Release Date: Thursday 13th September 2007
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Dr Sean Gabb (Director), 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/nr055.htm

CONSERVATIVE REPORT ON ENVIRONMENT A "BLUEPRINT FOR GREEN FEUDALISM"

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties policy institute, today denounces the Conservative Party report Blueprint for a Green Economy as a "blueprint for green feudalism".

Libertarian Alliance Director, Dr Sean Gabb, says:

"The Conservatives are proposing more taxes and more regulations on the basis of fraudulent claims about the impact of human activity on the climate. There is no global warming. If there is, it is not our doing. If it is our doing, government action is not the answer. But there is no global warming. This whole set of claims is a device to rescue socialism from the failure of its promise to deliver heaven on earth. Shame on the Conservatives for joining in the clamour.

"And shame, above all, on the very rich men who are telling us to tighten our belts in their attempt to 'save the planet'. Zac Goldsmith, one of the authors of this Report, is one of the richest men in the country. David Cameron and John Gummer are not poor. If all the economic growth of the past century were to be rolled back, their sort would not suffer. If the rich want to travel, they have their private jets and helicopters. If they want to eat fresh fruit and vegetables out of season, they have their vast greenhouses. If they want to do without washing machines and gas-fired central heating, they can fall back on armies of servants and expensive personal generators. If they want entertainment, they can have their private theatres and orchestras, or whatever in our degraded modern culture serve in their place.

"For them, a reduction of the general wealth would be a blessing. It would ease pressure on the roads that they would continue using, and reduce numbers at exotic holiday resorts that would remain within their reach.

"These people talk about making the world a better place. Perhaps they believe what they say. The natural effect of their words, however, would be to make the world a better place for people who have done nothing to earn their wealth other than take the trouble to be born.

"This whole report is a blueprint for green feudalism."

The Libertarian Alliance believes:

• That taxes and government regulations are bad:
• That economic growth is good;
• That the world will be a better place when every home in India and China has the same levels of income and consumption as North America and Western Europe;
• That the world will be a much better place when the continued scientific and technological improvement that freedom makes possible have enabled us to establish colonies on the inner planets and in the asteroid belt, and when the conquest of disease has allowed the human lifespan to be extended to centuries;
• That Messrs Goldmsith & Co should use their time as their ancestors did - in whoring, drinking, gambling, hunting and being beastly to their servants, and leave the rest of us alone.

END OF STATEMENT

Note(s) to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. His new book, Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England, and How to Get It Back, is published on the 25th July 2007 and may be downloaded for free from http://tinyurl.com/34e2o3. His other books are available from Hampden Press at http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.

He can be contacted for further comment on 07956 472 199 or by email at sean@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.