Society for Individual Freedom

The Society for Individual Freedom (SIF) is a United Kingdom-based association of libertarians, classical liberals, free-market conservatives and others promoting individual freedom.

The Society of Individualists was founded in 1942, with many of its leaders and supporters, including its first president Sir Ernest Benn, drawn from those associated with the remnant individualist wing of the Liberal Party. In 1944 the Society of Individualists merged with the National League for Freedom, which itself had been formed from those associated with the explicitly anti-socialist wing of the Conservative Party. The Society for Individual Freedom took on its present name in 1947.

In 1967 the Young Libertarians, the youth organisation of SIF, broke off to create the Libertarian Alliance. There continues to be an overlap of members and officers between the LA - headed by Dr Tim Evans and Dr Sean Gabb - and the SIF.

The SIF is independent of all political parties and relies entirely on voluntary subscriptions and donations.

The SIF advocates personal freedom and less state control generally (e.g. it is opposed to censorship and identity cards), and a genuinely free enterprise economy including low taxation and no state subsidies to industry. Its membership tends to be strongly Eurosceptic.

The SIF is perhaps most notable for its campaign for the institution of the UK's Parliamentary Ombudsman, beginning in 1959, and publication, in 1961, of the first English language book on such institutions, "Occasion for Ombudsman: Is a Grievance Man Necessary for Britain?", by noted journalist T. E. Utley. The campaign for the Ombudsman system - for an unelected adjudicator to help prevent bureaucratic maladministration - eventually succeeded. In 1967 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration was instituted.

In 1994 the SIF published "The Power to Destroy", a study of the British tax system, by Professor D. R. Myddelton.

IF activities

The Society for Individual Freedom regularly offers public meetings with notable speakers, and holds occasional luncheons at the Houses of Parliament.

The SIF has two related campaigns. Tell-IT calls for information technology to be used to provide information on outcomes of drugs and treatments and to make it known and available to doctors and patients alike. Choice in Personal Safety (CIPS) campaigns against compulsion in seatbelt laws and other related matters.

The SIF also publishes a journal, "The Individual".

References

*cite book |title=Ernest Benn: Counsel for Liberty |first=Deryck|last=Abel |authorlink=Deryck Abel |publisher=Ernest Benn Ltd |year=1960 |isbn=nk
*cite book |title=Occasion for Ombudsman |first=T.E.|last=Utley |authorlink=Peter Utley |publisher=Johnson |year=1961 |isbn=nk

External links

* [http://www.individualist.org.uk/ Society for Individual Freedom] official site
* [http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/ Ombudsman.org.uk] - Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (UK)