Football, telephones, and the steam engine, just a few inventions brought to the world by us industrious Brits, as well as the most important of course: political freedom.
Freedom is much like football. Brits did not invent the ball, the concept of kicking or the idea of team sports, but we codified the rules of the beautiful game into its most perfect version. The sport played by hundreds of millions, and watched by billions, across the globe. Like football, liberty in its perfect form is an invention of these great isles and, much like football, we seem to have forgotten how to play.
Liberty has always existed. It is the natural state of man and cannot be given, only taken away. The city of Lucca bore the word Libertas on its walls, Ancient Athenian democracy focused on the liberty of its citizens and free men in both societies were protected from enslavement by their citizenship. Yet these ‘free’ citizens were themselves slave masters, distinguished in their freedom only by virtue of not being enslaved themselves. What freedom is this, that lets one be enslaved whilst another cracks the whip?
The social contract of classical civilisations was: you are a citizen, you are free; if you are not a citizen, you are a slave. The political freedom to which I refer is that where the state is also bound by the contract. An equal participant, not an all-powerful enforcer. Much as the citizen has an obligation to their polity, their government bears responsibility for them. This political freedom is distinctly British.
The common law of the Anglo-Saxons upheld the importance of contract and property. Indeed, life under the Witan may seem preferable to many British libertarians than life under Westminster. The pesky Normans, naturally, did away with much of this and brought high taxes and military repression across the English Channel in 1066. But by 1215, the defiant spirit of the Britons would resurface. In response to the over taxation of England’s subjects, a group of nobles rallied, to force him to sign a real contract, the ‘Magna Carta’. This limited the crown’s powers of taxation and arrest.
The Magna Carta served mostly Baronial interests and hardly compares to the rights and liberties of today, but in 1689, John Locke published ‘Two Treatises of Government’. This staunch defence of the natural rights of man, the supremacy of the individual and the critique of autocratic government would inspire the English Bill of Rights, enacted the same year. Those sympathetic to the US Constitution would be interested to see how much of their Bill of Rights was copied almost verbatim from England’s, including the right to bear arms. The Founding Fathers were also fond of Locke.
Locke’s philosophy found its way into the later works of Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. By the age of industry, liberal beliefs in the rights of man and equality before the law were used to abolish slavery, bolster the cause for free trade and build the Radical and Liberal Parties, who went on to shape much of Britain’s political culture today.
Despite a heroic history as the birthplace of freedom, the Britain we know today is noticeably unfree. Whether in the Town and Country Planning Act which acts as a noose around prospects for economic growth; the Communications Act which effectively abolished freedom of speech; the Firearms Act which gave the UK some of the world’s most restrictive gun laws; or a tax burden that brings a tear to the eye of everyone reading their monthly payslip.
Today, we see a Labour and Conservative establishment devoted to technocracy and bureaucracy, the rise of Reform UK combining anti-immigrant rhetoric with social democratic economics and a public who would rather be told what to do than act as free individuals. Taxes on sugar, bans on tobacco, arrests for tweets and terror charges for rappers. This is illiberal Britain, less ‘Rule Britannia’ and more ‘Rules, Britannia’.
Won’t someone do something about this descent into authoritarian meddling?
In May, I departed as National Coordinator for SFL UK as I ceased to be a student, though I certainly have not ceased to be for liberty. I leave behind a team that, when I first joined as the local coordinator for Edinburgh, was small, disparate and facing the Goliath of unchecked government in all areas of life. Today we are larger, louder, better connected and most importantly: we are not going anywhere.
In December 2024, we hosted the Radical Liberal Book Fair in London, organised largely by my predecessor as NC, John Devlin, featuring contributions from the Institute of Economic Affairs, Adam Smith Institute, former MP Steve Baker and a swathe of pro-liberty groups in the UK. On Saturday, 28th of June, we reconvened in London for The Future of Liberty with multiple guests from across the pro-liberty movement. Steve Baker returned to speak to us about cryptocurrency and sound money; Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell graced us with a talk on sovereignty and liberty; the IEA’s Reem Ibrahim discussed the morality and necessity of capitalism; Forest Director Simon Clark railed against the puritanical war on tobacco whilst Dr Christopher Snowdon critiqued the nanny state’s attacks on alcohol and food; Angel Walker-Werth of the OSI presented the case for liberty in fiction; and longstanding lion of liberty Mark Littlewood argued the need for a stronger constitution of liberty in Britain, to combat the ‘Quangocracy’ which is so quickly replacing our democracy. All the speakers emphasised the need to organise, collaborate and innovate in the pursuit of liberty, analysing the past and present to give us hope for the future.
The event drew in a strong crowd of classical liberals, conservatives, objectivists and anarcho-capitalists at a venue in South London, all there to make the case for liberty and build connections with like-minded people. In addition to seven excellent speeches, the drinks reception following the event was buzzing with debates and business cards were being passed around as quickly as pints could be ordered.
Such a return to the fore for SFL UK is commendable and sends a clear message to the enemies of freedom across these British isles. The defenders of freedom are stronger and more united than ever, building networks, launching campaigns and asserting the rights of man in the 21st century.
I am succeeded in my role as National Coordinator by Anne Struffmann. As the third coordinator to join my little revolution in Edinburgh, I’d like to say I taught her everything she knows, but the truth is contrary to my egotistical fantasies. Anne is a relentless, fearless and passionate member of the SFL community whose record of speeches at LibertyCon and participation in events across the continent speaks for itself. I couldn’t think of a better heir, I’m even willing to overlook the fact that she’s German—a nation with which we Brits have had more than a few issues over the last century.
A successful SFL team, however, is more than a capable NC, it’s a well-oiled machine of diverse minds and effective operators who come together to form an unstoppable vanguard of liberty. Our resident intellectuals Craig Duddy and Paritosh Purohit are to launch SFL UK’s online book club this summer, adding a bit more academic rigour to an oftentimes karaoke-oriented team. The tirelessly committed Jack Hare will no doubt continue to pop up at just about every event, making plans and connections and drinking his fair share of wine (and mine). SpeakFreely readers will be more than familiar with the contributions of John Devlin and Oscar Gill-Lewis whose editorial prowess has graced the pages of this magazine for some time now, amplifying voices of liberty across the continent. Team UK are also joined by Zindi Anthony, the former National Coordinator for Gambia who plans to lead our campaigns on free market environmentalism.
With all this in place, SFL UK are primed to take over and leave everyone alone, and I am delighted to have played a role in growing this team. With a new captain (oder Kapitänin) at the helm I am highly optimistic for our prospects in the future.
Outside of the UK I would also like to thank Jan Mošovský for his support and provision of essential resources, Klára Sasinova for her role in coordinator recruitment and Mariam Berdzenishvili for her attempts to keep me on schedule and make me attend mandatory meetings (I’m sorry for missing so many). We may have a CEO, head office, and a marketing team, but it is the students, volunteers, and coordinators who make SFL a vibrant community and force of nature in liberal politics.
So raise a glass of whatever you’re drinking and toast to yourselves, your comrades and those who make the difference. Then toast to team UK and the whole British liberal movement who are waking from their hibernation to say “afuera” to a century of decline. Football may not be coming home in 2026, but freedom certainly is.
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