Sounding Board

In this edition we have our second special guest, our good friend Mr Dan Cure, Libertarian Drinks and Third Wednesday legend. We talk to Dan about his political journey, the state of the conservative party and Third Wednesdays, the monthly Libertarian Drinks meet up for freedom lovers in the Midlands before moving on to a... The post Dan Cure on Libertarian Drinks, Useless Politicians and Politica...

After more than a week of Black Lives Matter protests, and statues being torn down, we discuss whether destruction of public property is as bad as private property, and how the Autonomous Zone in Seattle has already formed at least one government since ditching the last one.  The Minneapolis Police force is being officially dismantled,... The post The Great Derangement appeared first on sounding b...

As the 3rd amendment to the Coronavirus Restrictions regulations are dumped unceremoniously on the statute books with no scrutiny whatsoever, we look at just how absurd they are, and whether they are an easing of the lockdown or not. With regulations now moving from public to private spaces, and definitions emerging of just what “a... The post House Arrest Ends, More Liberties Infringed appeared f...

As the Prime Minister announces the changes to guidance and regulations effective from 1June 2020, we look at the stupidity of the first set of regulations, and how adding a 6 person limit could make it worse for people, not better. Gardens become legal places to congregate, but don’t think about going indoors for a... The post Boris Decriminalises Gardens appeared first on sounding board .

It’s been a while coming, but this week sees the return of an old favourite: The Left Right game. After a brief chat about Dominic Cummings and the latest, supposed lockdown breaking by an official, Nic launches into the latest Left Right game, this time with a Covid19 twist. If you’re new to the podcast,... The post The Left Right Game: Covid19 Edition appeared first on sounding board .

In this outdoor, socially intimate edition, Andrew asks whether the Left have lost their traditional hard working ethos in favour of the politics of envy, Nic finally finds something he thinks Boris is doing right – Brexit, and can we come up with a better term for lockdown scepticism? From our local country park, and... The post The Left’s Lost Love, Brexit and the Covid Flat Curvers appeared fir...

In another Sounding Board Short, we talk about Andrew’s meme on teaching unions that went started some hilarious twitter encounters, and the latest nonsense from local authorities advising schools not to open. Why don’t those on the left actually get memes? Did this one in particular hit a nerve with teachers? When will schools actually... The post Why don’t the left get memes? appeared first on s...

In our first Sounding Board Short, we travel to a nearby park and chat about Nic’s article on hectordrummond.com about the difficult decisions ahead in deciding when it’s time to send the children back to school. We learn about the over zealous teaching unions and the local authority taking crazy steps to essentially stop schools... The post Are Teaching Unions Keeping Schools Closed? appeared fir...

In this edition, we talk about the new, revised regulations that have just come into force during the current covid-19 lockdown. We talk about the effects of the lockdown so far, and indeed the social distancing guidance that occurred beforehand. What are the chances of you succumbing to sars-cov-19 right now? Are you more at... The post Revised Regulations, Shameful Schools and Manipulating Model...

As Neil Ferguson is revealed to have broken the lockdown that his infamous computer model insisted we must institute, we talk about poetic justice, elitism and whether Professor Ferguson should ever have been trusted based on his catastrophic track record. We also take a look at the computer code behind the Imperial College model and... The post Ferguson’s Fall, Imperfect Polling and Messy Modelli...

Even though we’re still in lockdown, we’ve started talking about some of our favourite subjects again.  This time it’s our observations of the political left and right. Are their criticisms of each other similar?  Or are there differences in the way they try and take each other down. And what about the centrists again –... The post Left Vs Right And Ideological Centrism appeared first on sounding...

In this episode, Andrew asks whether today’s socialists, who try very hard to distance themselves from the socialists of the past, are really any different? What are today’s socialists promising that yesterday’s didn’t promise in the past? And are their methods any different? If not, why should we expect any different outcomes? Nic then asks... The post Are Today’s Socialists Any Different? appear...

As the CDC accidentally infect those they are testing for SARS-CoV-2, the UK Government amends its initial regulations governing the lockdown, but as well as closing some loopholes, opens some new ones. We discuss whether this kind of law making can ever work, and whether centralised health provision by the state produces anything other than... The post CDC Infectious Tests, Rushed UK Law and Stag...

In another Lockdown edition, we talk about Boris’s message to the public on leaving the hospital, and how he’s positioning himself as not just the ultimate centrist, but the ultimate NHS Tory. Just how much of GDP will be taken up by the NHS in the future? Will the government’s handling of the pandemic mean... The post Our NHS – Operation Human Shield appeared first on sounding board .

In the second of our locked down podcasts, we discuss (as expected) the latest news around COVID-19. We start by differentiating between SARS-COV-2 (The latest coronavirus from China) and COVID-19 (the respiratoty disease caused by the virus) before moving on to the economy and the effects it has had, and will have on our lives... The post COVID-19: The Economy, The New Laws and The Libertarian Op...

In the first of our lockdown editions, we focus on regulation. Are we seeing a change in attitudes towards regulation? As swathes of regulations and licences are suspended or temporarily rescinded due to Covid-19, are people finally realising that regulation can be a bad thing? Even though draconian restrictions on movement and business have been... The post Regulation: Changing attitudes and Unin...

Our last recording before the lockdown, we explore Commander Sunak’s budget-busting spending pledges in reaction to the Coronavirus, and whether no one is a Libertarian in a pandemic, or conversely everyone is. With the lockdown rules about to be announced, we explain how the government’s response is an entirely right wing one, and why the... The post Covid-19 State Expansion, Everyone’s a Right W...

In this edition, Nic asks whether human beings inherently want to collectivise. We ask the further questions: If this is indeed the case, is it built in? Or is it the result of indoctrination? We mull over what collectivism really means, and if it’s compatible with a libertarian society. We then talk about collectivisation in... The post Are Humans Instinctively Collectivist? appeared first on sou...

Libertarianism isn’t an endpoint for how society should operate. It’s a beginning. How a libertarian society should operate isn’t known. Indeed, because of its inherent freedom, many competing ways would probably exist. Because of this, libertarianism has some tough questions to tackle. Whilst we don’t claim to have all the answers, we never shy away... The post Difficult Questions for Libertarian...

What would it be? Not abolish the state entirely, but make one change to it and the way it works. Would it be simple and maybe cliché and just privatise the NHS, or would you want to abolish state education? How about the way we pay tax? Or how we deal with private property? These... The post Changing One Thing About the State & The Dominance of the Left appeared first on sounding board .

This week we start by discussing the current crop of Labour Leadership contenders. We take apart their views on transgender sex offenders and whether having Labour members influence military policy might not be such a great idea. We then move on to political influence in general. What is and is not ok? How insulated should... The post Labour Leadership Lunacy, Unelected Political Influences and Pr...

On this our 50th edition, Andrew puts to Nic a thought experiment where a general election is rigged in order to get freedom lovers in power. Would that be a good thing?  What are the moral implications?  Should outcomes matter more than methods? This leads us onto whether the political right are a threat any... The post Rigged Elections and Whether the Right is a Threat appeared first on sounding...

Do you hate being labelled?  Nic certainly does, and in this edition he explains why he rejects being put into categories, and his squeamishness over membership of tribes. Whether its atheist, liberal or even libertarian – we discuss whether there is any label that fits our outlook on the world, and lament that all the... The post Labels, Tribalism and Rejecting Definitions appeared first on sound...

There are some fairly fundamental characteristics of being left wing and right wing. But do people actually know the differences, or would they mis-categorise a lot of the traits of both? ​ We discuss whether Andrew’s succinct definitions of the left and the right hold water and then go on to attempt to describe the... The post The Differences Between The Left and The Right appeared first on sound...

Even though the Conservative Party won a comfortable majority in the December 2019 UK General Election, it’s still worth talking about what life would have been like under Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist Labour Party. What would happen when the economic policies of nationalisation, massive spending and capital controls started yielding truly negative results? Would the Labour... The post Socialism: What...