From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. In the second follow-up to my article on Spartan constitutions, I want to look at what lessons can be learnt from modern Greece. From a free-market perspective, I argued that no bank should have been bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis. Businesses take risks, and bankruptcy is one possible consequence of poor decisions. People would undoubtedly have suffered immediate losses, but those losses would have been recognised and the recovery process begun. Instead, three years later, many people had still lost savings, pensions had declined, homes had been repossessed, and the same banks remained at risk of failure while threatening entire nations. Bankruptcy is part of th...

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. In a recent blog, I looked at the effect of Spartan-style constitutions and the inevitable failures which arise when circumstances change but the constitution and government cannot adapt to the new reality. This has obvious parallels to what is happening in the Western world, but instead I will look at a constitution which is further along the road, has passed its crisis and begun to rebuild: Russia. The economy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was based upon state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, industrial manufacturing and centralised administrative planning. The economy was characterised by state control of investment, public...

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. The US and UK are poised to invade yet another country. Looking back to Nazi Germany and the support that the government had for invading neighbouring countries, you have to wonder whether the rhetoric and propaganda used to sway the German people was similar to that now being deployed to justify what would be a war of aggression. Reading the Daily Mail's pronouncements as to why such a move is necessary, you get the feeling that the decision has already been made. However, we managed to co-exist peacefully with the Soviet Union for decades, despite its much larger nuclear arsenal. In the United States, Barack Obama still had an election promise to fulfil by bringing t...

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. The two great city states of Ancient Greece embody a philosophical battle which is waged in all modern constitutions: the battle between state control and personal freedom. For a brief period these two city states were the superpowers of the world. Today Sparta is a rural village which is home to goat herds and little else, whilst Athens, birthplace of much of what we consider to be civilisation, still flourishes. The battle between these two constitutional philosophies is the libertarian/authoritarian political cleavage, one of the divisions which exists in every society: the individual against the state. Like Sparta, states which are overly restrictive of individual freedo...

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. Dr Ron Paul, GOP Candidate for Presidential Nomination 2012 Ron Paul is the standard bearer of the modern Libertarian movement who advocates small government, low taxes and civil liberty or, as it is more accurately described, freedom from government. Ron Paul started life as an obstetrician and gynaecologist and practised what he preached; his practice would not participate in any federal health programmes, which meant that they saw all Medicare and Medicaid patients free of charge, and they were treated just like all of the other patients, but they were not charged and the practice did not accept federal funds. "Some of the p...

Historical Archive This article is preserved as part of the historical record of this blog. It reflects the author's views at the time of publication. The content has not been substantively altered, although the HTML, accessibility and formatting have been updated to meet modern web standards. Freddie Cohen finished sixth in the 2011 Jersey Senator Election Freddie Cohen at the end of the last election criticised the biased coverage of the election by the Jersey Evening Post , joining a long list of political figures in Jersey to have done so, for example Guy de Faye three years earlier. The allegation has been made, by a source I will not disclose, that the Jersey Evening Post likes to see one "establishment" candidate ousted each election to perpetuate the illusion of change for the people of Jersey, whilst power remains firmly in the hands of the same interests. Indeed, when I volunteered for the National Tru...