Taking liberties with The Free Society

By the time you read this the new Free Society blog will be up and running. The first thing you will notice is that there are very few articles on the site and there are a number of sections that are entirely blank. This is deliberate.

I'm told that best practise is to begin modestly and build the site gradually. If you're too ambitious at the start you end up with a site that is difficult to maintain and quickly goes stale. Each day, therefore, there will something new - a news item, opinion piece or feature article - but we're not going to overwhelm you with stuff. In due course there will be plenty of material on the site and - we hope - lots of lively debate, but this is a long-term project and we want to avoid running out of steam.

If you have arrived here via The Free Society blog, a very warm welcome. Taking Liberties was launched in March 2007 and taking my cue from master blogger Iain Dale (a supporter of The Free Society) I have tried to post every day. (I haven't always succeeded.)

Early on I attracted criticism from some visitors who - encouraged by my role with Forest - got quite cross when I dared to comment on issues other than smoking. When I had the audacity to write about iMacs, iPhones and coffee machines, one or two almost self-combusted.

Frankly, single issue politics can get quite boring and repetitive and, anyway, there's more to life than politics, single issue or otherwise. At Forest we've always had an eye on the bigger picture - hence The Free Society campaign which, as Brian Monteith notes on the blog, is long overdue. Individual freedom comes in many shapes and forms and we want Taking Liberties and The Free Society blog to reflect that.

There's an important role for you too. In order to create a lively, interactive forum, we need your help. Don't be a passive observer. If you have something to say, don't hesitate to post a comment here or on The Free Society blog. And invite your friends and colleagues to join the debate too.

I don't expect or want everyone to agree with us. I have no interest in preaching exclusively to the converted so if you disagree with anything that appears here or on The Free Society site, write and say so. In the words of the irrepressible Mrs Merton, "Let's have a heated debate!"

NB. Please forward this URL - www.thefreesociety.org - to family, friends and colleagues, today.

Comments

[Jane Grey]

Pity it won't open at the moment. Hope it is soon fixed.