I know that I make fun of Georges Monbiot, lampoon his inability to understand even the most basic ideas in economics, but credit where credit is due, while he does go on a bit about the McDonald’s libel case, uses the animal rights protestors as an example, on the basic point he is right. It is very difficult to think of the UK as being a free country any more.
Monbiot, Civil Libertarian.
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Glad you flagged this – I was wondering when I read the piece whether right-libertarians would be able to set aside the source to accept the argument within…
I’m amazed this hasn’t got more play compared to the (philosophically appalling but pragmatically unimportant) religious hatred legislation.
Tim adds: I will admit to all sorts of sins, physical and philosophical, but libertarianism, if it means anything at all, means opposing this sort of nonsense. Free people in a free land, that’s all I ask for. The rest is detail. -
The reason why they did not have access to libel is because legal aid does not cover it, they were not “denied” anything, they were forced to fight using private funds and they lost and got fined (but McDonalds did not persue court costs), the Strasbourg ruling was that those accused of libel with no funding are somehow denied free speech.
The law will be changed on legal aid, not on libel, so George’s entire assumption contained in the first paragraph is incorrect.
His legal skills don’t do his economic ones justice.
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