Owen Ashworth | The Libertarian Institute

‘Two-Tier Keir’ Starmer and the Double Standard of Politics

by Owen Ashworth | Apr 29, 2026 | Featured Articles, Politics

The happenings of the political elite have an incredible habit of morphing into pieces of fiction. From the comedy of Yes Minister to the dark, sordid tales of one George R. R. Martin, this monstrous fiction morphs into one gargantuan sketch that repeatedly defies reality. How you believe a scenario should play out in a private setting is the opposite of how they play out within government institutions. The people are adjusted to a reality that is not real at all. Fakery is widespread, and applying the rules of reality to politics is simply unfeasible. This seems awfully coincidental. The...

The Road to Justice Is Paved with Good Intentions—and Fewer Jurors?

by Owen Ashworth | Apr 7, 2026 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Trial by jury isn’t just a British legal and cultural tradition. It isn’t just a part of our legal system. It’s a safeguard against the tyranny of the state. To be judged by your peers is to be judged by the society of which you make up but one part. The people are meant to check the determination of the state to forebay its determination to prove its own worth, which all too often means people get the book thrown at them when all they truly deserve is a chapter. David Lammy, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, is seeking to abolish jury trials to a certain extent. However, the...

Iran, Keir Starmer, and the War On the British People

by Owen Ashworth | Mar 13, 2026 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The “war that isn’t” with Iran has been raging now for two weeks and its effects have been felt across the pond. Anecdotally, petrol prices in an area close to this writer have risen by six pence per litre in the time since it began. But the biggest effects are international, not local. This rise is yet another gut punch thrusted into the British people at the hands of the permanent state. But it’s not all doom and gloom. This debacle has exposed Reform, led by Nigel Farage, to be the fake anti-establishment party most have suspected for months now. This is a great service in the long run...

Greasy Poles and Slippery Promises

by Owen Ashworth | Oct 13, 2025 | Featured Articles, Politics

Not averse to rearranging the proverbial chairs on the deck of the Titanic, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, has reshuffled the members of his government. This comes after his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, was forced to resign after taking a page out of libertarian philosophy and sapping the state of its fuel by avoiding taxation on a property. Analysis of the new appointments show how much disdain our current ruling politicians hold for any idea of the consent of the governed. Peter Kyle, previously the Digital and Technology secretary, has now been given a...

The Spray Paint to Terrorism Pipeline

by Owen Ashworth | Jul 31, 2025 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

No other conflict in recent years has captured the emotions of so many people as Israel's war on Gaza, with the former's reputation taking blow after blow due to its own blows on thousands of Palestinian civilians’ lives. It is extremely revealing how small, recent events at home have reached the chattering classes tucked up in their halls of power when worse events abroad conjure no action. Activists from Palestine Action, a self-described “movement committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime,” broke into a British military base and damaged two planes...

Digital ID Cards Are Coming to Britain

by Owen Ashworth | Jul 14, 2025 | Featured Articles

The left is continuing its incessantly long march through British institutions by seizing on the changing political vibe in the United Kingdom. For some time now, more and more voters are starting to become persuaded that the state is fundamentally broken, a significant outcome of that is its astonishing inefficiency. Voters witness high speed rail projects shattering budget ceilings by the tens of billions and marvel at the perceived excess inefficiencies of the state. The left, accompanied by allies on the right, has decided to seize the opportunity and push hard for digital ID cards;...

Labour Learns a Trade

by Owen Ashworth | Jun 2, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles

Recently, the United Kingdom signed two “free trade deals” with India and the United States. Adam Smith and David Ricardo would justifiably take issue with the label of free trade because these deals have not established what the term refers to in the classical liberal framework. Instead, these deals have lowered tariffs significantly on certain goods and services but not to zero barriers. The Labour Party is parading these agreements as a huge win, a victory amidst all the negativity. But in doing so, they expose their inconsistency on economic matters. The trade deals cut tariffs on goods...

Britain’s Two Party System Cracks

by Owen Ashworth | May 13, 2025 | Featured Articles, Politics

The Reform Party romped their way to a thorough beat down of the uniparty in the recent British council elections. There were more than 1,600 council seats up for election, multiple mayoralties, and a seat for parliament. Reform dominated the narrative around the polls before the election, with the two main party’s representatives panicking that their grip on the state could be loosening. Reform stole 677 council seats, two of the six mayoralties, and the seat for parliament away from the mainstream parties. The United Kingdom’s two-party system may be showing signs of being more fragile...