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ProLiberty

Listed below are comments made by ProLiberty between Thursday, 18th December 2008 and Tuesday, 7th April 2009.

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Could we save billions by legalising drugs? 5:45pm on 07 Apr 2009 What's so wrong with recreational drugs anyway? Even the "it harms people" argument is spurious. I pay my taxes, I should have a right to harm myself in whatever way I wish. It's my body after all.

If the drugs were legal, the consumer would be able to demand ethical production. If they were taxed, treatment and policing would pay for themselves.

Besides, most illegal drugs aren't really that harmful. I took some legal ones last year, and the list of side effects was concluded with "coma, death." If that doesn't constitute potentially harmful, I'd love to know what does.
Awkward questions ahead 5:24pm on 26 Mar 2009 Who's kidding themselves that this "investigation" will be? It will be a whitewash. Or it will go something like this:

"We didn't do it, it wasn't us, honest. The Americans made us do it, and anyway he was a terrorist and so why do you care anyway? Anyway we're really reeeeeally sorry (that you found out about it), and although we don't accept any responsibility (ever) we'll try not to let it happen again (until next time).

It was that Bob down the road, evil so-and-so he is (I heard he thought about you being stabbed the other day, and SMILED!), soooo... we'll arrest him and send him to Morocco if you like :-D You don't? OK, we never did that anyway. He wants you dead, look, he'll say so himself if you hang him upside down over a vat of molten lava, what more proof do you need?

Errrrr... so in conclusion, it wasn't us."
Condoms or family meals? 4:50pm on 26 Mar 2009 I think, from my own experience, that teen pregnancies are caused, at least in part by teens having nothing else to do (there aren't really any after school activites that don't cost an arm and a leg to speak of), peer pressure, and benefits.

Of these, I would say peer pressure to have sex is probably limited to the youngest teen parents, those under 15. As I remember, since it wasn't that long ago, kids were generally egged on to have sex by their friends, and then mocked afterwards. At this stage of life, I think it is most important to ensure teens have access to contraceptives (it's going to happen anyway) and advice about pregnancy and STDs. You won't catch many of them seeing the nurse at school about it (or the biology teacher), so the best strategy is to keep it out of school, through GPs offices, and a website with a freephone number. This way, advice is confidential, and their mates are less likely to get wind of it. As pointed out in #3, I think it is very important to include the dangers of sex with all of the literature and advice available, but carefully because we don't want to mess these kids up for life.

Once a teen leaves school, that's when the benefits become more important, because sex is old news by this point for most kids. Parenting's seen, not so much as a lifestyle choice, more as the only option available to young women, many of whom have already lost the aspiration for a better life. This lack of aspiration isn't something that can be changed (not without creating jobs people actually want to do - like creating/fixing things, as opposed to selling them), because that would be lying. These teens might not be academically smart, but they're not idiots. They know perfectly well that the best most of them can hope for, career-wise, is a lower management position in a national retail chain or a callcentre. It's a dreary, drudging kind of life which can be completely avoided by having a kid or ten.

A nasty, nasty thing we could do, that I really don't support (but boy would it fix things) is to DNA test every child born to a woman under 16 and any possible fathers, and then stitch the lad up for maintainance ever after. Wouldn't that strike the fear of god into them? They wouldn't want to go without a condom if they knew they'd be penalised for it for the next 18 years. I can't see any objection actually, so long as the DNA record was immediately destroyed once patriarchy had been proven.

You may say these girls should be studying, rather than wandering the streets til all hours (and then getting knocked up), but if you don't see the point of school, why be too worried about being bright-eyed for it in the morning, or indeed turning up at all? As a teenager, at that time of the morning, you feel rubbish no matter how much sleep you've had. As a growing young adult, you need cheap/free places that aren't 100% supervised (if it makes you feel like a child you're not going to go), that take consideration of estate boundaries and school rivalries. Most teens just want a space where they feel comfortable, not constantly watched, where they can watch their own choice of TV and have a chat, and feel safe. Just a big room with booths and small televisions, couple of pool tables, essentially a teen's pub.

This isn't really the government's problem. All that needs to be done, if government meddling is required, is to remove benefits for mothers under 16. That'll be enough to get their parents in line. And if we're worried about serial parents, just limit benefits to two children.
Will QE work? 11:21am on 11 Mar 2009 The fact that the money is being lent (rather than given away or used to pay wages etc) is only going to low back up in all of our faces. Sooner or later the money has to be paid back, with interest, which exacerbates the problem.

In the opinion the problem is that too many people have too much debt and have hit their credit limits. The thing is, noone will take on any more debt because they'll only have to pay that back later too.

Surely then, if QE is to be used, it should be just used as payrises for public sector workers, and also as interest rate subsidies for savers (as one previous poster suggested). This would mean that more REAL money is available for others to pay off their debts. Eventually it will trickle down to poor old us in the private sector.
Men who face domestic abuse 5:34pm on 18 Feb 2009 It's never clear cut. Negotiation should be taught at a young age, children shouldn't be exposed to inequality between genders, if they are, someone needs to explain to the little dears why it's a terrible thing. Violence must be UNlearned, as it's the natural reaction to adversity.

Violence is never the answer, if you can't get a word in, walk out, and if you feel helpless in any relationship, leave. Don't wave a knife about thinking something's going to change. It's most certainly not.

Oh, and I'm a woman by the way.

I agree with the poster who said that men are the new women, but most of them do seem quite happy with the total lack of responsibility.

I think feminism should have stopped with equality. I'm sick to death of having to work for a living :-P
European workers for European jobs? 4:56pm on 03 Feb 2009 #61, 78 and 79... I agree entirely.

There absolutely must be a European minimum wage, so that lower skilled workers are safer from being replaced.

I sympathise with the Italian workers in this dispute, if they have no choice but go abroad to work then their own economy must be dire indeed.

On the other hand, surely a local population should have first refusal on any job in their area. It's better for the industry itself to encourage development of skills and work ethics in it's local area. On the other hand, self-sufficiency does seem to be a dirty word at the moment.

Personally, I would prefer an exchange scheme of sorts. What we do is import the hard-working Italian families to work, and then, in exchange, they can have a dolie family. Since there's clearly no jobs over there, it's win win. Dolies have an excuse not to work, and the Italian has a chance to work. Win-Win I tell ya!

Not really. There are clearly too many people for the number of jobs available. There are 2 solutions: More jobs, or less people. We can't go around killing people, and there would be riots if we tried to stop them breeding, so there will have to be more jobs. Oh.... wait... recession. Right, war it is then :-(

I do think the British workers are right (and demonising them all as lazy and stupid, is, well, lazy and stupid) There are plenty of lazy, stupid, incompetent, corrupt etc etc etc people in other european countries.

We should not be knocking the Italian workers for wanting to improve their position, not should we attack the British for defending theirs. We need to look at Europe as Workers and demand conditions in all European countries AT LEAST equal the conditions and pay here. Until then, workers will continue to steal each others wages, and the stuffed shirts and the aristos will continue to laugh at us.

Until we start seeing workers in other countries as our own, we will continue to be divided and conquered.
Could a vaccine solve the drug problem? 9:15pm on 19 Jan 2009 #18

Being human means having the free will to control our instincts. Giving in to our instincts sometimes makes us more human, and more free, not less.

If we lose that freedom of self-determination, we lose all of our freedom.
Could a vaccine solve the drug problem? 5:19pm on 19 Jan 2009 Just wanted to say, I agree with gothnet. Couldn't say it better myself.
Sterling challenge for UK shops 5:32pm on 06 Jan 2009 #88

When you put it like that, it's more terrifying than I thought.

I'm in that position myself. Honestly, my plan is to pay down what little debt I can (the non SLC debt) and then save enough to escape this wretched country.

I blame the government, because they were the ones who pushed university on kids who really wanted to improve their lots, but skimmed on the details. Lots of spin and no substance as per usual.

What we really need now is for the tech companies to step in where the government has quite clearly failed, and offer cross training in return for a clear employment term (eg. a part-time physics degree in return for 5 years on the R&D department in a tech company).

Also, there needs to be a complete change in the careers advice kids are given. (At 18, 6 years ago i was told that a degree in any subject would improve chances of getting a better job. i got a good degree in a traditional subject from a russell group university and i've seen absolutely no benefit. How many 18 year olds are sufficiently aware of the finiancial climate, the jobs market and politics to make an informed decision?)
Fixing the Jag 4:21pm on 18 Dec 2008 How about they take the money that Tata wants, and put it up as a long term loan for the company that is prepared to take over the Jag-LR plants and workers and will produce a low emission, low consumption car instead of a gas-guzzler. The terms would have to be part ownership by the British government, to be paid off in due course, and that the new company must be 100% British.

Two birds with one stone, jobs saved and Tata thoroughly ticked off.

I'm not usually one for protectionism, but the current government's seeming lust for bleeding our money abroad is really starting to get on my nerves.

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