1231
Edmund Burke told fellow MPs that the only way to unite the peoples of the Empire was for London to set them an enviable example.
Edmund Burke reminded the House of Commons that her enviable international influence did not depend on government bureacracy or complex trade deals or military might. It arose from Britain’s ‘unique selling point’, a love of liberty her colonies could find nowhere else.
Picture: © Yoga Balaji, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted December 21 2016
1232
William Pitt the Elder doubts the wisdom of letting experts run the country.
In 1769, the colourful John Wilkes MP was repeatedly barred from taking up his seat in the Commons. William Pitt leapt to Wilkes’s defence in the Lords, not concealing his irritation that Lord Justice Mansfield had, in a speech of wit, learning and meticulous argument, completely misunderstood Pitt’s point.
Picture: © Christine Matthews, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted December 21 2016
1233
Good government is not about enforcing uniform order, but about maximising liberty among a particular people.
Edmund Burke, MP for Bristol, would have had little truck with European ‘harmonisation’. He argued that the job of any government is to judge sensitively, for a particular people, the smallest degree of restraint needed to keep their freedom fresh — in that country, and at that time — and then stop.
Picture: © Jonathan Billinger, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted December 21 2016
1234
Some people are not more equal than others, nor are they entitled to more life and liberty.
English philosopher John Locke is one of the most influential political thinkers in British history, whose ideas profoundly influenced the American Declaration of Independence. Here, he states his belief that freedom belongs to every man equally.
Picture: © John Lord, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted December 21 2016
1235
Free trade brings to smaller nations all the advantages of empire without the disadvantages.
Adam Smith acknowledged that one advantage of empire was that goods and people could be readily moved internally, wherever they were needed. But he noted that you can get all that by each nation voluntarily adopting a policy of free trade.
Picture: © Chris, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted December 21 2016
1236
David Hume encourages politicians to put away their distrust of other countries, and allow free trade to flourish.
Politicians waste years and squander billions thrashing out grudging trade deals in an atmosphere of mutual distrust. But back in the 1740s, Scottish philospher David Hume argued that if we wish to be prosperous ourselves we should welcome prosperity in our neighbours.
Picture: © Ketounette, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted December 20 2016