Libertarian Alliance News Release 59: 10 December 2007

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE
In Association with the Libertarian International

Release Date: Monday 10th December 2007
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Dr 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/nr059.htm

"POLICE: VOTE TO STRIKE: GO ON STRIKE: STAY ON STRIKE", SAYS FREE MARKET AND CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties think tank and pressure group, today calls on the Police Federation to urge their members to vote for the right to strike - then to call them out on strike and to stay on strike.

Dr Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance, comments:

"The idea that the main function of the police is to protect life and property requires a firm resolve not to read the newspapers. There was a time within living memory when the worst the police did was to resell porn and drugs, and license burglars, and hang round public lavatories arresting any man desperate enough to fancy them. In addition to this, to be fair, they did provide the occasional protective service.

"But this is history. The police nowadays are little more than an increasingly trigger-happy pro-government militia. They spend much of their time listening to radio discussions in search of people to harass for saying something politically incorrect. If they do leave the fortified compounds we used to call police stations, it is to arrest householders for protecting their lives and property, or to breathalyse every tenth driver on the local A roads. The police are politically and financially corrupt. They are personally dangerous to be near. The only thing still to be said in their favour is a tendency to laziness and incompetence. Thanks to that, we do not get all the oppression we pay for.

"England has become a country where if you see a police officer knocking on your door, you panic.

"We welcome the calls for the police to be allowed to go on strike. We urge all police officers to vote for this right, then to exercise it. We further call on the authorities not to negotiate with the strikers.

"A police strike would be the biggest blow for liberty since the abolition of identity cards in 1952. Free from the hot breath of PC Plod on our necks, we could all speak freely again, and take whatever steps were needed to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the other trash infesting this country."

The Libertarian Alliance believes:

In the abolition of state policing:
In the repeal of all the Firearms Acts from 1920 to 1997, plus any other laws limiting the right to keep and use firearms;
In the repeal of all laws banning the carrying and use of other defensive weapons;
That the money thereby saved should be used to cut taxes.

END OF COPY

Note(s) to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. His latest book, Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England, and How to Get It Back, may be downloaded for free from http://tinyurl.com/34e2o3. It may also be bought. 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 Landsdowne 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.