Tag Archives: john adams

Iain Roberts

Two for the freedom bill: seatbelts and drugs?

By Iain Roberts | Thu 29th July 2010 - 3:20 pm

Professor John Adams has submitted a Mill-esque proposal for the Government’s Freedom Bill.

Adams, author of “Risk”, explains on his blog:

The Cream Buns Act would remove all existing laws and regulations that proscribe behaviour that risks only the health or safety of mentally competent adult risk takers.

Two nominations for early repeal: the seat belt law and the set of laws criminalizing the sale or use of drugs. They merit priority not only because they pass the Cream Buns Test but, more importantly, because they have criminalized millions and can be shown to have had highly significant adverse consequences. The

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Alex Foster

Daily View 2×2: 4 March 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 4th March 2010 - 7:33 am

Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s Daily View.

There’s a huge chunk of exciting things that happened today in history, so it’s an auspicious day to welcome a baby Cullen. Our technical editor Ryan has been tweeting progress, and as I write this there’s a lot of pushing going on. Best wishes from all at LDV to the Cullen family – I’m sure LDV Towers will soon get used to night feeds. I’m dusting off my copy of Gina Ford as I type.

Male swans from Matthew Bourne's Swan LakeSo, today in history: the US Congress met for the first time in 1789. In 1790, France was divvied into départements. In 1797, John Adams succeeded George Washington, the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times. Chicago was founded in 1837; Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake premiered in Moscow in 1877 and in 1882, East London saw Britain’s first electric trams. The first Daimler car was unveiled and in 1933, the first woman joined the US Cabinet.

March 4th birthdays include Vivaldi, in 1678, Sir Patrick Moore, and Nottingham novellist Alan Sillitoe (I was at the meeting of Nottingham City Council that made him an honorary freeman of the city, incidentally)

2 Big Stories

Evil Gays update

Civil partnerships – gay marriages – could soon be registered in places of worship – something currently expressly banned by statute, which is particularly unfair on those faiths which don’t have a problem with gay relationships, including Quakers and Reform Judaism. The Times has one version of the information; the Telegraph on the other hand manages to paint a far more bleak version of the havoc that could be wrought by litigious homos.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has averred that his party’s tax breaks, maternity and paternity rights planned for married couples will also be available to their civilly partnershipped brethren. Not quite sure how this tallies with last month’s pronouncement that would be no new gay rights under the Tories.

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Recent Comments

  • Mike Peters
    @Simon R You make a good point. Police Officers also have rights and it is not appropriate to think that, for example, a female Police Officer could be require...
  • Simon R
    @Simon Mcgrath: You suggest allowing everyone to choose the sex of the police officer who searches them. So, a hot-blooded 20--something-year-old heterosexua...
  • Nonconformistradical
    "Why is it that those who have more than enough seem to believe that they know how to economise far better than those who have no choice?" Perhaps those who ...
  • Alex Macfie
    @Slamdac: To be fair, the OP does suggest fresh legislation to correct the SC judgement. And hardly anyone is talking about the judges being "enemies of the peo...
  • john hall
    Two countries claiming sovereignty over the same state. Could making the whole of Kashmir an independent state with "cantons" reflecting the leanings of the maj...