THE LAST DITCH

Child poverty shames the UK – so use the budget to invest in our young | Paddy Ashdown | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Imaginary
Even necessary laws are evils. Unecessary laws are worse. Yet, with leftist imaginations given legislative free rein, it's hard sometimes – even for a libertarian – not to fantasize about the things one might forbid if given power. If allowed one non-libertarian law of my own devising it might be this;

"It shall be a criminal offence, punishable by a lifetime ban from public office, to use the word 'invest' in relation to public expenditure from which there is no reasonable prospect of a financial return."

In the spirit of the Red Kryptonite-laden "Imaginary Stories" of the Silver Age of DC Comics, what other laws would tempt libertarian readers from their principles?

9 responses to “Imaginary Stories: There should be a law against it”

  1. Richard B Avatar

    It shall be an offence, punishable by life imprisonment at the very least to take property from another person under threat of duress or violence, either for one’s own enrichment or for the enrichment of others, and this shall be an offence whether it be referred to as ‘robbery’ or ‘taxation’.

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  2. Tom Paine Avatar

    You haven’t strayed far from libertarian principles there!

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  3. Jackart Avatar

    It should be a crime punishable by, I dunno… 42 days in prison to deploy the “if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear” argument in order to justify state intrusion.

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  4. Katabasis Avatar

    Any government minister who has been in power since 1990 onwards and claimed that the UK will have sufficient reliable and affordable power supply for the coming decades and/or claimed that 20% or more of demand could be met by “rewewables” shall have the living s**t kicked out of them for 1 hour for every minute that a blackout occurs in the UK through lack of supply.

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  5. Tom Paine Avatar

    Now that's more in the illiberal spirit I was looking for! Why should the Fabians have all the fun – at least at an imaginary level?

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  6. Suboptimal Planet Avatar

    Any public figure who supported the Lisbon Treaty should be exiled to Brussels for life (for better or worse, this includes the Queen).
    This treason warrants a fate worse than death.

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  7. Suboptimal Planet Avatar

    Anyone caught using a -phobia suffix to dismiss rational but politically-incorrect concerns will be lowered into a small dark pit containing snakes and spiders.

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  8. Tom Paine Avatar

    I can see why the Fabians get so carried away with this game now, can’t you? Evil comes in such tempting packages.

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  9. Trooper Thompson Avatar

    I’d like the film ‘Hostel’ burned by the hangman, and no, I’ve not seen it.

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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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