Release Date: Wednesday 1 December, 2004
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Chris R. Tame, 07957 644 519, chris@libertarian.co.uk
Sean Gabb, 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk

For other contact and link details, see the foot of this message
Release url: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr029.htm

"WE NEED A POST-BLUNKETT SUPER INQUIRY", SAYS FREE MARKET AND CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties think tank and pressure group, welcomes the setting up of the Sir Alan Budd inquiry into the claims that Home Secretary John Blunkett has misused his position and privileges.

Libertarian Alliance Director, Dr Chris Tame comments:

"Who can have any doubt that the Budd Inquiry will follow the same standards of objectivity, honesty and commitment to the truth as the Butler and Hutton Inquiries.

But surely New Labour, with its commitment to new standards of financial probity and business efficiency, should cease holding such ad hoc, expensive and wasteful individual inquiries. Now is the time to hold a super-inquiry into governmental, ministerial and parliamentary ethics which would deal once and for all with recurrent and baseless accusations. The super inquiry - a Truth and Time to Move On Commission - should find that:

*    No Minister has used his powers to gain passports for boyfriends, girlfriends, mistresses' nannies, corrupt foreign businessmen or other dodgy individuals
*    No Minister has received financial inducements or benefits of any sort, direct or indirect, for the granting of contracts
*    No donations to the Labour Party have influenced the passage of legislation, or prevented, delayed or altered legislation
*    No Ministers have authorised or co-operated in the cover-up of abuses in the armed forces, for unlawful harm inflicted upon members of the armed forces, nor the blaming of innocent members of the armed forces for accidents caused by defective equipment and governmental irresponsibility
*    No Minister has covered up the truth regarding the health hazards of specific medical treatments or of agricultural processes, nor co- operated with the manufacture of junk science and the suppression of independent investigation
*    No Minister has in any way misrepresented the truth or manipulated intelligence reports to justify preconceived political
decisions
*    No Ministers' children have received employment by big business as a "favour" or inducement
*    No Misters have used their influence to suppress information regarding the paedophile convictions of their relatives
*    No Ministers are involved in paedophile activities nor in suppressing prosecutions of parliamentarians or other political figures guilty of such activities
*    No Ministers have engaged in pleasurable nasal activities with exotic powders
*    No Ministers are involved in AC/DC threesomes with mentally unstable and criminally-connected individuals
*    No Ministers have authorised or permitted the use of the security and intelligences services in the manipulation, disruption or sabotage of other political parties
*    No Ministers or MPs has uttered anything other than Simon-pure truth, or acted with anything other than total integrity and adherence to all relevant laws and regulations of our country.

Only a cynical and paranoid conspiracy theorist could conclude that a New Labour inquiry could come to any other objective and honest conclusion. The Libertarian Alliance thus calls upon the government to grasp this nettle, and, for the sake of efficiency, remove all public doubts and baseless rumours with one super-inquiry. Let's draw one line under everything and move on. The British public deserves, and expects, nothing less!"

END OF COPY

Note(s) to Editors

(1) Dr. Chris R. Tame is the founder and Director of the Libertarian Alliance. A prolific writer and lecturer on many topics in sociology, economics, philosophy and the history of ideas. He is also the author of "Freedom, Responsibility and Justice: The Criminology of the New Right" in the book The Politics of Crime Control (Kevin Stenson & David Cowell, eds., Sage Publications, London, 1991), which can also be found reprinted at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Dr. Tame can be contacted for further comment at 07957 644519 or by email at director@libertarian.co.uk

Extended Contact Details:

The Libertarian Alliance is Britain’s most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Our postal address is

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199

Associated Organisations

The Libertarian International - http://www.libertarian.to - is a sister organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the world.

Sean Gabb's personal website - http://www.seangabb.co.uk - contains about a million words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and conservatives.

Hampden Press - http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.- the publishing house of the Libertarian Alliance.

Liberalia - http://www.liberalia.com - maintained by by LA Executive member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of documentation on these issues for students and scholars.

Libertarian Samizdata - http://www.samizdata.net - a topical blog set up by LA Executive member Perry de Havilland..