A MOST SPLENDID IDEA from Brian Micklethwait:

It needs to be said that under certain circumstances easily now imaginable, many Western citizens would argue, strongly and vocally, that those idiot foreigners who are now lending money to Western governments should in due course be told: sorry sunshine, you ain’t ever going to get it back. Our governments are bankrupt. Why the hell should we and our descendants in perpetuity be paying tribute to you? You knew that the money to pay you back would have to be stolen from us. You assumed we’d just cough up indefinitely. Well, we damn well won’t. You are now a definite part of our problem, and telling you to take a hike is going to be part of our solution. Our thieving class is now “borrowing” money from your thieving class like there is no tomorrow, and we are not responsible for the actions of either gang. A plague on both your houses.

We want you foreign thieves to stop lending to our thieves, now. And the best way for us to convince you that you should indeed stop lending, is to tell you that you are extremely liable never to see most of your money back.

Which has the added virtue of probably, approximately, being true, already.

 “But Pete” I hear you say, “we consented to the government borrowing on our behalf”, to which I say, who is ‘we’?

The burdened masses of bankrupt western states consented to no such thing. If Gordon Brown wants to pay back his debt, he can start when he likes and solicit voluntary contributions, but it’s not my debt and I will not labour for a minute to discharge it.

“But Pete”, I hear you say, “if our states default on these debts, their credit ratings will crash, foreigners won’t buy their bonds and no longer will they be able to incur debt this way.”

Possibly so, and that would be a problem?

ONE MAN has had enough of the bloated federal government and its many piñatas of plunder. Representative Brandon Creighton has filed a 10th Amendment Bill in the Texas House claiming state sovereignty over non-enumerated Constitutional powers:

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the

United States reads as follows: “The powers not delegated to the

United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the

States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people …../

RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal

government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective

immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these

constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that

directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal

penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation

or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed;

Such sweet words. Read it all here. It won’t take you long; like all good law it’s to the point. Two and a bit pages and lots of white about.

I notice too that the contagion of freedom spreads. Georgia, Minnesota and Tennessee, Iowa, Kansas and Michigan all seeing the same Bills introduced. God bless every one of these liberty-loving patriots. And the good news keeps coming … in all, 25 states are on the path to putting the federal monster back under the heel of the states that made it.

The law is the law. This movement by almost half the states to reclaim the sovereignty granted to them by the 10th amendment deserves to succeed and is a prerequisite if Americans are again to live as truly free people.

AN ANTIDOTE is available for all that economic gibberish flying around right now.

(what does he mean, ‘right now’?)

Congressman Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell (Ludwig von Mises Institute) and Peter Schiff will all appear on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s internet TV program today (Wednesday) starting at 2:00 pm ET/7.00pm GMT.

You can live stream it here.

On this day 75 years ago Prohibition ended in the United States.

It makes me quite ill to even think about how dreadful life must have been in those terrible, dry years. Let us not forget the suffering, I say. Tonight I will drink to make up for those who could not.

I’D LIKE TO WISH AMERICANS everywhere a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. As you sit around your dinner tables with family and friends I hope the sun shines and all is good. May you eat and drink until you spew.

Before then, however, we are reminded that Thanksgiving almost never was, along with the great American nation. When the Pilgrim fathers landed in Massachusetts they weren’t just escaping religious persecution in England, they travelled to found their own New Jerusalem, one based on the communistic principles of Plato’s'Republic’. There would be no private property; instead, all would work and share in common.

Plymouth governor William Bradford recorded the results. Resentment soon spread among the colonists against the lazy, those knowing that rewards would be theirs in equal measure with those who worked hard. Even the diligent then lost the will to work and crops became sparse. Starvation followed and in just two years most died.

Faced with extinction, the remaining colonists made a decision that was lifesaving and revolutionary - the introduction of private property rights with families keeping the rewards of their own labours. Governor Bradford recorded:

should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves …. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, for present use …. This had a very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted then otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use.

With the link established between work and rewards then, crops flourished and the settlers were saved. So much food was produced that surpluses could be traded and American enterprise was born.

Bradford again:

By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God. And the effect of their planting was well seen, for all had, one way or other, pretty well to bring the year about, and some of the abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.

The Pilgrim Fathers attempted to implement the age-old desire to regulate human lives according to a plan. What the survivors discovered instead is that the fallacy of collectivism had brought them death and ruin. In breaking the shackles that bound individual freedom they harvested food, founded liberty in the New World and laid a founding principle of a great nation.

This is the lesson of Thanksgiving.

JULIA PIRIE, RIP. The Telegraph carries her obit:

Julia Pirie, who has died aged 90, spent two decades as an MI5 agent at the heart of the Communist Party of Great Britain, most of it as personal assistant to the party’s general secretary.

State surveillance isn’t something we should always object to.

She was recruited to infiltrate the party at the beginning of the 1950s, at a time when many Britons still remembered the Soviet Union as a valued wartime ally and Communists retained considerable influence within the trades union movement.

Yeah, and not just in the early 1950s.

She was told to resign from her party post in the 1970s, by which time, she said, the Communist Party had become a rather pathetic and increasingly irrelevant organisation. She went on to collect intelligence on the Provisional IRA during several missions in Europe.

As I said, a life well lived. Do read it all. And just for good measure:

Until her death on September 2 Julia Pirie continued to receive her pension from the Communist Party, paid monthly into her account from a bank in Italy.

 - yet all we can do is look on as our governments turn away from that lesson.

MILTON FRIEDMAN was one of the true giants of the 20th Century. The theme of his life was a belief in liberty and the power of the individual. Countless millions became more free and prosperous simply because of the power of his words. Ahead of the anointing of a Marxist President, on a weekend when our governments have been meeting to impoverish us yet more, let’s remind ourselves of a legacy we are rapidly losing.

Wonder what you make of the news that Google plans to photograph millions of British homes and then publish them online?

The internet giant’s StreetView website will allow anyone in the world to type in a UK address or postcode and instantly see a 360-degree picture of the street. It will include close-ups of buildings, cars and people. Critics say the site is a ‘burglar’s charter’ that makes it easy for criminals to check out potential victims. The pictures also show people leaving and entering hospitals, health clinics, adult shops and hotels. Although their faces are deliberately blurred, many could still be recognised by their clothing and hair colour. The site was launched in major American cities last year. Google refuses to say when the British version will go online  -  but cars emblazoned with the company’s logo and carrying massive 360-degree cameras have been spotted circling the streets of British cities in recent weeks.

I think that this IS an invasion of privacy. I also think every prospective burglar and terrorist will be bookmarking it since it provides them with very helpful information. I like Google earth but I think we need to hold back from this intrusion which leads literally to our front door. Why has Google this right to invade our privacy? I would deny them it.

By way of Pub Philosopher I learn that at last…..there is to be a serious candidate standing against David Davis! 

Yesterday Jill Saward formally announced that she will stand in the byelection.

For those of you not familiar with Jill Saward, she was the dignified and brave victim of the horrific Ealing Vicarage Rape in 1986. 

Steve at PP recollects that horrific story and has included a link to the story outlining the gratuitous cruelty of the robbers who broke into the Ealing vicarage and the ridiculously lenient sentences handed out by the judge. In point of fact the judge made so light of Jills experience he was hammered by the press and public feeling and it threw a light on the general ‘old boys’ network legal approach to rape trials.

Regards her on this issue and to summarise c/o PP:

Jill Saward believes that the sacrifice of some civil liberties is necessary if crime is to be fought effectively. She supports the use of CCTV cameras to detect and deter criminals and advocates the extension of the national DNA database which, she argues, has been crucial to securing rape convictions.

So do I.  I agree with her statement that David Davis essentially wishes to drive a sledgehammer right through the tools the police the need to catch horrendous criminals in violent and other crime.

And so too does David Aaronvich. Before Mr Davis even emerged on the scene to speak on this issue  Aaronovich is on the money in this piece, outlining a slew of examples where the use of DNA evidence in tracing and convicting tricky to catch criminals is proven. He is coincidentally one journalist I do actually respect for speaking out over the last few years alongisde Nick Cohen on the Liberal Left sell out on Islamism.  

Happily Rupert Murdoch lost his nerve and pulled MacKenzie’s funding. That horrendous foghorn leghorn looked to be a serious blight with his self righteous bluster on this important modern issue.

And The Greens have put up a candidate too. The only mainstream party to do so and I might point out to some hardcore civlibbers and so called ‘libertarians’ (when it suits) the only party to actually be standing for ‘full liberties’!

I have mentioned in previous pretty involved back & forths on the subject that David Davis own cynical record on the detention issues until this year (amongst other liberty issues) makes his Magna Carta argument ring well and truly hollow. And it would appear the Greens have his number. So I assume those who have been so vocal here on individual liberties will now be backing the Greens??

 I also believe that in terms of standing up on principle Jill is by far and away the more sincere. I wish her the best of luck. I have never put forward money for a political cause in all my life but i will gladly send Jill money on this issue.  

Most important of all I am thrilled that the debate will now finally be brought into sharp focus rather than grandiose statements about the Magna Carta in 2008.

A mature, sensible, balanced and fair debate, presenting ALL the facts surrounding the use of technologies (in so far as CCTV DNA database are concerned) and on the balance we NEED to strike between civil liberties and protection from crime.  

Shadow Minister of the Interior, David Davis, has resigned as an MP to force a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency. He will fight it not only on the issue of the 42-day terror detention limit (which he describes as ‘a monstrosity of a law’), but on the fact of the State’s war on the liberties of Britons. Davis’ resignation statement, delievered in front of Parliament, was succinct and to the point. I couldn’t deny myself a smirk at one point: 

"Up until yesterday, I took the view that what we did in the House of Commons representing our constituents was a noble endeavour because with centuries or forebears we defended the freedoms of the British people. Well we did up until yesterday. This Sunday is the anniversary of Magna Carta – the document that guarantees that most fundamental of British freedoms – Habeus Corpus. The right not to be imprisoned by the state without charge or reason. Yesterday this house decided to allow the state to lock up potentially innocent British citizens for up to six weeks without charge."

Bless. Imagine referring to a crusty old thing such as Magna Carta. Who would ever do that?! Well, it’s always nice to say ‘I told you so’. On countless occasions I’ve been chided and teased for citing such ‘archaic’ statements as Magna Carta as if they don’t matter anymore, when it’s always been clear that we either enforce our dusty old Constitution or British liberty is finished. It is our only refuge, there is no other way. Now, such is the battered condition of British liberty in 2008 that a breach has appeared in the ranks and a senior MP has made a principled stand.

I doubt that Davis’ resignation will lead to any kind of retreat of the State from our lives. Our liberties have been eroded for a century, a process that accelerated from 1979 and which has brought us to a virtual police state. Government’s ferocious expansion has so eroded the culture of liberty in our Kingdom that it may be beyond revival. But who knows? Whatever comes of it, Davis deserves respect and admiration of all Britons and a thumping great majority on his return to Parliament.