Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2018

Why Stellar Pay for Stellar Athletes is Justified

The world's highest paid professional athlete earned USD 285 million (GBP 219 million) last year, with 275 million in winnings and 10 million in endorsement deals. He has been sponsored by some of the world's most notable brands, including Swiss watchmaker Hublot, and fast food restaurant Burger King. The crowds are drawn in by his raw power and audacious agility. His name is Floyd Mayweather, and he has 50 wins and no losses on his professional boxing record, and that's why he earns nearly twice as much as the next highest paid athlete, Lionel Messi, and 15 times as much as the highest paid female athlete, Serena Williams. Many allegations have been levied against world-class athletes in regard to their pay, which often soars into the millions. Most of these criticisms are similar to the following statement: "It is a disgrace that [insert athlete's name] makes so much more than the valiant nurses that serve our NHS." In this article, I hope to outline

Freedom of Speech and the UK's failure to uphold it

It's time to repeal our hate speech laws. This does not mean that it is time to reverse 250 years of change on the civil rights front, plunging the United Kingdom into the period which I refer to the Second Darkest Hour of British History (the Atlantic Slave Trade); the Darkest Hour being early World War II. Rather, it means guaranteeing fundamental political freedoms to all Brits, so that we may expand political discussions of all sorts. The freedom of speech is essential if we want to decrease the amount of power that Westminster and its bureaucrats have. In any society that values individual liberty and personal freedom, it is essential we recognise and respect natural rights (those that are inherent to the human condition). John Locke, a noted 17th-century political philosopher, writes in The Two Treatises of Government ( 1689) that there are certain rights which that are not (and should not be) subject to the scrutiny of governments. These include life, liberty and property.