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

  • We believe in government only between genuinely consenting people, who really have agreed to a “social contract” instead of merely having had one dumped fictionally on top of them by word twisting political theorists.

    Liberty Versus Democracy
    1983

  • Many Conservatives favour rent acts, minimum wage laws, taxes on low pay and so on, because like their political opponents they consider these things to be “compassionate” and “caring”, instead of utterly wicked.

    Doing Something About Unemployment
    1983

  • One of the great disasters of the twentieth century has been that honestly and creatively earned nineteenth century fortunes have been posthumously spent denouncing capitalism and promoting every sort of tyranny and stupidity.

    Against Charity: Charity, Favours, Trade and the Welfare State
    1992

  • If the happiness of the non-rich was the real aim, the non-rich would be allowed to keep their money and spend it as they pleased.

    Against Art Subsidies
    1983

  • Once you have understood that the goal of argument should be, not one directional “conversion”, but mutual comprehension then it becomes much more fun. Arguing is a lot like sex in this respect.

    How to Win the Libertarian Argument
    1990

Archives

Latest Update

Farewell, Brian

Brian sadly passed away on October 15th, 2021.

He will be missed. Many, many people are grateful for his lifetime of dedication to liberty.

He wanted his work to be preserved and shared. I and others are working on making sure that happens, through this site and by keeping all of his posts and photos and podcasts online.

He wanted to hear what people thought of him, and gladly this was possible at the wonderful event held in his honour at the IEA. I have transcribed much of what was said at this event, and that work is ongoing.

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