THE FREEDOM ASSOCIATION

Welcome

The Freedom Association is dedicated to fighting for freedom. Do take a look around our web site.

"When the Government fears the people, there is liberty.  When the people fear the Government, there is tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson

If your freedom is important to you, why not join us and become a member?

We regularly update our blog. To read more about current news stories and comments which we think might interest you please click here.

Freezing winter weather exposes weakness of wind power

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In a written response to a question raised in the House of Lords by the independent Labour Peer, Lord Stoddart of Swindon, the Government has provided statistics which clearly show that the amount of power supplied by wind turbines during the extreme cold weather experienced in Britain in the early part of January 2010 was minimal.  During most of the period 1 - 15th January, the wind power system was providing less than 50% of its capacity and frequently lower than 30%.  On three days of the winter freeze it was providing 10% or less, with the lowest output at 5% on 7th January.  To put this in context, even with the wind system operating in normal weather conditions, it can only produce around 1% of the country's power requirement. MORE

Freedom in Wales

I went to Cardiff on Wednesday to meet up with the two very talented young Freedom Association activists setting up Freedom in Wales.  Inevitably, I was greeted by heavy rain.  The Victorians didn't build all those shopping arcades in Cardiff without good reason and it's good to see a new arcade in the city - the longest in Europe, I'm told.

Rain or no rain, I always like to return to the city of my birth, which I still regard with great affection.  Being Welsh born and bred, Freedom in Wales is very important to me.  MORE

What's wrong with identity cards?

The debate on identity cards has now been raging for so long that, at times, like the pro and anti-hunting lobbies, rage is indeed too often the principal feature of the argument. Why do those of us who oppose identity cards object so strongly to their introduction?

It would be wrong to attribute sinister motives to all advocates of ID cards. Many saw them as a practical response to a gigantic new terror threat. After the terrible events of 11 September 2001, it seemed right that something visible and practical should be done to try to protect the public from future terrorist attacks.  MORE

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Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state

Image by KayVee.INC via Flickr

The Freedom Association is supporting POWER2010 in its campaign to give everyone the chance to have a say in how our democracy works for us.  What is different about POWER2010 is that you're in the driving seat.  At the next General Election it will work to ensure every candidate commits to the reforms you most want to see as part of a nation-wide campaign to reinvigorate our democracy from the bottom up.

Until 22 February, you can vote for one of a number of ideas designed to revive what's left of the UK's deeply damaged democracy.  The two leading ideas battling it out at the moment are a). to introduce proportional representation and b). to scrap identity cards.  As long standing opponents of ID cards, we urge you to vote for that idea, but do feel free to vote as you please.  Just click here to see all the different ideas and to cast your vote.  MORE   

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• Should electoral reformers back Labour's proposed referendum? | Neal Lawson and Sunder Katwala (guardian.co.uk)
• PM to launch election reform plan (news.bbc.co.uk)
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Watchdog: UK university hid climate data - CNBC

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The university at the center of a climate change dispute over stolen e-mails broke freedom of information laws by refusing to handle public requests for climate data, Britain's data-protection watchdog said Thursday.

via www.cnbc.com

There is usually good cause for concern when the political class unites around a consensus view, as it has done in support of Al Gore's increasingly discredited man-made global warming scam.

Once again, there is evidence that climate alarmists have been more than a little "economical with the actualite" in their anxiety to keep the public in the dark over the facts on climate change.

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Another Reason I will not be Voting Conservative

I am a student, I am a libertarian, and I define myself as right wing insofar as the political spectrum actually makes sense. The spectrum exists - it is congested, confusing and mixed up, but it is there – and I have found a spot to stand on and to defend. 

It is then remarkable how disappointing, how saddening and how very depressing it is that when I meet a Tory, he can be so very different to everything that I believe in. 

I have said ‘he’ because the example I am about to use includes a bunch of male thirty-somethings, who all reminded me how unfortunate it appears the British people might be after the next election.  MORE  

America and the Taliban: a Dialogue of the Credulous and the Cunning

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There’s an old quip about the British Foreign Office, that just as the Ministry of Defence is for defence, the Foreign Office is for foreigners. Another in similar vein: They found a mole in the Foreign Office – he was working for Britain. And who can forget if he’s once seen it the episode of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ in which an especially slithery FO official, informed by the PM that he’s being posted to Israel, protests, ‘But you know I’m on the Arab side!’ and the PM retorts, ‘I thought you were on our side.’  MORE

Letter from Euroland

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Now that the Socialist Spanish President, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, (who likes to be called ZP) has his feet comfortably tucked under the EU Presidential Table, we thought that readers might like some additional information about the background of the man they did not elect to be their President, and the political scene in the country that he hails from.  MORE

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No food without fingerprints - in one London school

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Giving a new meaning to the concept of a "finger buffet", St. John's Secondary School, in Epping, is introducing a new "biometric cashless catering system" which involves taking fingerprints of all its pupils.

The pupils will have to scan their fingers on a panel in order to buy school meals, with a computer system telling staff how much money they have to spend.

The school says the new system will speed up the serving of meals, reduce the need for pupils to carry cash and help monitor the diets of children.

Similar uses of the technology at other schools have attracted criticism from parents and lobby groups, amid fears that identities and personal information could be at risk, but the company behind the technology insists that the system is safe and that all data is secure and that fingerprints will only be stored in the form of a numerical code.  However St John's has said that parents can choose for their child to opt-out of the fingerprinting.

The scheme is set to be introduced when children return from their half-term break on Monday February 22.

Simon Richards, Director of The Freedom Association, said that, "respect for privacy should take precedence over claims of administrative convenience.  Adult diners in a London restaurant would not be willing to be subjected to this kind of treatment, so there is no excuse for treating school pupils in this fashion."

Economic freedom on the decline

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Adam Smith, the Scot philosopher and author of "The Wealth of Nations," is not so well-known for having said that "people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." Were he with us today, Smith might well add a corollary: Whenever politicians and bureaucrats gather for any reason, their conversation also invariably results in a "conspiracy" against taxpayers and consumers for more government regulation and taxes. This reality is illustrated in the 2010 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom compiled and published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/A-decline-in-economic-freedom-82640102.html#ixzz0djmSdlxe

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