The Society for Individual Freedom (SIF) is a United Kingdom-based association of libertarians, classical liberals, free-market conservatives and others promoting individual freedom. It has links to the British intelligence community.

Early years

The website of the Society states that "The Society of Individualists was founded in 1942, with many of its leaders and supporters, including its first president

Sir Ernest Benn Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, 2nd Baronet, (25 June 1875 – 17 January 1954) was a British publisher, writer and political publicist. His father, John Benn, was a politician, who had been made a baronet in 1914. He was an uncle of the Labour ...

, 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 Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. The Society for Individual Freedom took on its present name in 1947".

1960s onwards

George Kennedy Young George Kennedy Young, CB, MBE, M.A. (8 April 1911 – 9 May 1990) was a deputy director of MI6, and later involved in British Conservative Party politics. He was also a merchant banker. Early life George Kennedy Young was born in Dumfries, a ...

became president sometime after his departure from MI6 in 1961. Other notable officers include its chairman, Professor Peter Walter Campbell, founder of the Dept of Politics at Reading and founding chairman of the Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality (CGHE –

LBGT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

). Gerald Howarth, later a Conservative MP, served as the organisations General Secretary from 1969 to 1971. In 1967 the Young Libertarians, the youth organisation of SIF, broke off to create the

Libertarian Alliance The Libertarian Alliance (LA) refers to two libertarian think tanks in the UK. Originally one organisation, it split in 1982. One Libertarian Alliance was renamed "Mises UK" in 2017; the remaining Libertarian Alliance holds regular meetings i ...

. There was an overlap of members and officers between the LA and the SIF. The SIF is independent of all political parties and relies entirely on voluntary subscriptions and donations. The SIF advocates personal

freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

and less state control generally (e.g. it is opposed to censorship and identity cards), and a genuinely

free enterprise In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...

economy including low taxation and no state subsidies to industry. Its membership tends to be strongly

Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...

. The SIF campaigned for the institution of the UK's Parliamentary

Ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

beginning in 1959, and in 1961, published the first English language book on such institutions, ''Occasion for Ombudsman: Is a Grievance Man Necessary for Britain?'', by journalist T. E. Utley. The campaign for the Ombudsman system – for an unelected

adjudicator An adjudicator is someone who presides, judges, and arbitrates during a formal dispute or competition. They have numerous purposes, including preliminary legal judgments, to determine applicant eligibility, or to assess contenders' performance ...

to help prevent bureaucratic maladministration – eventually succeeded. In 1967 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration was instituted. In 1975 its chairman became

John Monson, 11th Baron Monson John Monson, 11th Baron Monson (3 May 1932 – 12 February 2011), was a British hereditary peer and crossbench member of the House of Lords. He was one of the ninety hereditary peers elected to remain in the House after the passing of the House o ...

, a position he kept for the next 35 years. Monson's most controversial campaign was against compulsory use of seat belts which eventually failed but led to accusations of irresponsibility. In 1994 the SIF published ''The Power to Destroy'', a study of the British tax system, by Professor D. R. Myddelton.

Links to British intelligence

In his 1981 book, former counter-terrorism operative Gordon Winter of the South African

Bureau of State Security The Bureau for State Security ( af, Buro vir Staatsveiligheid; also known as the Bureau of State Security (BOSS)) was the main South African state intelligence agency from 1969 to 1980. A high-budget and secretive institution, it reported directly ...

recalls a briefing with his London-based handler, Alf Bouwer, describing the Society as a British intelligence "front" for "disseminating Establishment-type propaganda", namely opposition to the free immigration of black people to Britain. He was informed that there were two intelligence officers operating within the organisation, former president

and broadcaster

Ross McWhirter Alan Ross McWhirter (12 August 1925 – 27 November 1975) was, with his twin brother, Norris, the cofounder of the 1955 ''Guinness Book of Records'' (known since 2000 as ''Guinness World Records'') and a contributor to the television programm ...

, the latter being murdered by the IRA in 1975.

Current 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.Choice in Personal Safety
/ref> The SIF also publishes a journal, '' The Individual''. They are a member of Backlash, which was formed in 2005 in order to oppose a new law criminalising possession of "

extreme pornography Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 is a law in the United Kingdom criminalising possession of what it refers to as "extreme pornographic images". The law came into force on 26 January 2009. The legislation was brought in ...

References

External links