Sean Gabb

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Dr Sean Gabb (b. 1960, Chatham) is an English libertarian and conservative. He is the director of the Libertarian Alliance, a British free market and civil liberties think-tank.^[1]

He joined the Libertarian Alliance in 1979 and became its Director in 2006, shortly before the death of its founder Chris Tame.

He is regarded as a clear and prolific writer and the voice of British libertarianism.^[2]

Contents 1 Political positions 2 Chris Tame 3 Controversy 3.1 Candidlist 3.2 BBC shuts off Gabb's microphone during debate 4 Partial bibliography 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Political positions

Gabb is for the legalization of drugs and is an opponent of multiculturalism and mass immigration as a political policy ^[3]. He sees no harm in gay marriage and gay adoption^[2] but also defends the need to be able to speak in open criticism of homosexuality as part of his stance for freedom of speech from political interference^[4]. He is an isolationist in foreign affairs (he is as much anti-American as Eurosceptic)^[2] and an advocate of the widest social and economic liberty. He has written in support of the monarchy^[5] and House of Lords^[6], in defence of the rights of holocaust deniers^[7] and in enabling a time limitation law on the charge of child abuse.^[8]

Regarding freedom of speech, Gabb has written: "It is no business of the State to tell people what they can and cannot think. Our bodies are our own. Our minds are our own. What we do with them is our business." ^[9] He has also said that the government "should cut benefits, taxes and regulation, and leave people alone. The people will do the rest."^[10] Gabb is against the European Union. He has said of immigration: "I do not necessarily object if people want to come to this country to look for a new life. I do object if they want this at my expense - at my expense as a tax payer, and at the expense of the constitutional rights which are my birthright."^[11]

Gabb has often likened the British government to a police state, saying, "Every so often, someone stands up and tells us what benefits we have had from diversity. Such may be, but we must also consider that part of the price has been a police state. In this country, we have severe restrictions on freedom of speech, on freedom of association and on freedom of contract - all in the name of good race relations."^[11] He compared the government to a police state as far back as 1989, when he wrote, "The Thatcher Government has brought into being the full coercive apparatus of a police state."^[12]

While in favor of free markets, Gabb has taken a position against limited liability corporations, saying in an Oxfam debate that their creation was "one of the greatest legislative mistakes of the 19th century. Their existence is based on a separation of ownership from control. The owners are released from all responsibility."^[13]

[edit] Chris Tame

From about 1990, he became an increasingly close associate of Chris R. Tame, Founder and Director of the Libertarian Alliance. Though he had written much before their friendship, Tame fell largely silent around this time. Instead of concentrating on his own writing, he fell into the habit of using Gabb as his spokesman. In spite of profound philosophical (Tame, objectivist – Gabb, sceptic) and cultural (Tame, Elvis fan – Gabb, Mozart fan) differences, their relationship was both harmonious and productive. Indeed, Gabb admitted before and after Tame’s death that many of his most notable writings between 1990 and 2006 were joint productions in which it was hard to say who had contributed more.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Candidlist

From 1999 to 2001, Gabb kept a website called the "Candidlist," which named UK Members of Parliament who held Europhile views. According to London's Evening Standard, after MP Ian Bruce was named on the site, Bruce emailed Gabb: "I hope you are very rich. Would you please let me both have a note of your postal address and where you would like me to serve court papers on you." After Bruce demanded, "Action this day... I will campaign tirelessly to retain the pound," Gabb wrote back, "I will make this reclassification before I go to bed tonight."^[14]

[edit] BBC shuts off Gabb's microphone during debate

The Libertarian Alliance released a press release stating that Gabb had been invited to take part in a talk taped for the BBC on multi-culturalism, debating with journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Alibhai-Brown objected when Gabb said that the Libertarian Alliance believed the government's Commission for Racial Equality should be shut down, saying that without laws meant to control discrimination, it would occur more frequently. Gabb asked her, "Yasmin, are you saying that the white majority in this country is so seething with hatred and discontent that it is only restrained by law from rising up and tearing all the ethnic minorities to pieces?" to which Alibhai-Brown answered "yes." Gabb asked if Alibhai-Brown seriously thought that Gabb wanted to murder her, at which point the discussion abruptly ended (20 minutes prior to the end of the debate). After this debate, it was alleged that Gabb's microphone was shut off.^[11]

[edit] Partial bibliography

• Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England and how to Get It Back, The Hampden Press, London, 2007.
• The Column of Phocas (historical novel), The Hampden Press, London, 2006.
• Trusting Brands in Society: The Quality and Value of Modern Medicine, Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, 2005.
• Smoking, Class, and the Legitimation of Power, The Hampden Press, London, 2005.
• From Antitrust to Disaster: An Overview of European Union Competition Policy, Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, 2004.
• The Cost of European Environmental Regulations in the Accession Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, 2004.
• Why Greater Freedom of Patient Information in European Healthcare Could Save Lives and Money, Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, 2004.
• War and the National Interest: Arguments for a British Foreign Policy, The Hampden Press, London, 2004.
• (With Dennis O'Keeffe) Markets, the Internet, and Morality, The Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 2003.
• Why Trade Barriers between the European Union and the Developing World Should be Lowered, Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, 2003.
• Dispatches from a Dying Country: Reflections on Modern England, The Hampden Press, London, 2001.
• (With Dennis O'Keeffe and Pat Stoll (eds)) Issues in School Attendance and Truancy, Pitman Press, London, 1995.
• (With Dennis O'Keeffe) The Report of the North London Truancy Unit, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1994.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sean Gabb's official website
• The Libertarian Alliance official website
• Media appearances by Gabb
• Candidlist, site kept by Gabb between 1999 and 2001 that detailed UK MPs' positions on the European Union