The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

Political priorities

Published by Tom

on

Gay marriage or economic Armageddon: which do you think matters more? – Telegraph Blogs.

Mr Delingpole has a point, but I am surprised he is surprised. Isn't fiddling while the city burns the classical recreation for political arsonists? One of the best practical arguments for libertarianism is that, given fewer things to take care of, politicians could take better care of them. Gay marriage would not be an issue for a libertarian state as it would not concern itself with ANY forms of marriage. After all, can any arrangement more properly be described as private?

4 responses to “Political priorities”

  1. james higham Avatar
    james higham

    Isn’t fiddling while the city burns the classical recreation for political arsonists?
    Indeed.

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  2. Single Acts of Tyranny Avatar
    Single Acts of Tyranny

    A marriage is slightly unusually, a public declaration of a private contract. So you are of course, quite right.

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  3. Moggsy Avatar
    Moggsy

    Tom & SAT, I can’t absolutely agree that Marriage is private. Maybe the reverse in fact, because it involves position, inheritance and property. At least for the powerful. Although it does look like sucessive governments have been trying to destroy the inheritance of property to lower and lower levels, so now it can steal quite modest inheritance.
    Anyhow. back when monarchs were really monarchs they they couldn’t have much privacy because who inherited the kingdome was all tied in with it. Private arrangements were with lovers Marriage was anything but private.

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  4. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Yes, but marriage does not need to involve “position, inheritance and property”. If all laws that refer to marriage are repealed, the state has no reason to define it. For those conservatives who believe it’s important for the state to promote marriage, I would merely point to the statistics. The war on single parenthood seems about as effective as the war on drugs. Time for the guns to fall silent, perhaps?

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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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