It’s not unfair to say that the current unrest and rioting in the UK has been accompanied by a lot of inaccurate information. As with any event, everyone should be aware that it becomes a lot easier to spread false information and have people believe it. Tensions are boiling over and emotions are running amok, and it does not take a genius to understand why you should be more wary of misinformation when emotion is in the driver’s seat.Unfortunately, the #1 rule of government is to never let an emergency go to waste. The relationship between emergencies and the state is a symbiotic relationship. Supposed “emergencies” almost always lead to the growth of government and a creeping infringement on natural rights. Take the current events in the UK—the riots accompany a crackdown on an

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

The U.K. election is over. While it was in full swing, I happened to find myself watching an interview of party leaders from the 1959 election, and it put so much of the current political landscape into perspective. The video, which you can watch here, takes you back to a time, post war, where there was something Brits called “the post-war consensus.” After the Second World War ended, both major parties came to a philosophical harmony where certain policies were seen as necessities for the role of government in a free society. Certain policy areas became untouchable, and as a result, the growth of government increased at a pace not seen before. Britons should make no mistake: the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have been aligned for much longer than commonly thought.Conservatives

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

The United Kingdom’s political landscape has been rocked once again by yet another scandal. This scandal relates to tainted blood that was given to unsuspecting patients leaving them permanently horribly ill. This scandal is different from other more recent scandals; it has been known for decades that this has been happening, yet nothing has been done by successive governments on all sides of the political spectrum. As libertarians, we know why this is the case, but unsurprisingly it has completely escaped the minds of those within the British political mainstream.The response to this crisis from those in the media through to our elected politicians is a real revelation, so I’d like to focus on that in this piece. The shallow level of thought that has gone into the analysis of why the

It is the waning days of the Sunak premiership, and the Conservative party still has a stonking majority despite its cataclysmic capitulation in the polls. The government is effectively a lame duck; everyone knows it has no support, yet it will still be around for a few more months. One would think that since the Conservative party still has a large majority in the House of Commons that it would let loose with policy and attempt real reform so that the MPs have something to take to the people when election time begins.The Conservative party could radically reform the housing sector so that young people do not turn their backs even more on the free market, they could be tackling NHS reform so our healthcare could match, or even surpass, international standards. Alas, it chose the path that

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Transport for the North, a collection of the Northern Transport Authorities and some business leaders, will be calling for Avanti West Coast’s rail franchise to be stripped from it after continued disruption to services that sometimes leads to journeys lasting hours longer than they should, which, as you can imagine, leads to rather a lot of disgruntled and angry train users. They want the railway to be taken under control of the government on a temporary basis, but we should be careful, for there is nothing so permanent as something the government terms temporary. Major unions like the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers have already called for full nationalization of the railway network after what they perceive to be embarrassing failures of privatization. But it’s

Transport for the North, a collection of the Northern Transport Authorities and some business leaders, will be calling for Avanti West Coast’s rail franchise to be stripped from it after continued disruption to services that sometimes leads to journeys lasting hours longer than they should, which, as you can imagine, leads to rather a lot of disgruntled and angry train users. They want the railway to be taken under control of the government on a temporary basis, but we should be careful, for there is nothing so permanent as something the government terms temporary. Major unions like the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers have already called for full nationalization of the railway network after what they perceive to be embarrassing failures of privatization. But it’s