22. Simon Richards: The State of Freedom & The Nation

Peter Whittle's guest this week is Simon Richards, Chief Executive of The Freedom Association - TFA (which he has belonged to since 1976) and co-founder of the Better Off Out campaign. In 2007 he introduced TFA's Free Spirits events, to put the freedom message to young people, and in 2008 set up university Freedom Societies. In 2014 he came up with The Freedom Festival, which proved so successful that it has now become an annual event. In his discussion with Peter, Simon stresses that the nation state holds more importance to the TFA than is perhaps the case with other notable libertarian organisations. Speaking about the state of Freedom today, he argues that whilst we have plenty of choice in so many areas of modern life, in reality, on the big Orwellian issues of real freedom to speak and to think, freedom is in fact being closed down by the left. To strengthen Britain's freedoms we must remember the proud defence of Freedom Britain has historically championed. Looking through the prism of WWII, Churchill's funeral and the Falklands War, Richards discusses the state of Britain in recent decades and how a nation's most celebrated characteristics can be easily lost and forgotten if not preserved for future generations.