Libertarian events and the Devil abroad...

Your humble Devil hectors the students at Oxford...

Apart from the LPUK notices outlined below, there are a few other things of a libertarian nature to plug.

First, members of LPUK (your humble Devil included) will be talking to a combined meeting of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and the Cambridge Libertarian Society on Tuesday 28th October. The format is, I believe, similar to the Oxford meeting, i.e. a swift talk and then a Q and A session.

I believe that I shall be returning to Cambridge in November, as Devil's Kitchen this time, to give a talk at a port and cheese evening. I had better start writing my speeches for the events, rather than standing up and talking impromptu as I did at Oxford (oh, and I might try not to offend the potential audience this time!).

More details to come on both dates, as I get them.

Next up, and I am very late on both of these, are the Libertarian Alliance notices. This year, the Chris R Tame Memorial Prize essay title is Can a Libertarian Society be Described as 'Tesco minus the State'? The limit is 3,000 words (including bibliography) and the prize is £1,000.

I am sure that some of my LPUK colleagues, for whom corporatism is a huge bug-bear, will have a shot at this. This topic is not my forte: however, for what it is worth, my view is that state-imposed regulations often provide massive barriers to entry for small businesses—the EU's REACH Directive would be a classic example of this—and thus prop up big corporate interests by protecting them from smaller, nimbler competitors. A libertarian government would not be so complicit—an intention that LPUK have made clear by refusing to take donations from businesses.

Further, the Libertarian Alliance has its annual Liberty 2008 Conference on October 25th and 26th, at the National Liberal Club. Tickets for the whole conference are £85 and I intend to book mine as soon as I get paid...

And finally, if you are in Birmingham at the Tory Conference (or just in Birmingham), do pop along to the Freedom Zone (no pass required). And if you do pop along on Monday 29th of this month, do consider hanging around to see your humble Devil grace a panel discussion on "Freedom and the Internet".

Your humble Devil is looking forward to catching up with some old blogging acquaintances—Iain, Dizzy—and to having a chinwag with some of those with whom he has only corresponded, such as Master Hannan.

I shall be drinking heavily for some hours afterwards, so do feel free to buy me a pint. Ahem.

If anyone knows of any other events that your humble Devil should publicise, just drop me a line...