I am not quite as vexed by the writings of former Living Marxism (a bit of an oxymoron, Ed) writers such as Brendan O'Neill, Mick Hume or Claire Fox as Stephen Pollard is - life is too short for such intellectual eye-gouging - but I kind of get Stephen's general point. Those of us who have toiled away exposing the idiocies of Big Government for decades and plugging the case for free markets, etc, find…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Ron Paul is one of the few presidential candidates in any party running on a platform of immediate withdrawal from Iraq. However, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll on Nov. 20-26 which asked various questions on Iraq:
The results were:
Do you think the U.S. should keep military troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized, […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

I really do love this piece in The Guardian about solar power (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/nov/29/research1). Almost all of it is an interesting overview of where the science is now and thus where the technology will be in a decade or so. It’s all very encouraging indeed: the scientists seem confident that they’ll be able to get generation costs from solar down to around and about the same as that from fossil fuels.

Something which will, of course, make a lot of the worries about climate change go away. Of course, this being The Guardian there’s the note of doom as well:

But waiting around for the science to become technology isn’t an
option, says Martyn Williams, senior parliamentary campaigner at
Friends of the Earth. We are aware of moves to find new ways to
generate electricity from solar power. We have to move faster than that
because every tonne of carbon we pump out is adding to the problem.

So Williams’ idea is that we should spend a lot of money now on bad technology now rather than wait for the technology which actually works. That is, we should make ourselves vastly poorer now than we need to be, reducing what we can spend upon the technology when it is ready.

But what really fascinates me about all of this is that if you go back and read Bjorn Lomborg’s Skeptical Environmentalist again, his argument about climate change rested upon the following. Somewhere in the 2030-2040 time span, solar power will become cheaper than generation using fossil fuels. At that point we’ll all naturally switch: and none of the models used by the IPCC acknowledge this fact (well, prediction perhaps). So all of the predictions of future emissions are too high (again, possibly).

Now as you might recall, Lomborg got a lot of stick for this argument, and it does look like he was wrong. Too pessimistic that is, not too optimistic, for that magic price moment looks like it might appear before 2020.

While there are an awful lot of people who say they like solar power, I have a feeling that if this comes to pass there’ll be a few at least who won’t be happy. Cheap renewable power will allow the whole capitalist/consumerist juggernaut to carry on which isn’t the point at all for some people.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

The party funding scandal that has engulfed the government will undoubtedly be used as an excuse for more regulation and more state funding of political parties. This is a mistake. The Labour Party is in trouble precisely because it has broken existing laws and been found out, not because there was not enough regulation to guide their conduct.

Indeed, what this new scandal should show us is that placing restrictions on party funding doesn’t really work. More regulation does not produce better ethics, just as more state funding would not reduce political corruption – it would just make the taxpayer foot the bill.

In any case, British politics is not an industry awash with money, and all parties are under pressure to make ends meet. So why not go for a more straightforward approach and say: “Let them get it where they can”. The role of the law should limited to insisting on transparency.

The usual argument posed against this approach is that it would enable a few rich people to dictate the policy agenda. But political parties are ultimately driven by a desire to win power, and thus it is the will of the people that dictates policy (for better or worse). A rich man’s money is no good if it is conditional on the implementation of a programme no one wants to vote for.

It is also generally unfair to ascribe sinister motives to party donors. Like most people in politics their desire is to make the world a better place (as they see it), rather than to pursue a purely instrumental agenda. And when ‘influence’ is sought, it usually only takes the form of after dinner speeches or informal ‘face time’ with politicians.

Ultimately, if we try to regulate the finances of political parties, we are only setting ourselves up for disappointment. Letting the market do its thing is the only sensible way forward.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Alistair Buchanan, head of the UK’s electricity and gas regulator was our Power Lunch guest this week.

Nice man, and he answered all our questions fully and frankly. But I still think he should pull his finger out. When electricity was privatized, it took a while to build up competition. Then for a while, competition was very active. But is it now? I don’t think so, and neither did some of our experts round the table.

Too many political issues I guess. Government’s desire to be seen to ‘do’ something - on insulating ourselves from Putin’s gas, carbon reduction, more cuddly windfarms, ’sustainability’ - has given us an energy market driven by rules, not competition.

Meanwhile, if you really want to make money in this sector, don’t try to generate electricity cheaply. Build a wind farm and pocket the subsidies.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Today, an English teacher who went to Sudan to teach was sentenced to jail and deportation for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammed:
KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) — A Sudanese court found a British teacher guilty of inciting religious hatred and sentenced her to 15 days imprisonment Thursday for allowing a teddy bear to be […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Today’s open thread is about how those of who support limited government can stop Mike Huckabee.
To spur the creative juices, here’s Mike at his finest:

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Afghan leaders, prompted by the United States discourage farmers from growing opium, so they switch to alternative plants:
KABUL, Afghanistan — The fields of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan were free of opium poppies this year, a success touted often by Afghan and international officials. But one look at Mohammad Alam’s fields uncovers an […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Thirty Five days from today, Iowa voters will caucus and the 2008 Presidential primary season will start. Five days later, New Hampshire will hold it’s primary earlier in the year than ever before. And, then, four weeks later, 20 states will hold primaries on what some pundits are referring to as Super Duper Tuesday. By […]

From The Liberty Papers

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom