Chris's children

I noticed Thursday's announcement about the opening of Libertarian UK and decided to send an e-mail to my fellow Libertarian Alliance directors letting them know about the new organisation. LA President Tim Evans welcomed the new arrival and the LUK folk have responded.

So what, you may think. Well, I'm sufficiently ancient to remember the old days of the LA. Back then, we met about once a month in a series of draughty halls in which the half dozen or so who made up the British libertarian movement gave speeches to each another. A new member was a big event. It went on like that for years, kept going by the never-ending enthusiasm of the late Chris Tame. Communication between us was rudimentary; some comrades didn't even have phones. We couldn't possibly have imagined the Internet.

Now the web is enabling millions of people to be exposed to libertarian thought. Even those who don't understand economics are often resolutely in favour of civil liberties. Of course, free speech can only be maintained in a free economy and it's up to us to keep hammering on about that point. I know that Chris Tame became more pessimistic as the state continued to grow and I recall once asking him why should we bother. Let the world go to hell. Chris's reply was: "A man's got to do what a man's got to do." And now there are thousands of us doing "what a man's got to do." Will we succeed? I don't know and I still get very pessimistic about the future of liberty. But, as was once said in a very different context: "We aren't going to go away, you know."