Some may have noticed that this blog was recently voted 14th in the top libertarian blogs category at Total Politics. Very proud we are too.
However, it would seem that we must be misunderstanding the term 'libertarian' if Times columnist Minette Marrin is to be believed.
In a Radio 4 debate today, Minette professed herself to be a right raving libertarian. So much so that she considers John Stuart Mill her 'hero'.
Such a committed libertarian is she, that she advocated the following:
- Forcing people to pay for their healthcare if they indulge in unhealthy lifestyles
- Forcing supermarkets to change the layout of their shops
- Using compulsion instead of information as the Change4Life campaign is not working
- Implementing a sugar tax to stop people eating foods they would like to
- Harassing flat-dwellers into not smoking in their own homes
- Banning people from eating food in the street
This in less than an hour, amongst a panel of two other experts, interspersed with phone-in contributors, news updates and trails for future programming.
And to top off a world class performance of exactly why she is anything but a libertarian, she finished with this exceptionally laughable denouement.
"I understand that people don't like compulsion, nor do I"
Really, Minette? You could have fooled us. I think that instead of 'libertarian', the description you were looking for is 'authoritarian' or perhaps even 'totalitarian'.
It's obviously an easy mistake to make. Just ask Alan "We need more nannying" Maryon-Davies, another who professes to be libertarian.
We at Freedom2Choose are well aware of what libertarianism means. We advocate it on a daily basis. It's why we gained that pretty badge on this page after only a few months of operation. We, strangely enough, believe in the right of the individual to choose how they wish to live their life.
That's what libertarianism is, and why you, Minette, have no bloody clue.
