Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The Stuarts: Voluntary Compliance with Government Fiat


Those who do not act “voluntarily” in a particular way are made to understand that it will be the worse for them—the old evil system, which we thought we [had] said goodbye to with the Stuarts, of “voluntary” compliance with the wish of government for fear of indirect consequences. Thus the citizen is coerced without either the law being changed, or Parliament even consulted, or the possibility of recourse to the courts of law, or public knowledge of what is happening.

This is essentially an arbitrary and lawless use of power, and neither the small numbers of those directly affected nor the assumed desirability of the object in view, ought to blind or silence us.

            —EP, Speech to Brent Young Conservatives, Wembley, 9 May 1966

Seth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SethBTillman ( @SethBTillman ) 

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