track for 2020.

747 days ago

Video: Protect yourself with bitcoin and gold as shares and bonds set to tank

Libertarian speculator and author Doug Casey says it’s difficult today to be an investor with all the government economic distortion and mis-allocation of capital. However, in contrast a speculator can do well in this environment. He says, “Being a speculator should not be confused with being a trader.”

764 days ago

You need to wear a mask said the man in the freedom store I’ve used for six months – so I lied

There is a store in these parts which has allowed me to shop without a mask since this madness begun. I have thus become a very loyal customer. I am not sure why it takes such a libertarian approach, some of its staff mask up while others do not, but its common sense behaviour earns my respect. However, today, as I wandered in, a man said loudly “Where is your mask? You need to wear one.”

910 days ago

New Dominic Frisby Video - I am a white man and I'm sorry

My pal Dominic, the libertarian comedian, has a new song for you all. Before Youtube deletes it after a mass twitter mob outrage: Enjoy.

915 days ago

Cracking new Dominic Frisby video: Crony Capitalism will not be tolerated

An anthem for libertarians from my pal Frisby. Enjoy.

1026 days ago

I scored four points, or maybe 5, Dominic Frisby got 0 showing what a libertarian and sinful soul he is, how many points do you get?

This is just for fun. Try to answer truthfully. Dom Frisby got zero points begging the questions what was he arrested for and where is his tattoo? I scored four points- no tattoo, and a fear of heights and basic shyness accounting for my tally. Actually, maybe it was 5, I am not sure I was actually arrested when a bent cop dragged me to the cells in Kardamili. How many do you score?

1187 days ago

FREE Podcast: ShareProphets Radio Edition EIGHT with Tom Winnifrith, Frisby, Bramhill & Friel

In this eighth edition of the ShareProphets Radio podcast, sponsored by Yorkville Advisors, in order I discuss my guest next week (the biggest name yet on the show) and Burford (BUR) and the more genberal issue of revenue recognition. I then chat for about an hour to liberatrian comedian, songwriter and singer, Brexit Party activist, gold & bitcoin guru Dominic Frisby. Prepare for a few laughs.  Then it is Cathal Friel of Open Orphan (ORPH), where I am a shareholder, and finally David Bramhill of Union Jack Oil (UJO). After that section I discuss nearology with reference to Union Jack, UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) and more generally.  If you like this and can’t wait seven days for more of the same you should listen to my Bearcast every day.

1347 days ago

Podcast: Dominic Frisby: Bullish on Gold When It Breaks 1360

I accuse Dom Frisby of using a very old photo on this occassion. How do you plead Frizzers? This podcast with the great libertarian and gold guru is nothing if not wide-ranging.

1627 days ago

Just why am I paying for so many BBC staff to live it up in Russia at the World Cup?

ITV is a commercial network and covers the World Cup well enough. So why does the BBC need to bid for matches and cover it at all? Its remit should be high quality public service broadcasting not competing against commercial networks – using taxpayers cash – to show commercial propositions? But okay, we do not live in a low tax libertarian paradise, so there has to be BBC sport. However…

1637 days ago

Podcast: Doug Casey - uranium may be my favourite commodity right now

Buy shares in Berkeley Energia (BKY)!  Okay that is what I think, you want to hear from veteran investor and libertarian thinker Doug Casey.

1656 days ago

Things I won't be doing dear reader: running for office in Texas & going to Belize on a snake tour ( or at all)

A kind reader in the land of the free emails with praise about my article on the Irish murder referendum HERE and makes a couple of suggestions. The first is that i should move to Texas and run for office. 

1703 days ago

Video: I Took My Advice & Sold My Cryptos to Buy Gold

Jeff Berwick describes himself as an Anarcho-Capitalist, libertarian, and freedom fighter against mankind’s two most significant enemies, the State and the Central Banks. Good man.  He argues that the cryptocurrency ecosystem has had a lot of innovation and late last year the dumb money began investing. The January pullback was expected and needed. Many are glad there was a pullback as things were growing too fast. The potential of cryptocurrencies has not changed, there is still massive amounts of development. There is a lot of buzz in the cryptocurrencies, and it’s not going away.

1736 days ago

Time to ban snowflake millennials from owning or using phones and cars until they hit 30?

The millennials, on the coasts at least, are up in arms calling for and end to the rights of Americans to own firearms. Mistakenly they think that repealing the 2nd Amendment so that honest folks hand in their guns allowing criminals and nutjobs, who won't, to shoot at will, is going to make America safer. Whatever. But at least they should be consistent.

1738 days ago

Ciaran O'Brian of William Hill you really are speaking as an unacceptable face of capitalism - re FOBT

As a libertarian I really do believe that you should be allowed to spend your money on whatever you want - it is your pocket book and your body. Drugs, guns, sex, nicotine, even books written by crooked Hillary Clinton it is all fine by me and so too is spending your own cash on a Fixed Odds Betting Terminal (FOBT) at William Hill (WMH).  But the Government plans to slash the maximum you can wager on a FBOT from £100 a pop to as little as £2 because it wants tgo hbelp problem gamblers. It is nanny state. I should oppose HMG. But a BBC Radio 5 interview with Hill's spokesman Ciaran O'Brien has made me think - O'Brien really is the scum of the earth.

1738 days ago

Video: Campus hell in UK 2018: Far left bullies slate Jewish speaker as fascist as they try to shut down libertarian society at Kings London

I used to host events for, I think, the Kings College Libertarian Society when I owned a restaurant nearby. I am a libertarian and I also believe in free speech which means that all sides need to be allowed a platform, even those with whom you disagree.  But as I have found to my own cost in recent months, on campuses across the UK free speech is under real threat from the extreme left. And truth is the first casualty. Anyone with whom the left disagrees is "Alt Right" even though we libertarians clearly are not. But who cares? For some of those on the left it is now acceptable to tell lies to shut down those with whom you disagree. You would have thought that academic staff would fight such bullying to protect the integrity of academia. Sadly that is not always the case.. The video below tells the tale of the battle of King's College.  

1794 days ago

Tom Winnifrith Bearcast - the FCA is right, the CFD industry sucks, & Clem you are the King ( Spoofer)

In this podcast I look at the FCA Report into CFD providers. It rightly slams themn. We have told ETX we will have nothing more to do with it and really I want no part of this industry. As a libertarian I look at an industry where 76% of customers lose money. Then I hail the King, that is the King of the spoofers, Mr Clem Chambers of Online Blockcrap (OBC) - as I also cover HERE. I look at Moss Bros (MOSB) and what its profits warning plus the problems at Byrons say about B2C stocks. I also comment on Sosandar (SOS), which we own, en passant. Finally I look at the IPO of Nuuvera on the TSXV ( a market that makes the AIM Casino look sober and well run) and what that means for FastForward (FFWD). I again explain why all cannabis stocks will not fly.

1908 days ago

Peter Schiff: Beanie Babies, Bitcoins, and What’s next?

Libertarian Peter Schiff is a great hero of mine and I am glad to see him calling Bitcoin out as a bubble.

1910 days ago

Bitcoin is Going to Drive Gold & Silver to All Time Highs

I still really do not understant bitcoin but it seems to grip fellow libertarians like Dominic Frisby and, in this case, resource guru Doug Casey. In this Palisade Capital podcast, Doug discusses the commodity markets and why the most important thing is what they do cyclically. Most commodities are down 50% since 2011 and the dollar has lost 20%. Commodities remain quite cheap, particularly gold, silver, and copper. He discusses Junior miners and why now is a good time to get into these markets.

1985 days ago

ADVFN - are you happy making money from neo-paedophiles or those who think Lolita was a guide to dating?

Sometimes in business you have a moral choice. Do you accept the custom of an individual or not. As a libertarian I do not thing it should be for the state to tell me who I can or cannot choose to serve. 

1990 days ago

Jon Snow of Channel 4 Fake News - the tweet that shows why he is so prone to pushing lies

All journalists have opinions. None of us can be truly impartial as we have our own views and prejudices. If you are a columnist, that is to say you write opinion that is why you do what you do. The views of Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot and Owen Jones are well known. They are Big State money tree worshipping lefties and argue that line. On the other side Mark Steyn, Melanie Phillips or Peter Hitchens take a different tack. I do not hide my own libertarian take on life. But none of the above are reporting news and when doing that your prejudices do matter. You should bury your on news when reporting FACT.

1998 days ago

As a Libertarian & Princess Leia Organa devotee - thoughts on the nature of Carrie Fisher's death

I suppose I should not have been shocked. The spin from her publicists was that Carrie Fisher had once been a hell raiser but had now been clean for years. I think she once admitted that during the filming of Star Wars she was taking so much coke that she barely knew which day of the week it was. Well I guess we now know that the "now clean" line was just spin. The autopsy shows that Fisher had traces of coke, heroin and ecstasy in her body when she died aged 60 just before Christmas.

2019 days ago

Data shows the US Economy is very weak indeed but rates will rise - Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff is a libertarian a gold bug and a hero of mine. So I listen to what he says. His latest podcast - not surprisingly - has a similar world view to mine. The Fed is now indicating it needs evidence that  the Q1 weak economic data is transitory and not a trend.  This is interesting for 2 reasons.  The Fed’s narrative has always been to tout economic growth even in the face of flimsy or no supporting data.  Now the Fed is actually admitting there is weakness.  The other interesting thing is that, although the Fed continues to claim it is “data dependent”, it has been ignoring the economic data ever since the first rate hike.  The market puts chances of a June rate hike at almost 100%.  Maybe that is because it believes the Fed will raise rates regardless of proof.

2103 days ago

Peter Schiff Rate Hike Odds Surge As GDP Forecasts Collapse

Libertarian gold bug Peter Schiff is one of my heros and his latest podcast reminds us all why the stockmarket may be hitting recorcd highs but it is clearly way overvalued.

2119 days ago

The inflation genie is out of the bottle and that is great news for gold - Peter Schiff

Libertarian gold bug Peter Schiff is one of my heros and his latest podcast reminds us all why we need material gold exposure in the months that lie ahead. Inflation is back!

2127 days ago

You Have To Like Trump – My Bank Account Certainly Does

Libertarian investor Doug Casey (like myself) predicted that Donald Trump would win. He expects the administration to encourage resource development and reduce regulation, but says Trump lacks an understanding of basic economics. You have to like Trump, since the creatures of the swamp in Washington D.C. seem to hate him so viscerally. However, he may continue the foreign policies of his predecessors. Doug, like me, thinks a stock market sell off is still likely considering the many distortions and misallocations in capital that exist. He is concerned that Trump could be the next Herbert Hoover, and that he may be painted incorrectly as a free market guy.

2194 days ago

Peter Schiff: QE4 is going to be huge

Is the Trump rally fizzling out? Yes it is. But is this going to be a soft landing? No. That is the view of libertarian gold bug superhero Peter Schiff who explains in his latest podcast that bubbles just do not go away gently. And we are living in a bubble.

2202 days ago

Peter Schiff - the bond carnage post Trump - next stop real estate

Shares may be zooming in the Trump rally but libertarian gold bug ( and all round super hero) Peter Schiff does not think it will last or is sustainable. But the first casualty of the bonds sell off will be commercial real estate warns Schiff in his latest podcast.

2207 days ago

Donald Trump to lead America off a fiscal cliff - Peter Schiff

Libertarian gold bug Peter Schiff is a hero of mine and in his latest note he makes a very vaild point about Donald Trump - he could well bankrupt America. Over to Schiff:

2216 days ago

Video: Peter Schiff on carnage in the bond markets post Trump

Folks have focussed on how shares have zoomed since Donald Trump won but what about the bond market which saw its worst week for five years? What does that mean and will it continue? Yes it will. That is the warning of libertarian hero and perma bear Peter Schiff in his latest podcast. 

2225 days ago

Peter Schiff: Q3 GDP data rigged to help Hillary Clinton and emails explained for dummies & cars tell you its 2008 all over

Libertarian gold guru Peter Schiff is a big hero of mine. In his latest podcast he discusses why he thinks US Q3 GDP data was rigged and why Us consumers really are feeling bad. He also explains for anyone too thick to understand why the Hillary Clinton email issue really should send her to prison and why he thinks Trump deserves to win and now may well win. And what this all means for the markets. Peter called the 2008 crash now listen to what he says on US car leasing and what that tells you. It tells you that there is a meltdown coming folks...

2228 days ago

FIFA bans poppies in England Scotland match - why?

Long term readers will know that I have mixed feelings about wearing poppies, I still resent the idea that one is castigated for not wearing one but on the other hand I do respect those who have given their lives for this country and don't respect those who abuse poppies or who lambast those who do wear one. As a libertarian I'd like to be able to either wear a poppy or not without anyone passing judgement.

2302 days ago

Video: Peter Schiff - The Fed is about to put the final nail in the coffin of the US economy, dollar to collapse

As you know, Peter Schiff is a hero of mine, a libertarian and gold bug he predicted when and why things would go wrong in 2008. Schiff says the next meltdown will be worse and it will be soon and explains why in this compelling new video.

2314 days ago

Gold might go Ballistic says Peter Schiff

There are several reasons the world economy is unsustainable within the current systems according to my hero, the libertarian Gold bug Peter Schiff. We have featured Peter several times here in recent weeks - see HERE. He believes the biggest factor is countries like the US which have huge deficits. They have low production rates requiring mass imports of goods in exchange for pieces of paper that are losing their value. This forms imbalances which destabilize the global economy. There are also enormous amounts of bonds and unfunded liabilities which creates vulnerability to a backup in interest rates. If rates go up, they can’t afford to pay.

2320 days ago

Peter Schiff on the bond bubble, The bogus Fed & the nightmare of a Clinton Presidency

Libertarian gold bug Peter Schiff is a hero of mine. This latest podcast on the bond bubble and the nightmare of a Clinton Presidency is really superb. On Crooked Hillary he really is very funny and very accurate. Spare 25 minutes for a listen.

2321 days ago

Video: Peter Schiff - US GDP is collapsing, this is dramatic & what it means

You know that libertarian gold bug Peter Schiff is a major hero of mine. In his latest video he shows how real GDP growth is negative, it is collapsing. And that has profound implications for all of us on both sides of the pond. This is cracking stuff from Schiff. Yes we really are in recession already!

2404 days ago

Fancying lesbians, a problem shared with my late godfather Vicious

If you are here as a result of a search on google you may well be disappointed by what follows although the matter at hand is fancying lesbians. But this is not about pornography you will be sad to discover. You see, the woman I fancied badly when at University has been in touch again.

Back in the day she was one of the most maddest lefties on this planet. Completely Upminster on every subject under the sun, that is to say way past Barking. But I still fancied her and a couple of years after we left, in a rather ham-fisted manner, tried it on. Very sweetly

2521 days ago

Video: Peter Schiff - next move in US base rates DOWN - buy gold

As you know Peter Schiff is my hero, a libertarian sound money man. In his latest video he explains why the next move in US base rates is going to be down and why rates could go negative. On the basis of that he advises buying gold.

2538 days ago

Video: Debt is toxic - Gold & Bears main stage speaker Mark Littlewood of the IEA explains the mess we are in

Libertarian Mark Littlewood of the IEA is a Question Time Regular and came along to Gold & Bears to give a compelling presentation on the mess we are all in. Debt is toxic and the answer is not more tax but less.

2552 days ago

Video: Peter Schiff who called the 2008 crash calls the 2016 global crash

Peter Schiff is a libertarian hero of mine. He called the 2008 crash brilliantly - its causes and what would happen. Now he calls the great crash of 2016. This interview with Schiff is frightening and compelling and what he says about the US also applies to Britain. Schiff thinks we are sleepwalking to insolvency. Show me how he is wrong!

2602 days ago

Weekly postcard #128 - Blair the war criminal and Cameron the sugar fascist

I start this postcard by saying how proud I am of my daughter growing up a true libertarian and taking on a leech growing rich pedalling the climate change myth and so causing misery for the folks in Redcar. Well done daughter. Then it is onto two PMs, one who is a war criminal and what next for phoney Tony and the other who thinks a sugar tax might stop our kids getting fat. As if parents cannot do it by themselves.

2620 days ago

SeaEnergy news today – you make me so angry you crony capitalist bastards

When the great libertarian revolution comes the board of SeaEnergy (SEA) will be among the first of the crony capitalists to be rounded up by the newly privatised police force and put up against the wall – a release today just fills me with utter disgust.

2620 days ago

Eclectic Bars – More Crony capitalists meriting a firing squad after the libertarian revolution

I am on an anger roll with the crony capitalists on the AIM casino today. SeaEnergy (HERE) was the first to feel my ire. Next up is the board at Eclectic Bars (BAR). When the great libertarian revolution comes the newly privatised Police force will round these swine up too and – having organised a firing squad as a result of a competitive tender process to select the shooters - these bastards will also be put up against the wall.

2624 days ago

I was nice to Euan, son of war criminal, Tony Blair – I feel sick

On the Monday of last week two young journalism students wandered into Free Speech & Liberty pizza and came over for a chat. We talked of the ethics of journalism, the corruption of our profession, of libertarian idealism and later that night they came back and I discovered something appalling.

2644 days ago

Capitalism Makes the World a better place for all (Greed is Good) – The Mrs is allowing me to lecture to her sociology students

The Mrs has finally relented, realising that if I give a lecture to her students then it is one less for her, an overworked public sector employee, to have to prepare for. And so her students in sociology will have their “capitalism module” lecture from me. This will be a bit of a shock since, as you might imagine, the gist of this module is normally “Capitalism is evil”.  My lecture will be titled “Capitalism Makes the World a Better Place for all” with the subtext – Greed is Good.

I cannot wait. For too long these impressionable young folk have had their minds filled with failed Marxist theories by folks with no private sector experience. Now they get to learn how the world really works and why the answer to all its problems is more capitalism and more freedom not more intervention and oppression by the dead hand of the State.

The Mrs, the woman formerly known as the deluded lefty, has imposed two conditions.

2722 days ago

Sometimes I love running a restaurant, sometimes I hate it…

At 10 AM today I let a debating group into Free Speech & Liberty to start our trading day two hours earlier than normal. At 12.15 I realised our cook (due to start at 11.45) was not here. By 12.20 I’d established he’d crashed his motorbike but I pushed him and he promised me that he’d be with me in half an hour. I switched on his oven and prayed he’d turn up by 12.45 as the debaters wanted food at 1. 

He did not, but I played for time and at 1.15 he arrived, we served, they loved the food and had a great day. I took on a pretty young lefty on the subject of aid for the kleptocrats of Africa (she supported it, I said African need capitalism not handouts) but it killed the time while we waited for the cook. 

But that period 12.45-1.15 was stressful. It is times like that that I loathe.

It is now 6.30 and we have had folks in all day. We have a big table 

2735 days ago

Evening Standard's Nick Curtis - what a tosser, but he shows libertarianism is now cool

Obviously the coolest folks are libertarians. And so am I. Amanda Van Dyke has a few dangerous neocon tendancies (foreign policy) and some odd views on the EU but for a Canadian is a pretty libertarian - her fellow countrymen tend to be lefties. Charlotte Argyle, the daughter of Thatcher pictured above, is crystal pure. But you only know something is really cool when folks with no claim to be one of us, start trying to claim to be part of the crowd. That brings me to a total tosser called Nick Curtis, a columnist in the London Evening Standard.

I stress that I am not a regular Standard reader. But on the train back to Bristol last week I happened upon a copy and being bored started to read it. As ever I was struck how folks inside zone 1 of London are a completely alien speciies to the rest of the UK. They have different concerns, interests and views to the rest of us. They are the political, media and corporate elite and they just live on another planet.

Mr Curtis writes on the 10th June about how the busy body sheep shaggers at the Welsh Assembly wish to ban vaping ( "smoking e-cigarettes" in public places). And in the piece he proclaims "I'm a libertarian who believes in personal choice." Great news... a kindred spirit. er....

2756 days ago

Weekly postcard #113 - as a libertarian could I consider a war against ISIS a just war?

As a libertarian I oppose foreign wars. I'd like to see the UK spend less on defence and argue that nearly all of of overseas ventures have been monumental and costly failures. Yes I would include World War One in that category. We entered WW2 for the wrong reasons (imperial treaty alliances) but ultimately it was a just war. Would a full scale war against ISIS be a just war? Could I support it?

2803 days ago

Rand Paul for President – An Old skipper from London Irish calls & I’m going to New Hampshire

We all knew it was going to happen but today Rand Paul has announced that he is running for President. The Senator is the son of the great Ron Paul (pictured) and being a bit more of a politician than his Dad makes his libertarianism slightly compromised but he is still streets ahead of the field.  In his first campaign email he promises that when he wins he will pledge:

Term limits to get rid of the career politicians.

Require Congress to read legislation before they actually vote on it—read the bills!

Audit the Fed—we deserve to know what's happening with our money.

Pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution—no more adding trillions in debt—time to pay it down.

Boldly overhaul the tax code—no more loopholes for the biggest corporations with the best lobbyists—give workers a tax cut.

The last point is great. Libertarians 

2805 days ago

Weekly postcard #107 - Nigel Farage, UKIP, immigrants with HIV - the libertarian take on it all

In the leaders debate Nigel Farage raised a legitimate question about immigrants with HIV and AIDS. But he did not think through the logical implications of what he said, nor did he care. He raises wider issues about how we treat and fund the treatment of those with HIV which I explore and ask as a libertarian does he have a point? I think he does. But I think he does not care about that point he is just a ghastly man what wanted to prop up his core support. The way he said what he did was dreadful

2885 days ago

I am denounced as a one track mind leftie by a leading UKIP tweeter

I never thought of myself as a leftie. My hardline euroscepticism, belief in slashing taxes and slashing state spending,  ripping up the rule book on welfare, allowing free markets to operate unfettered, belief in total free speech always made me think that I was really very right wing indeed in a 100% libertarian way.  I think those folks who read my articles would be minded to agree as would the bunch of mad lefties who work with my wife. But it appears that by UKIP standards I am just a mad leftie myself. My crime… words fail me.

2925 days ago

Meet our Policeman at the Bar in Kambos

As you may remember my experiences of the Police Station at Kardamili have not been universally enjoyable. But there is one friendly face, the Sergeant who lives here in Kambos the village closest to the Greek hovel.  He sits in the Kourounis taverna with the rest of us. He enjoys a drink like the rest of us and he does not bat an eyelid as I drive off sans helmet or as folks reach for their car keys having had one, two or twelve too many. Rules are for tourists. Otherwise this is a libertarian paradise. 

He is our policeman. He bought me a drink the other day and it is now a regular Yassas Tom. 

Apart from the odd double murder there is not much going on to concern the law here in Kambos. It is the foreigners who get burgled (as they have possessions worth stealing and don’t have guns). Up here – other than the murders - life is crime free.

2929 days ago

So what did I get the ex GF for her wedding present?

I have promised her a paperback cop, but for now as she honeymoons in Sri Lanka, she has a Kindle version of “Life after the State” by my friend Dominic Frisby. You see the ex-GF is marrying a chap (the a’hole) from Euroland. And as such although she is innately conservative if not libertarian there is a danger that her mind will be contaminated by big Government nonsense and money tree worshipping. I cannot let that happen. I doubt that she will be reading Ayn Rand to her children but Dominic is a good start.

Big Government makes its folks less healthy, less wealthy and less happy. There is an alternative as Dominic explains in this wonderfully entertaining book. I would recommend it to all.

3058 days ago

Westminster Group Video - cheap as chips or another AIM loser - for you decide

Westminster Group (WSG) seems to divide opinion. There are some folk who think it is yet another loss making jam tomorrow AIM stock. Others (see HERE) love it and think the shares are cheap as chips. To help you decide here are the CEO and FD Peter Fowler and Ian Selby ( a good libertarian) in video action at the UK Investor Show.

3105 days ago

Malcolm Stacey A Deluded Lefty – I start to worry about my old pal

As ever I start my day reading the excellent column of my old pal Malcolm Stacey, the grandfather of share blogging. But today I was spluttering into my cornflakes as I read his words. Has my old pal become infected with “deluded lefty disease”? Please tell me it is not true or that it if it is you will spend a weekend at the Richard Poulden libertarian boot camp with Ms Argyle (pictured as she is better looking than Comrade Poulden), Matthew Sutcliffe and Dominic Frisby seeking urgent therapy.

Malcolm’s offending phrase in his otherwise excellent column today – HERE – was:

Of course, I sympathise with young people who still can't get jobs and families who have to rely on food banks. That is down to inequality of opportunity, for which the government must shoulder blame.

Where to start with such obvious tosh? 

3112 days ago

Why not legalise drugs and prostitution?

The big news for libertarians, like me, last week was that vice (drugs and prostitution) look set to be included in how we calculate GDP in the UK. Apparently they are worth a combined £10 billion to the UK each year.  You can from that number make a number of assumptions.

1. The vast amounts the State spends trying to tackle these crimes is not working and is money wasted.

2. There are very few rich hookers or drug pushers (the actual distributors) and since the non-labour cost of sales is very low (drugs are cheap as a raw commodity and condoms and a bit of advertising cost sod all) you can assume that organised crime is raking in billions a year.

So please can anyone explain why the current system ( which brings endemic health risks for many, a tab the State then picks up) can be said to work?

3127 days ago

What to do on May 22nd?

It is entirely likely that thanks to Labour dirty tricks, that is to say the Mrs neglecting to put me on the electoral roll, I shall not be able to vote at all this week. We will troop over to the polling station near her old flat on Thursday and find out.

If I can vote what should I do? As a dyed in the wool Eurosceptic and someone who believes that the entire political class should be strung up with piano wire my natural inclination is to vote UKIP. After all the European elections do not really matter do they? My guess is that enough folks will view it this way to ensure that Mr Farage and his supporters will be celebrating triumphs in both the local and European elections as I explained HERE earlier.

I do not care if UKIP contains more than a smattering of prize loons that does not deter me.

However, I find that when Mr Farage moves away from Europe, where I agree with him 100%, to other matters I get rather agitated. He is clearly now trying to appeal to traditional Labour voters and so he supports a minimum wage (a tax on jobs) and there is talk in UKIP circles of backing the living wage.  This is not a pro-business agenda but it will also not assist the poor since it will destroy jobs.

I remember wincing when I heard him at UK Investor Show 2013

3127 days ago

Ron or Rand Paul for 2016?

Sadly the good Doctor Paul has stated that he has no plans – at this time – to run for President again in 2016. He will be 80 by then and one can see good reasons why he does not wish to. Even President Reagan was only 77 when leaving office. And so the baton passes to his son Rand who is a 51 year old Senator who shares his father’s beliefs in the constitution, liberty, small Government, sound money and in withdrawing US troops from abroad.  But is Rand a new Ron?

He does not have the charisma of his father that is for sure. But then he also does not carry a bit of the baggage his Dad did either. However hard the Republican establishment tries it will be hard to smear Rand.

In my heart I hope that Ron will give it one more go. There are numerous online petitions urging him to reconsider. He still has a strong organisation around him, a well-oiled machine.  But my head tells me that the way he has talked about Rand running and the obvious signs are that Rand will run. He is for instance off to Iowa again in June – that is the first state to vote for the Republican nominee.

And so what chance does Rand have? 

3162 days ago

DFID has caused yet again another stink and yet again, it is the British taxpayer whom is set to foot the bill

My fave libertarian Tory blogger Charlotte Argyle is in fine form once again. The child of Thatcher rightly points out that capitalism not aid is what is needed for both donors and recipients. Over to the pin up girl of Tory blogging:
 

It starts with a chap called Mr O, an Ethiopian Farmer who claims that the £1.3Bn the UK has sent to Ethiopian in the last 5 years has done nothing more than fund a despotic government which has enacted great atrocities on his family and livelihood by using brutal force to annex land and property from hundreds of native villagers to sell off to foreign investors or add to its own little stash of Government chattels. Just to put our ‘good deed’ into context Ethiopia is among the biggest recipients of British aid receiving £38 million in July 2011 alone.

This simply serves to exposure the huge lack of accountability and traceability on the behalf of the do-gooders at DFID when it comes to ensuring that OUR money goes to the right source. It also magnifies the dangers around minimal foreign intervention without a serious approach to risk. To prove my point, imagine the blushing faces last year as DFID had to admit to the National Audit Office that it did not know in which country £530 million of aid was spent nor why a country like Nigeria, which is flourishing into an emerging economy – with the second highest national income of all African countries still receives £275 million from the UK in 2013 and will receive a further £250 million until 2015.  .

So now we have Mr O set to sue the UK Government for hundreds of thousands of pounds – taxpayers pounds, in the name of DFID breaching the Department for International Development’s (DfID) human rights rules (yep breaching their own rules). But here is the best bit, some kind London lawyers (Leigh Day to be precise) have decided to help Mr O taking on the case on his behalf and have already served papers on DFID .

As they feel it is necessary to point out - Mr O is not seeking compensation but challenging the Government’s approach to aid – Well thanks Mr O but I think that slimming down of our ever gout-ridden state letting more people keep more of their own money may have the same effect. One has to wonder how much Leigh Day are set to make on this little case though. Imagine the headline "Ethiopian gets legal aid from UK - to sue the UK for giving aid to... Ethiopia"

DFID’s complete lack of action

3167 days ago

Video of My fave libertarian Tory blogger Charlotte Argyle at the UK Investor Show

My fave Tory blogger Charlotte Argyle was one of those sitting in the bloggers cafe at the UK Investor Show. As ever she was forthright in her views as regular readers know from her classice pieces: what a banker and on how the minimum wage destroys jobs and hurts the poor. The true child of Thatcher, outlines a few of her thoughts in the video below

3174 days ago

Legalise Prostitution – The Politicians have got it wrong yet again

This article appeared in the weekend Tomograph but for those who are not registered ( why not?) I offer it to a wider audience.

I do not like prostitution and on balance regret that it exists. Some men and women (mainly women) who are prostitutes are empowered by it, regard it as a career and make a good living. Most make less than a good living and many are exploited by really very unpleasant criminals. The work is dangerous and comes with rather obvious health risks.

The answer according to our political class is to criminalise not the prostitute but the client. This our leaders claim will curb the oldest profession since “punters” will not risk a criminal conviction. As ever our leaders have just got it all wrong.

Some of those MPs who support these measures do so because they argue that all prostitution is exploitative. Oddly many of those who oppose this line most strongly are themselves prostitutes who just want to earn a living. Others simply regard this as a moral issue. They disapprove of paying for sex and want to shape society in their own mould.

To the latter

3187 days ago

Praise from the most bizarre sources – an Evening with Liquity: time to consider retirement

Up to London for a lunch with libertarian fellow Shoreditch refugee Philip, a CEO meeting and then to the offices of a City law firm to moderate a panel presentation for Liquity – a new platform for investors in unlisted stocks. It is an interesting proposition and I wish the firm the best of luck, not least because it employs my fave Tory blogger Charlotte Argyle. Rather conceitedly I thought I was on pretty cracking form.

I was certainly getting a few laughs but it is quite possible that many of those present were laughing at me not at my witty asides. You never really know.

As soon as the formal bit was over I headed outside for a quick nicotine fix and a fellow who was leaving congratulated me on my style and cynicism and said I gave a most enjoyable performance. Thank you said I. He then introduced himself as a full time member of the House of Lords and thrust his card into my hand saying that he had read my blog but would become a more regular reader from now onwards.

I shall not name this fellow to spare his blushes but I find praise from a member of the political classes a bit disconcerting. Does he not know that when the Popular Libertarian Front sweeps to power in 2020 one of the first acts of Dear Leader Richard Poulden will be to have the entire political class strung up from lampposts?  Naturally I shall be there in the front row with my knitting needles gloating as the tumbrils pass along the Mall.

But for his kind words tonight, I shall put in a good word with the PLF and Lord X will have his sentence commuted to 20 years in the newly established salt mines in the grim Northern Wastelands surrounding Stoke on Trent. But it got worse.

3206 days ago

The Freedom Festival – A Libertarian Weekend gives me mixed feelings, remembering Shoreditch

A friend of mine from my Shoreditch days says that he is heading off to a weekend of eating drinking and libertarianism on the 15^th March and would I care to go. It looks great but then comes the libertarian dilemma.

If you are a pure thinking individual I would urge you to check out the Freedom Festival here

There are some entertaining speakers: Mark Littlewood, Norman Tebbit, Toby Young, Dan Hannan and I am sure that it will be great fun. However:

a) I am not convinced that this is ideologically pure enough for a true libertarian. I see there is a debate “is immigration a boon or a burden?” If you score straight A’s on the Ron Paul crystal pure test you would not need that debate, the answer is obvious. There is another debate “is the conservative family falling apart?” Heck, when did we join that family to start with?

b) Maybe I am a libertarian because I hate the idea of being organised. One of the joys of Shoreditch life right inside the triangle was that the residents were a pretty crazed bunch. On a day to day basis I had nothing in common with the Lebanese cookery writer for the FT, the fat American artist gay couple, the super geek IT guy from Morgan Stanley or the Australian architect with his French wife who’d been there since the sixties. I struggle to remember the other residents but occasionally we’d come together like a Wild West town

3222 days ago

Praise where Praise is due – is Nigel Farage coming out of the Libertarian closet on drugs?

Perhaps the UKIP leader is a libertarian after all? You know that I regard his utterances on immigration as truly awful and UKIP’s economic policies do not stack up – scrapping foreign aid and ending EU contributions saves £16 billion. You cannot re-use that n times to spend, spend, spend and also cut the £100 billion deficit. But he has today written a brave and good piece in the Indy on drugs. Well done Nigel.

Farage starts with a long grumble about dirty tricks and the anti-democratic nature of by-elections. There is one looming on Thursday in some grim Northern shit hole and Labour won before it started by tying up the postal votes. The system does not work. I agree with Nigel. Moreover the contempt with which Labour regard the “poor” vote as its own is – as Nigel says – pretty lamentable.

But Farage’s more interesting point is on drugs. He writes:

Last week, Nick Clegg returned from a trip to South America. Goodness knows what he smoked out there, because he actually made a couple of smart points. First, the  so-called War on Drugs isn’t working. Second, we should appoint a royal commission to look into the alternatives.

The fact is our current approach to drugs is neither practical nor effective. I strongly believe in promoting individual freedom – but I also strongly believe in reducing the public harm caused by drugs. As a parent as much as a politician, I say we have to accept that current policy has not achieved the reductions in crime or consumption that we’d hoped for. I know he slagged me off in this newspaper yesterday, but on this one I agree with Nick

Ends.

Come on Nigel (and Nick) you are almost there saying what all politicians know to be true but just cannot be brave enough to admit. Prohibition NEVER

3240 days ago

Russell Taylor – Why the Liberal Left hates the poor

Thanks to the second most politically switched on CEO on AIM (after pure crystal libertarian Richard Poulden) for sending over this piece by Russell Taylor which is so excellent I just reproduce it in full. Over to Mr Taylor.

It’s not often you get abuse for paying someone a compliment, but try telling a liberal-lefty that the poor are resourceful, resilient and capable. What a terrible accusation! How dare you suggest that they are anything other than hapless cretins, incapable of standing on their own two feet? Can’t you see that these people need help? Why not bring back the workhouses and be done with it?

To liberals, writing-off the poor as weak and vulnerable, then showering them with excuses and hand-outs, is the acme of bigheartedness. Never mind how patronising this is, or how it makes a mockery of their egalitarian pretensions; as far as liberals are concerned, it is the final word in compassion.

You can bet your bottom dollar that liberals don’t think of themselves as possessing the poor’s frailties. When they attend their chichi gatherings, to swap pieties and compare egos, they never refer to the poor as their brethren: as people who share their ambitions, their powers of discernment or their self-sufficiency. They might have all the sympathy in the world for them, but they never for a moment consider them their equals.

Liberals love poverty, because it’s a goldmine for them.

3258 days ago

The Mrs & Her Book Launch – the writing is on the wall.

“Do you want to come to my book launch?”  Said the Mrs yesterday – “It is a week on Friday.” “Wow, of course I do” said I, aware that a book she had co-authored had been published but unaware that there was a full launch with free booze and food on offer. But naturally I am very proud of her for being published.

The Mrs insists that partners are invited but has suggested that I take a laptop in case it all gets a bit too much for me and I have to head off to a quiet room. She is, of course, absolutely right. The title of the book (an impressive tome) is Globalization and Work. I looked inside and spotted an early chapter on “Racism experienced by Indian call centre workers”. Hmmm, get the R word in early. I note that one of her co-authors is a Professor of “Women’s Employment.” I think I get the picture.
 

I rather sense that I will be the only libertarian capitalist present at this launch and that the correct strategy is to say hello as a supportive partner (partner, not husband since I appreciate that is a term associated with patriarchal exploitation) and then make my excuses and head off to tap out a few words of anarcho-capitalism. It is wiser to leave, undisturbed, the other guests to discuss the exciting leader article on how it was all Thatcher’s fault penned by Polly Toynbee in that day’s edition of The Guardian.

3267 days ago

My 12 year old Daughter’s shock admission – something no father wants to hear

And so it was a day or so after Christmas and my daughter was down in Bristol for Christmas Number 2. How about we pop along to the Conservative club for a quick drink I suggested, keen to lead young people along a path of virtue and righteousness.

But Daddy I have to tell you something about me first, she answered.

Oh Cripes thought I. “Will I be upset?” She responded honestly: “Daddy, you won’t like it.”

Oh double cripes.

What could it be? Might she have a boyfriend? Tried a touch of Nigella with her schoolmates? Could she be “coming out” already? After all she does live in Islington. Surely she cannot be pregnant? My mind raced through all these dreadful scenarios.

But it was worse.

3287 days ago

What were Lady Thatcher’s greatest failings?

Reflecting on the UCL Libertarian dinner at Real Man Pizza last Thursday and on a chat with its guest speaker my mind turns back to Lady Thatcher and wondering what were her greatest failings as Prime Minister.  Thinking off the top of my head my top seven would be:

1. A failure to reform the world’s third largest employer, the NHS so that it cared for patients in a cost effective manner rather than looked after over-paid and unaccountable staff

2. A failure to privatise the BBC

3288 days ago

I appear to have been evicted from the Linkedin UKIP Group

My crimes? Questioning the party’s immigration policies and also its Jew hating “friends of Palestine Group”.  UKIP claims to be a libertarian party. Hmmmmm. I was never a party member but now I cannot even see the rants of the faithful on its LinkedIn page.

Libertarians tend to believe in free speech. Libertarians do not want the Jews driven into the sea. Libertarians do not want to restrict free movement of people in search of work. Libertarians would reform the welfare state in order to stop folk moving just to live on welfare but also to deal with indigenous welfare junkies. UKIP is about as Libertarian as Genghis Khan.

So I have now been booted out of LinkedIn UKIP ( having refused suggestions that I stop writing any criticism of the party at all) as well as UKIP Friends of Greece. My crime there was to suggest that Greece was corrupt and an economic basket case and that Albania (low tax, relatively honest) was a role model for poor Hellas.

I also got stick in the West Ham LinkedIn Group for wanting to fire Fat Sam Allardyce last season. I sense now that my views on that matter are now rather mainstream. But at least the West Ham LinkedIn group allows free speech. You can question and criticize. I guess the Cockney Boys are the only true libertarians left on LinkedIn.

3301 days ago

Misleading, Deceitful and Repellent: UKIP on Immigration

Why did I rise to the bait of a twitter fight with UKIP loons regarding immigration? Paul Nutter UKIP’s deputy Fuhrer is on C5 News tonight ranting on about how we will be swamped with millions of Romanians and Bulgarians on 2nd January.

What Nuttall does not say is that Romanians already here, on average, pay 34% more in taxes than they take in benefits, which is a far better ratio than native born Brits. Romanian workers are good news for Britain. What Mr Nutter also declines to mention is that folk arriving in 2014 will not be able to claim a single cent in benefits for at least a year. So they will take the low paid jobs Britain needs to fill if it is to compete.  

Aha…they are stealing British jobs. So goes the chant from UKIP followers on twitter.

Bollocks.

3326 days ago

String the Striking University Lecturers up with piano wire – greedy bastards

I write as the son of a retired University Lecturer and the husband of a practising one, who is NOT on strike today. But many of her colleagues (some of whom I shall be meeting on bonfire night) are withdrawing their labour today. This is a politically motivated strike by greedy bastards who should be string up with piano wire.

Lecturers have a cushy deal. By your late thirties you can expect to be earning c£40,000 a year. You do not actually have to attend your institution of learning more than two or three days a week but can work from home. “Office hours” are not exactly those we in the private sector are used to. There is no 6 am alarm call and daily grind to hit your desk at work by 7 AM. Or even 9 AM.

Although nominal holidays are 25 days a year during the 20 weeks of vacation (plus reading weeks etc) lecturers do not actually have to er…lecture. They rarely have to pop into the factory and it is quite normal for them to spend the summer “working” from Tuscany.

It is almost impossible to be fired. Being lazy or useless is not enough. You need to be found guilty of gross moral turpitude which means some really heinous offence like reading the Daily Mail or having a picture of Nigel Farage on your wall. This is a job for life at the end of which there is a very generous pension scheme funded by the grateful taxpayer.

And yet the bastards are going on strike

3365 days ago

The Smallest Political Quiz – take it now: I straight aced it

So where do you stand politically? Take the quiz on this website and find out. Just give your gut instinct answer and it takes a minute.  I straight aced it. That is to say I scored 100% on both economic and social issues and thus come out as a purer than purer libertarian. Natch.

The Mrs, the one formerly known as The Deluded Lefty has just taken it. She ummed a bit and then scored 30% on social issues and 10% on economics and is thus defined as a pretty extreme statist believer in big Government. No surprises there. Let us know how you fare? Kit Ingoldby a straight ace man I suspect while Jonathan Price with the Mrs on economics but I hope pretty pure on the social issues.

Our correspondents from the Cultural quarter of Stoke on Trent, heaven only knows such is the Bohemian free thinking in that district.

 

 

3367 days ago

Chitter Chatter – the Libertarian Phone Shop on Leather Lane

My handset is bust and so I had to buy a new one – anyone who has tried to text me in vain over the past week you can now text away as thanks to Chitter Chatter on Leather Lane I am now once again in communication. I wandered in wearing a Time To Leave T-shirt and the cute Asian bird behind the counter asked me to explain. At which point she proudly said she was a supporter of the Libertarian party.

Off we went. The bird, her colleague and I. The NHS, Ron Paul, Welfare, Starbucks and tax, we covered it all. What an enlightened phone shop it is. If you ever need a new handset, served by a cute & enlightened bird, show your support you know where to go. 

To engage in conversation with good looking young ladies of an enlightened disposition you can buy your very own “good looking young ladies of an enlightened disposition magnet” It’s Time to Leave T-shirt here

3388 days ago

A day when friends popped in again and again and again

Perhaps they were all psychic and sensed pending news but Clerkenwell's finest celtic Italian restaurant Real Man Pizza was a buzz all day yesterday. First up was blog reader Gareth to whom I promised a Piss off Argentina T-shirt in a caption contest a while ago. We will not go into details as to how much of a while. Gareth was in town, popped in for lunch and was – as you can see – presented with his shirt by myself (wearing my Sod off Spain T-shirt which is getting stacks of positive comments). You can buy both shirts only HERE

3558 days ago

Prohibition does not work with illegal immigration either – open the door but slash welfare for all

There are few sentient human beings who maintain that prohibition of alcohol in 1920s America was a roaring success. Criminals benefited and made a killing. The costs of law enforcement went through the roof. Customers had to pay more. Checks to ensure safe supply of liquor became impossible. And anyone who wanted a drink could get one anyway. Yet still mainstream opinion argues that prohibition is a good idea elsewhere. The results are always the same.

As a libertarian I believe it is my call on what I put into my body not that of the State. So I have a philosophical opposition to prohibition. I do not expect many of you to agree with that stance. But you should see that on a practical level it does not work. Legalise drugs and allow supply via tobacconists and you could ensure that no dirty heroin hits the streets, tax receipts would go up, prices would go down. The 80% of crimes that are drug related would disappear and so we could reduce policing costs. With your car & house less likely to be broken into your insurance premiums would fall.

But there is another prohibition which is an abject failure – that on the movement of people into this country. It emerges today that it costs £25,000 to boot an illegal immigrant out. And he or she will soon be replaced. Criminals make a fortune trafficking people into the UK. A whole industry of lawyers and other parasites makes a living (from the taxpayer) arguing that folks should not be deported because it will infringe the human rights of their cat, result in homophobic bullying or whatever. And still we have no idea how many illegals are in the UK – it is probably well over one million. The whole system is a costly farce as any system based on prohibition always is. All those who talk tough about immigration seem to miss the point. We could spend 20 times as much as we do on “getting tough” but prohibition NEVER works.

And so why not allow anyone who wants to come to the UK? But with a twist. It is quite clear that we have vast number of home grown Heather Frost figures who have never worked, will never work and regard welfare as an entitlement. That is not sustainable or equitable. And so we make a small rule change.  You can only claim income support up to a value of x times the amount of NI contributions you have made historically. And unless you have paid NI you and your offspring shall have no entitlement to schooling, healthcare, subsidised housing or any other state benefit. If you cannot afford kids do not have them and simply expect others to pay.

If one adopts these rules for our own home grown Heather Frosts you will not – with an open borders policy – get folks moving to the UK to live off the State because the same rules will apply to them. By all means let the Rumanians come en masse. But unless they are working they will starve. Make that abundantly clear and those who want to work hard will come to the UK and we will benefit from that. Those who want to scrounge can go to a “caring, socialist paradise fucked economy” like France or Scotland when it gets its independence. Perhaps they can take Heather Frost with them.

Adopt this policy and UK welfare spending will plunge. The parasite lawyers who feed off immigration law at the taxpayers’ expense will have to go get proper jobs and save us all a packet. All those employed by the State in this futile pretence that we are tough on immigration can be let go. And the vast savings can go on slashing the UK’s unsustainable deficit and on raising the threshold at which anyone pays tax to £20,000 so making ,low paid work that much more attractive.

Obviously this makes sense. The chances of it happening zilch.

3661 days ago

UKIP Triumph – A tipping Point? And the Establishment spin and dirty tricks

UKIP was never going to win any of the three by-elections last night. The mainstream press knew that but happily suggested it might in order that the political and media establishment in the Westminster bubble could say that UKIP had not done as well as expected. UKIP is not a party of the establishment and it will thus get no favours from the established media. The way that papers such as the Telegraph took the spin from the established parties is the sort of dirty trick UKIP will have to get used to as it grows. And it will grow.

I write this not as a UKIP member or indeed committed supporter. Pro tem I am clearly a sympathiser. I think that the party has a good few loons in its ranks. Don’t they all? It strikes me that it can appear not to be libertarian at times on social issues. That may be unfair on it, but it is the impression one gets. However on a range of issues, notably the EU, smoking in public places and deficit reduction it is, for me, bang on the money. And though it wants to have MPs, right now it has nothing to do with the sleaze club of Westminster to which the other three main parties all belong.

3682 days ago

My Google Map of the World & the Britain invading 90% of the countries on this planet map

A map appeared the other day showing how Britain had invaded 90% of the countries on this planet at one stage or another. Generally the 10% had suffered from missing out. The longer the British stayed the better off a country was. I am no apologist for Empire. It is a matter I will be covering at some stage.

I just looked at my Google analytics map and I see that this blog has now been read in 117 countries around the world during the past two weeks. So I still have a way to go to catch up with the British Empire in bringing the message of hard line small state libertarianism to the world. Most of the planet now looks green. I seem to have a good few readers in Belgium. I wonder if it is the articles on their national hobby of paedophilia that attracts them or perhaps, noting that members of the EU press office now follow me on twitter, it is just the Evil Empire tracking members of the rebel alliance?