Young Politician | Issue 05

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014

For ACT, making a difference is what we’re interested in. Not disrupting debate, like Young Labour’s twit who wrote in this column last. There are people who work for nothing, providing fine services to the vulnerable and voiceless, and he thinks making a difference is following John Key about, Read more...

The Preachings of a Liberal | Opinion

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013

Since this is my last year at university, and my last column for Critic, it seems fitting to use this space to impart some of the wisdom that I have obtained over the years. This wisdom is the end product of my various achievements – and numerous disappointments – first as a Christian, and a Read more...

OUSA Election Forums | Opinion

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013

I wasn’t surprised that the questions raised at the Presidential Forum centred around three main themes: participation, finances and OUSA’s role in campus life. Jordan seemed to be the odd one out. Someone (I suspect a friend of his) asked him whether OUSA should, like the modern-day state, Read more...

Yellow and Blue Make Green | Opinion

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013

The environment is a stick with which libertarians are stuck gleefully, and often. If our libertarian ideals are to be taken seriously, they need to be seen to deal satisfactorily with the problem of pollution – a problem that is deeply intertwined with the pressures of consumerism. Read more...

Legalise It | Opinion

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013

History’s progression has seen a steadily narrowing scope of self-determination. When once self-determination was thought of as the right of states, it has become in practice a right of individuals. Some of the fruits of this narrowing scope have been the abolition of slavery (and its pursuit as an Read more...

If I Had a Magic Wand ... | Opinion

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013

If John Key could implement any policy he wanted tomorrow … it would be to change the flag. (I’d vote for Kyle Lockwood’s design.) But in all seriousness, if we could magically make anything relevant to our nation’s governance happen, what would it be? My first act would be to legalise Read more...

The Syrian Question | Opinion

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013

The “Syrian Question” presents a moral dilemma for the Western world, which as I write sits poised to intervene in a Middle Eastern civil war. Do we jump in to save innocent lives? Or do we prevent World War III by staying home? According to the mainstream media, the majority of Western countries Read more...

The Final Exam of Our Lives | Opinion

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013

There is no autopilot for freedom and democracy. Perhaps it is this fact that should be taken for granted, instead of the goods we derive from them. It’s hard to imagine the end of the present way of life that they make possible – too distant a possibility to be credible. But it’s like a Read more...

Anarchy or the State? | Opinion

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013

Who will build the roads? It’s a question frequently posed to libertarians. Well, private citizens (you and I) pay taxes to the government, and they pay a company of private citizens to do the work. The government (at least in this country) simply decides where the roads need to be; it is private Read more...

Rand: Human After All | Opinion

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013

Ayn Rand was a crotchety old bitch. But that’s why I love her. Born in 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, Ayn Rand lived through the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 and escaped to the US in 1925. Her books, and her philosophy, brought her both fame and notoriety: to this day, countless adults and Read more...