A Newsletter from Sean Gabb
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Sean Gabb Newsletter, 19th January 2025
(See Below for Republication Rights)
Dear All,

A flurry of new publications from the Libertarian Alliance. More has come out since yesterday. More will come out in the next few weeks. I suggest it would be a good idea to check the LA Blog on a regular basis. The organisation has lately recruited two new featured writers - Bryan Mercadente and Sebastian Wang - both young men filled with energy and bright ideas, and not a little bitterness at the direction England has taken since before they were born.

But here are some of the latest articles:

Why Would I Bother to Believe in God?

Why indeed? You can live your life perfectly amicably and even comfortably if you live in the west without even thinking of a God. You can go through your life relatively free from catastrophe and trouble as you, and many of your friends and relatives do.

Of course, all of us face the odd reverse in our plans and hopes, but we get by, its just part of life isn’t it?

So why bother with the idea of God?

Well, for a start, try thinking about: [https://libertarianism.uk/2025/01/19/why-would-i-bother-to-believe-in-god/]

Silly Time and the Death of Merit in Education

According to today’s Sunday Mail, “Almost a third of pupils are getting extra time in GCSE and A-level exams under rules to help the soaring numbers of children with special educational needs.”

No surprise there for me. The expansion of what everyone but the po-faced education bureaucrats who administer it calls “silly time”—extra exam time awarded for claimed learning difficulties—is both a symptom and a cause of collapse in British education. At my school, everyone knows the game: you pay £250 to a friendly private doctor who will furnish you with a diagnosis of ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or some other conveniently nebulous condition. What you’re really buying isn’t treatment but an extra 25 per cent of exam time. Most of these conditions are either fabricated outright or just the medicalisation of stupidity.

A System Built on Pretence

The justification for silly time is fairness, the claim that students with “learning difficulties” need extra time to demonstrate their abilities. But when nearly a quarter of pupils in some schools are granted this advantage, the claim stretches credulity. Does anyone seriously believe that one in four people my age suffers from a genuine, debilitating condition? Or is it more likely that the system is being gamed by those with the money and knowledge to exploit its weaknesses? [https://libertarianism.uk/2025/01/19/silly-time-and-the-death-of-merit-in-education (https://seangabb.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f3280532a5254e7197e270a3e&id=23c92431ae&e=52821aac48) /]

Thoughts on Russia’s Defeat

I wrote a previous article for the Libertarian Alliance blog giving more balance than you will find in the Western press on Russia’s war in the Ukraine. I stand by everything I wrote there, but after three years of war and with peace talks looming, it is worth taking stock once more.

I think it is important to note that this conflict is not binary. It is possible for all sides to lose. It is possible for Russia to lose strategically, despite a minor Pyrrhic territorial victory having gained the land bridge to the Crimea, while at the same time the Ukraine loses hundreds of thousands of its soldiers and a good chunk of its economy. The US (dubbed “the West” by imperial propagandists) can also lose at the same time. The immediate winners, if there be any, would be China and India. The longer-term “win”, for almost everyone, would be the loss of US hegemony. [https://libertarianism.uk/2025/01/19/thoughts-on-russias-defeat/]

Broadstairs: Where Dreams Go to Die

Ah, Broadstairs! That sparkling jewel of the Kent coast, now revealed by the Daily Express as a tragic tale of plummeting house prices and disillusioned Londoners. Once touted as the pandemic escape of choice, a seaside haven where weary urbanites could swap artisan lattes for fish and chips served with a side of existential despair, it now finds itself abandoned. The fleeing hordes of Down from Londoners (DFLs) are reportedly selling up in droves, driven out by the looming spectre of doubled council tax and the dawning realisation that Broadstairs is, well, Broadstairs.

Of course, The Daily Express has its finger on the pulse, describing the local housing market’s collapse with the breathless urgency of a tabloid Cassandra. But I wonder, is it really such a surprise? Broadstairs’ charm, if it can be called that, is the kind of charm that only a certain demographic appreciates — specifically, those assured of only two weeks left to live. For them, the town might offer some grim appeal: a place to shuffle off this mortal coil while gazing at the sea through the rain-spattered windows of a boarded-up café. And if there were inheritance tax advantages involved, well, all the better. But for anyone with a longer lease on life, Broadstairs seems about as appealing as an extended stay in the Gaza Strip. At least in Gaza, the weather is consistent, and you don’t have to worry about being mugged by a seagull. [https://libertarianism.uk/2025/01/18/broadstairs-where-dreams-go-to-die/]

The Polish Guarantee Again: An Outsourced Declaration of War

I have just read the One Hundred Year Partnership agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Ukraine, published on the 16th January 2025. It will take me another day to recover from the shock of what this represents. Briefly put, it is by far the most reckless, and even insane, foreign policy adventure since the Polish Guarantee in April 1939. It amounts to a declaration of war on one of the great powers of the world – a declaration to be made active by a foreign government that has no regard for British interests or even British convenience. At any time in the next hundred years, if this agreement is allowed to stand, we may find ourselves at war with Russia – a war for which we are unprepared and which we have no legitimate reason to fight. [https://libertarianism.uk/2025/01/18/the-polish-guarantee-again-an-outsourced-declaration-of-war/]

Zero Hour

In the last few days of 2024, I discovered the “climate and nature” bill. Originally touted in 2020 by a Green MP as the “Climate and Ecology Bill,” this bill was surreptitiously re-introduced as a private member’s bill by a Labour MP in 2023. It was supported by current or former MPs of no less than seven establishment political parties.

The bill demands the setting of a “climate target” based on the Paris agreement, which many other countries in the world, including India, China and the USA, are now beginning to distance themselves from. It also demands that the UK “halts and reverses its overall contribution to the degradation and loss of nature in the United Kingdom and overseas.” Yet no evidence is provided of any such “contribution” to any “degradation and loss.” [https://libertarianism.uk/2025/01/13/zero-hour/]
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