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The Liberty Club
Before I start this, I need to acknowledge that being President of the Liberty Club, I generally agree with everything it does. That aside I hope this gives a good feel for what the Liberty Club is about. Ideologically, the Liberty Club is best described as “Liberal” for all the Europeans reading this, and “Libertarian” for the Americans. Academics call us Classical Liberals, but that name is, well, lame and conservative-sounding. We believe in a society that is self-determined and spontaneous, not determined by any coercive and authoritative governing body. We believe governments are created by equals in order to protect theirs rights, of which include rights to life, liberty, and property. In practice this ideology lends us to favor free market solutions and limited government, as well as a strong legal system dedicated to upholding citizens rights. In social issues we believe individuals must be able to live their lives out as they choose. We support drug legalization, open immigration policies, and freedom of speech and protest, but not of protest that directly damages property. The Liberty Club promotes its goals with weekly Monday-night events. Events involve a guest speaker, typically an academic, writer, politician, or policy analyst from outside of St Andrews. The more active members have dinner with the speaker from six to eight. Don't be fooled, all members are welcome to this, simply showing up makes you "more active". Assuming we haven’t had too much to drink by then, we file off to a venue (last year was School II, this year we’re considering the Byre). The guest gives a speech from eight to around eight thirty, at which time there is a question-and-answer session until nine. At nine the club members raid a local pub and talk politics, philosophy, and other issue until the guest gets completely sick of us and heads in. Liberty Club events are free (well, not the dinner and drinks, though we try to work out deals for them) and are open to all students, staff, and members of the public. Our events programme is located on our website at www.libertyclub.org.uk. The Liberty Club is one of the more active clubs around the university, bringing in 10-15 guest speakers a year from around Britain and the western world. Students of all political parties and ideologies are welcome to come to the events and discuss the issues at hand. Indeed a minority of our members actually consider themselves true “classical liberals,” many members are conservative or left wing and simply enjoy the discourse. Posted 14:57, 22nd Aug 2003 by cberry in section Sinner's Guide (suggest an article in this category) Readers' Comments
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