On Freedom

In just over three weeks the Plague Act meets its maker, the nightmare of the last two years comes to an end (unless some ‘competent authority’ deems it worthwhile extending for a further six weeks).

The Media are focused elsewhere in Kyiv, for Libertarians the ease with which a small coterie of people seized control of the economy, debauched the currency and condemned thousands to early treatable deaths was shocking but not surprising. After all this Party was founded on its opposition to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, the Plague Act 2020 was merely the extension of the CCA with even more restrictions and punishments.

A more critical view of the CCA 2004 was taken by Henry Porter in his 2009 novel The Dying Light, which describes a conspiracy to subvert democracy, based on the modern state's capacity to collect and cross-refer personal information. The Afterword to the novel asserts that the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 "enables the Prime Minister, a minister, or the Government Chief Whip to dismantle democracy and the Rule of Law overnight...on the mere conviction that an emergency is about to take place".

That is exactly what occurred on March 23rd 2020.

‘We talk about freedom and liberty all the time and tend to embrace these notions. Freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of information etc. But what do these two terms mean exactly? Finding a satisfying and suitable definition is not as easy as it might seem at first.

First of all, let us look at official definitions. Liberty is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behaviour, or political views.”, while freedom is defined as “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.”. These two concepts evidently seem to go hand in hand and overarchingly mean being unconstrainted – not restricted, forced and bound to obligations implied by authorities and hierarchies’

Are you expecting both your Freedom and Liberty to be restored to the poor levels of 2019?

Emergency legislation tends to take years to fade, especially ones introduced by the use of terrorising the public.

It’s going to be long battle , we need those committed to Freedom to be with us.

Andrew Withers FRSA