The UK Liberty League - a new network of young libertarians - was launched at last weekend's Freedom Forum

Christiana Hambro, Development Manager for The Freedom Association, reports on last weekend's Freedom Forum in Birmingham.

Last weekend saw the official launch of the UK Liberty League, and with it a cohesive and coordinated young libertarian movement.

It was an overwhelming success. One hundred young freedom lovers and twenty speakers converged on Birmingham for three days of lectures, panels and workshops. The aim of the conference was to provide young, interested minds with new ideas, as well as to develop their skills, so as to be better able to spread their enthusiasm for liberty.

The idea behind the Freedom Forum came about nine months ago when Dr Stephen Davies at the IEA and I separately recognised that much more could be done to promote freedom amongst young people. Throughout the economic crisis, for obvious reasons, the arguments for less government spending and lower taxes have not gone down all that well. Luckily for the left, promises of endless spending and cash handouts sound great to most people on the street! That is, of course, until the country is nearly crushed under a mounting pile of debt.

This time last year, I was still a student at the University of York. As a libertarian, I was an easy target for the majority on campus. The support of free speech and the suggestion that a ‘no platform’ policy was not an effective way to combat ‘undesirable views’ meant I was pigeon-holed in with extremists. What happened to students standing up for free speech and civil liberties? Before attending university I had been under the impression that campuses across the country were filled with hundreds of impassioned students rallying for freedom.  Sadly, on arrival in York I realised that political apathy was deep set and this was not the case.

This is why I am so enthusiastic and optimistic about the launch of the UK Liberty League. It is an exciting new group, headed up by Anton Howes, James Lawson and Will Hamilton, which provides a network through which different freedom and libertarian societies at universities across the UK can communicate and coordinate their message. 

This work was started by Simon Richards, Director of The Freedom Association, with his vision for ‘Freedom Socs’. There are now five such societies, the first of which launched at York three years ago. In addition to this, there are a large number of libertarian societies, which spontaneously popped up around the country. The Liberty League enables these individual groups to be part of a cohesive network and acts as a gateway for young freedom lovers in the UK.

Last weekend, students attending the Freedom Forum represented more than thirty different universities. Twenty speakers, spanning both the left and right libertarian movements, encouraged attendees to question the status quo and offered libertarian solutions to today’s issues. However, so much more than this was achieved and the atmosphere was unlike any other, due to the enthusiasm of the attendees.

During the breaks, spontaneous circles of chairs emerged as attendees discussed everything and anything. The contagious level of friendliness between the guests naturally flowed into the night. Topics discussed covered both economic and social freedom and ranged from Claire Fox discussing ‘nudge’ to Tim Evans questioning the state’s monopoly on currency.

It was a fantastic weekend and I felt privileged to be a part of it. The optimism throughout the conference was catching and there was definitely a buzz achieved by meeting so many like-minded individuals. Most importantly, I hope that the attendees made lifelong friends over the course of the weekend. By our very nature, libertarians do not lend themselves well towards assembly. Despite this, it is important to assist each other in campaigning for freedom.

We are immensely grateful to all those who attended the weekend as it was their contributions that made the conference such a success. I have a feeling that last weekend was the start of something new and exciting for freedom lovers in the UK.