Christian Michel is the suave sophisticated and quintessentially French organiser of a monthly philosophy and culture meetup in his London home. He is also a long standing intellectual “leader” of the libertarian movement due to his involvement in the running of Liberalia and ISIL. His papers such as those on justice and value for the Libertarian Alliance, and conference appearances around the world, are a testimony to a career of thoughtful political science.

Michel’s background is the Byzantine world of international banking and was one of two controllers of Riggs Valmet a Swiss banking group that got into serious financial difficulties in the early nineties. Christian achieves an air of mystery when you find his libertarianism getting side-swiped in a book on money laundering (in a section that the State Science Institute would be proud of) and find bizarre conspiracy theories about Riggs Valmet gold in the cellar of the World Trade Centre on 9/11. Of his past Christian says only that he made a lot of money and lost a lot of money. He now lives comfortably in central London and focuses on his activism.

The grandfatherly anarcho-capitalist is well regarded, but not afraid to court controversy. His last appearance at the Rose and Crown featured an unusually balanced review of the Euro and a suggestion that it’s remit to control price stability is (or at least it was at the time) a better option for Britain than what we have now. The talk’s reception was mixed to say the least.

Christian Michel will be examining the crucial concept of Consent this Thursday at the Rose and Crown.