Happy 4th of July

Obligatory:



Plus as an added bonus, a good summary of the Broken Window Fallacy (via he ASI blog):



Not much else new, spent the weekend re-hanging the bathroom door so it now opens out rather than in (thereby allowing the next project to proceed, replacing the rusty old radiator with a heated towel rail).

Tomorrow am at the ASI's boat party (where I'll be photographing the event for them),then on Thursday will be at the LPUK meetup in Southwark

Idiocy at the Standard

I swear reading the Evening Standard is bad for my digestion. Case in point, a piece in Friday's business section by Anthony Hilton entitled 'What Banks is need is Nationalisation" which caused my jaw to hit the floor.

'the public interest demands that someone performs the basic banking function. That requires capital and if it is not going to come from shareholders then from where?.... conclusion is that banks should be state-owned. State banks should provide basic deposit and lending services which meet the core needs of the economy.'

Sweet Jesus, aren't there enough examples from the 20th that state-owned firms don't work? If you think customer service at your local branch is bad now, wait until it it is run with the same mentality as the post office. No doubt getting a bank account (note singular, because no one will need more than 1) will be as easy as getting a phone line installed in the days of the GPO was.
Of course, there would have to be some rationalisation as well, we wouldn't need numerous, wasteful branches in the average high street, but what's a few job losses compared to the efficiency to be gained? How about calling the new group British Leyland Bank?

The sad thing is that there are already alternative models for retail banking, like Building societies and Savings banks. Sadly it seems the statist mentality is alive and well at Evening Standard. I also noted in Friday's paper that their city editor has been appointed the new editor of the Independent. Hopefully he'll take Anthony Hilton with him.

Quick links 30

Two Japan-focused pieces saw on Friday in the UK MSM, first on the new generation of entrepreneurs in the Economist, second in the Telegraph (of all places) on Hatsune Miku and K-ON!!

Book Pile update 35

While was in Italy last month made good progress (since I got back, not so)

Since last update have finished The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley,
Seeds of Earth by Micheal Cobley,
Starman- The Truth behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. All of which are highly recommended.

Currently working through The Last Murghal by William Dalrymple

Still on the pile:
Sex, Science and Profits by Terence Keal
The High Frontier by Gerard O'Neil,
Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Noziack,
A Tiger by the Tail by F. A. Hayek,
The Austrian school by Prof Jesus Huerta de Soto,
Shootin' the Sh*t by Kevin Smith,
Diaries-Into Politics by Alan Clarke,
On Liberty by John Sturt Mills,
The Theory and Practice of Communism by R. N. Carew Hunt,
How to Live Forever or Die Trying by Bryan Appleyard,
The Reconstruction of Warriors by E. R. Mayhew,
Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein,
The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow,
The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker,
Life of Pi by Yann Martel,
Islands by Dan Sleigh,
The Bumper book of Government waste 2008 by Matthew Elliot and Lee Rotherham,
The Virtues of Capitalism by Arthur Seldon,
The Open Society and its Enemies vol 1 by Karl Popper,
Letters from Iowa Jima by Kumiko Kakehashi,
The Bomb in my Garden by Mahdi Obeidi, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpter

Gradually going down!

Quote of the day 14

'More government means less community. The horizontal ties, which bind people to each other, have slowly been replaced with vertical ties, which seek to bind individuals to the state. Society is weakened by this, because the government does a very bad job. And high taxes undermine philanthropic intention, and community action. The sheet vanity of politicians blinds them to the destructive effect of their interventions. Sir Titus built beautiful stone houses for his mill workers (where there was, until five years ago, not even a pub). The government shovels the poor in high-rise welfare ghettoes riddled with crime and drug abuse. The result is this very British phenomenon: expensive poverty.'

Fraser Nelson gets it. Read the whole thing

New gig's and other news

Just noticed tonight that I no longer have author access to the LPUK blog. Not sure when that happened, but given everything that has been going on lately am not surprised. I have been invited to contribute to 2 new sites, Outspoken Rabbit and Libertarian Home, which I will try to string some coherent sentences together for in the near future.

Have been a bit quiet lately, mainly due to illness. Was off work for half of last week with abdominal pains, and possible gall stone(s). Went back to work Friday but still not feeling 100%. Have to go back to see my GP next Monday so will have to wait and see what happens then (was given pills but they run out Wednesday).

Spent most of that time and the weekend juts gone in bed watching anime or playing visual novels (downloaded a trial of a game called Edelweiss which am still not sure about, reminds me a bit too much of crap anime Green Green). Also finished a short yuri visual novel called Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo which was light on plot but cute (can never have too much of a girl calling 'Onee-sama'!)

Oh and I also spend far too much money on DVD's getting the Armando Iannucci collection as was half price in HMV, and ordered Clannad After Story collection from the US. I also for the first time ordered something from Japan, which may well be the single most expensive DVD I've ever bought- this. Have seem some clips on youtube which looked pretty good (costumes and instruments were spot on, even have a trap bassist!) so should be worth it (even though you won't be able to understand most of it- ed)

Have a few fun events to look forward to, am off the the IEA tomorrow for a Voices of Freedom debate (no free booze for me though!), and another the week after. Looking further ahead is Hyper Japan next month, and the week after that the London Anime con which am still not sure if I'll go to (Male to Female and Female to Male Crossplay? Shoot me now!) Then at the end of August am going to a one day music festival in Brighton featuring one of my favourite bands The Wedding Present. Found a cheap hostel so will stay over and relive my student days!

For now, laters~

A weekend of excess

To much food, too much booze and too many late nights!

Started to go wrong Thursday, when went for the LPUk meetup after work. Missed the 10:12 train (which was cancelled anyway) and the next one sat at Plumstead for half an hour due to an incident on the train ahead which the police had to deal with. Finally got home half 12, and was up again half 6 on Friday.

Missed my train again Friday morning, and also forgot my rail pass so walked to and from the station 3 times that morning, so was a bit hot and sweaty when I got to work. In the evening went to see a friends band in Gravesend which was a late one. Was my brother's birthday on Sunday, and on Saturday had a BBQ round his where much fun was had and meat consumed. And then there was my contribution, a platter of Epic Meal Time inspired Candy Burgers:

Caloriffic! For his actual birthday yesterday had an Indian takeaway, so have been feeling a bit bloated today. Still catching up on stuff from when away and last week. Am out again tomorrow at the ASI to hear Peter Stringfellow (!) talk, and again Wednesday at the IEA for one of their Voices of Freedom talks.

Back from Italy

Had a nice time and came back very relaxed, which one day back at work has already started to undo. Have put a few pics on Facebook already and will add more at some point. In brief I read a lot, drank lots of coffee and wandered round a lot. I bought their 72 hour tourist card and got my money's worth visiting several museums.

Had an awkward moment on the plane back as sat next to a man with no hands. After landing he was struggling with his seat belt I instinctively said 'Do you need a hand?' and regretted it instantly!

In other news my thoughts on LPUK future were posted while I was away and got a fairly positive response. Wil be at the monthly meetup on Thursday where no doubt will be some interesting discussions. Might go to a friends gig on Friday and Saturday my brother is having a BBQ which I might try and make an epic meal time inspired contribution towards

Future of LPUK- the minimal party

(This is my orignal draft as submitted in response to the call for ideas on party future. It was published on the LPUK site May 28th)

Following on from Simon's post, I'd like to expand on idea's I brought up last thursday evening. Even though I've stepped down as an official, I have been thinking a lot about the way ahead for the party.

Personally I don't think we can carry on as before, this whole affair has had a severe effect on the party's credibility, membership and morale.
The biggest problem we've had in the past was that we have never had enough people who could provide the time to make the party as structured work. And we were never able to raise enough money to hire professional staff. Trying to do this now would be impossible imo.

On the other hand de-registering would waste our biggest assent, our name. £500 was spent registering it with the electoral commission. The question is how do we use it? Also, we should ask ourselves what is it we hope to achieve?

The answer to the second question is to promote libertarian idea by contesting elections. It is my view then that our 'mission statement' is simply to allow individuals to stand for election under the libertarian name.

I therefore propose that the party should be slimmed down to support this core function. For reference check out this group I came across last week; http://www.leave-the-eu.org.uk/.

They are registered as a political party just so they can have the words 'independent- leave the EU' on the ballot. (Their constitution is worth a read, as is their aim to publish all accounts online. This doesn't seem to have happened however)

The party should in my view follow this model and be scaled back to the bare minimum to allow individuals to stand- no leader, regional branches/co-ordinators, just the minimum number of legal officers. The only funds needed then would be enough to cover any electoral commission fees, web hosting etc, which membership fees and an annual pledge drive should be sufficient to cover.

Maybe we should have no set policies and manifestos, leaving it up to candidate to decide what they wish to focus their campaign on. As long as someone agree's to our basic principles they should be able to join and stand for election.

The ultimate expression of this new philosophy might be to change the party name to the Independent Libertarian party.

In addition I propose we create a new, non-party campaign/social group that I'll refer to for now as 'the libertarian network' (any suggestions for an alternative name would be much appreciated!) The TPA should be our model for this organisation- it should be free to join + open to all regardless of party membership, and would focus on networking, campaigning and promoting ideas. When elections come around the candidates can then tap into this to raise funds and find volunteers to help their campaign.

In addition members of other parties who have libertarian leanings could also reach out to the network and gain support. Hopefully being 'libertarian network endorsed' would one day be a badge of honour all aspiring politicians would yearn for!

In summary then I believe the only way forward is to scale the party back and focus its mission on supporting individuals standing for election.
It would be more consistent with our philosophy to act as a loose, open alliance of individuals than trying to build and maintain a heirachical structure in the current party system

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