Welcome to the Brian Micklethwait Archive. We are slowly adding writings to this site. For progress on this see the news section.

  • A free-for-all in shoes would mean luxury for a tiny few and shoddy goods or nothing for the rest. After all there’d be no profit in selling shoes to the less wealthy, would there?

    The Collapse of the Welfare State
    1985

  • If high earners do more, lower earners get pulled up the income ladder, to do jobs that the high earners are now too busy to do. The increased spending and investing of high earners creates more chances for the people below, and hence more spending by them as well.

    The Top Rate of Income Tax Should be Cut to Zero
    1996

  • The decision, regularly confirmed by parliament, that cannabis should remain illegal is impeccably democratic. Libertarians hold that this law is wrong. Democratic, but wrong.

    Liberty Versus Democracy
    1983

  • People like Marxist school teachers, by the way, often respond with unexpected warmth to the notion of abolishing compulsory school attendance, if only because this would turn them from jailers into real teachers.

    How to Win the Libertarian Argument
    1990

  • The great cultural triumph of the computing industry is that, unlike conventional schooling, it is now drawing attention away, by purely voluntary means, from television.

    The Failure of Politics and the Pull of Freedom: Reflections on the Work of the Reading Reform Foundation
    2002

Archives

Latest Update

Brian interviewed by Mal McDermott

On 25th January 2020 Mal McDermott interviewed Brian Micklethwait on the subject of the history of the libertarian movement in Britain.

The interview of course contains much insight into libertarianism in London. From Brian finding a copy of The Machinery of Freedom in a bookshop in Staines, to the Alternative Bookshop and the Libertarian Alliance, to Samizdata and Libertarian Home.

Being a conversation with Brian, there is much digression. Discussed are the USSR, the NHS, the importance of being understood, the influence of getting people to give talks, the left wing pivoting from the working class to the environment, the creation of wealth, optimism and the freedom of children. There is much Micklethwaitian wisdom to enjoy.

The interview can be listened to on YouTube.

On the left, once you’re persuaded, you’re also persuaded of a political model for how to do it … we must elect a socialist government or topple the government and replace it with a socialist regime, and then we will make everyone socialist. … By its nature it’s a highly cooperative enterprise … A perfectly reasonable reaction to becoming a libertarian is to do what I’ve done for the last fifteen years … which is to write lots of blog postings about kittens. Because I like it. … One of my reactions to believing in freedom is that I’m free to go off and do that.

– 1:42:26

Highlight

In this video, Steve Baker MP recounts how Brian introduced him to books about freedom.

Elsewhere

Here is a collection of other places on the internet where you may find writings by Brian.

Video