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IN THIS EDITION...
- TALKING POINT, WITH MARK LITTLEWOOD
- ENERGY MADNESS
- IEA DIGITAL
- IN THE MEDIA
- FOUND IN TRANSLATION
- IIMR WEBINARS
- STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
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I and all of the team at the IEA were saddened this week to hear of the passing of Lord Lawson of Blaby, perhaps the most successful Chancellor of the Exchequer in the last century.
Over his six years as Chancellor, Lawson helped to transform the UK economy. He reduced marginal tax rates and helped to put in place the privatisation agenda that gave Thatcherism its economic drive. But as important as the tax cuts that brought about the ‘Lawson Boom’, he also supported radical deregulation of the economy and simplification of the tax code. When Lawson became Chancellor there were six separate tax brackets taking up to 60 per cent of income off the individual. In his 1988 Budget he abolished four of these distortionary rates, limiting the amount of tax to a maximum of 40 per cent. This exemplified Lawson's career in politics. He was a figure with strong ideological convictions as well an intellectual weight & curiosity, aiming to limit the size of the state through policy reform.
Lord Lawson had a close relationship with the Institute of Economic Affairs, chairing the IEA’s ‘Brexit Prize’ in 2013, a competition which sought to develop a blueprint for Britain’s market-orientated future in the event of an ‘Out’ vote. Other involvement included contributions to IEA papers, including ‘The State of Taxation’ in 1977 and ‘The Changing Fortunes of Economic Liberalism’ in 2001.
On a more personal level, I found Lord Lawson to be an incredibly modest and understated man, especially given the stellar success of his political career. He came to politics comparatively late, and entered the Commons with a broad range of experiences. He has been a model politician for many in the free market movement (and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who kept his photo, if not his policies, in pride of place in his office when Chancellor himself) and his willingness to stand up for his principles despite opposition should make him an example for us all
He famously described the NHS as a national religion and in his later years sought to bring rationality to the vexed question of climate change and decarbonisation. He was unafraid to challenge orthodoxy and, from a think tank point of view, perhaps his legacy will be how he shifted the Overton window not merely what he achieved.
They don't make them like they used to. Lord Lawson will be greatly missed by all lovers of freedom.
Mark Littlewood
Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs
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ENERGY MADNESS
IEA Energy Analyst Andy Mayer could be seen across the media this week commenting on the UK's various energy policy woes.
In CapX, Andy wrote about the negative impact of windfall taxes on the UK’s energy crisis recovery:
“Amid an ongoing energy crisis and European war, with the new profit tax rates at 75 per cent and the opposition calling for the rate to be even higher, firms are deserting the North Sea. The latest to do so is the largest. Harbour Energy, who employ 1,200 people in Aberdeen, plan to shed one-third of their staff. They signalled the danger in January, and again in early March, in the hope of some relief in the Spring Budget or ‘Powering Up Britain’ energy strategy. Relief was, however, not forthcoming."
Andy appeared on GB News (from 1:51:37) to discuss the impact of the UK's high inflation:
“What started as an energy crisis last year now looks like a food crisis, a crisis for restaurants and retail, and a crisis for manufacturing.”
On TalkTV, Andy discussed the impact of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) decision to cut oil production:
“We are clearly united and right in defending countries like Ukraine from these invasions, but there are consequences to that if we decide simultaneously that we’re going to undermine our own energy security by reducing our own investments in oil and gas that we have sitting under our feet.”
Andy was also quoted in The Daily Express criticising the government’s new plan to shift green taxes from electricity bills to gas bills in order to get people to replace their boilers with heat pumps. After calling the measure a "warmth tax" and describing it as “unnecessary, cruel and dangerous”, Andy said:
“The only beneficiaries of this change will be the households wealthy enough to afford heat pumps – which currently cost from £8,000 to £45,000. This is unaffordable for most and unsuitable for many old, small and shared properties.”
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IN THE MEDIA
Gold-plated pensions... Analysis of the cost of public sector pensions by IEA Chairman Neil Record was featured on the front cover of The Daily Telegraph. Neil argued:
"Despite the public claims of the Coalition government of the time, it did nothing to change the generosity of the whole public pension system. It simply shifted the deck-chairs on the sinking ship by increasing the benefits of the lowest earners, paid for by reducing the benefits of top earners. I say “sinking”, because as there is no fund to pay for these pensions, they have become a burden on future taxpayers."
Broken homes... In his fortnightly column for The Times, IEA Director General Mark Littlewood commented on how ratcheting state intervention has contributed to the housing crisis. He wrote:
“The sad truth is that the housing situation is even worse than advocates of liberalised planning laws tend to admit. It is true that there is an absurd problem of politicians supporting housebuilding in general but then opposing almost any specific housebuilding programme. Compounding this, governments have taken a grim situation and layered on policy to make it even worse."
(Steel) here... IEA Director of Communications and Public Policy Matthew Lesh appeared on a Sky News feature about the future of Britain's steel industry:
“It’s certainly not clear that taxpayer money should go towards massively subsidising our steel industry.”
NHS on life support... IEA Head of Political Economy Kristian Niemietz wrote for The Daily Telegraph debunking the emerging idea that the NHS had a ‘golden era’ before being mismanaged into decline. Kristian wrote:
“Between 2014 and 2016, I wrote a series of reports highlighting areas of poor NHS performance, and every time one of those reports was published, medical Twitter – by which I mean medical professionals (in the broadest sense) who double up as political activists on social media – exploded with fits of rage…Fast-forward to 2023, and we can read articles complaining about the sorry state of the NHS almost every day."
Pick a lane... IEA Communications Officer Harrison Griffiths wrote for Politics.co.uk on how the UK is allowing religious privileges to undermine secular liberal values:
"We must ensure we are not deterred from enforcing general laws for fear of causing offence to religious believers, while also restoring full protection for freedom of religious speech and expression."
Innovation stagnation... Matthew also wrote for CapX on the threat posed by the proposed Digital Markets Unit to competition and innovation in the UK tech sector:
“The DMU is built on an extraordinarily arrogant premise – that a regulator sitting in the CMA’s office in Canary Wharf can not only comprehend complex and fast-moving global digital markets, but also predict how they will evolve under various scenarios and intervene to deliver better outcomes.
Policy myopia... Matthew also wrote for City AM on the negative impact of rent controls:
“Rent controls are deceptively attractive and it is easy to see why. An immediate freeze would initially reduce financial risks to the over 1 million people currently renting in London."
“But do not be fooled. Henry Hazlitt’s classic book, Economics in One Lesson, emphasises the importance of ‘looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects’ of any policy. Rent controls would worsen the underlying issue, the lack of housing supply, while reducing the quality of accommodation and making London even less accessible to newcomers."
Easy does it... IEA Economics Fellow Julian Jessop was quoted in The Daily Express responding to a call from Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Silvana Tenreyro to cut interest rates. Julian said:
“Silvana Tenreyro is right to warn that the full impact of last year’s increases in interest rates have yet to be felt and that a rapid fall in inflation could open the door for cuts."
Bin the Bill... IEA Head of Cultural Affairs Marc Glendening wrote for Conservative Home about negative implications of the proposed Worker Protection Bill:
"The Worker Protection Bill, while not being able to do anything in practice concerning how the clients of enterprises behave towards staff, will nonetheless help create a censorious climate. Because it does not define what “reasonable steps” should be taken to prevent harassment, in practice it could encourage employers to partake in an over-cautious box-ticking exercise, just to try and show that they have done something."
Consider the nation... IEA Director of Strategy Alex Morton wrote in the IEA Blog about how liberals should respond to the growing National Conservative movement:
"On the crucial issue of institutions, and particularly national institutions (including national borders), it feels like liberals are at a crossroads. While some liberals deride nationalism and prefer instead cosmopolitan values, historically this has not always been the case. Liberalism as a political force was born as the twin with nationalism in the 19th century. From Germany to Greece, political liberals thought that a civic nationalism was inextricably linked to liberal values and vice versa. They believed as much in effective national institutions as the free hand of the market and saw the two working together."
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FOUND IN TRANSLATION
The Arab Center for Research, an IEA partner, has translated several of our books in Arabic – most recently Eamonn Butler’s ‘An Introduction to Economic Inequality’. This impressive work brings IEA materials about individual liberty and markets to people across the Arab world.
The latest campaign for Eamonn’s book has reached over 320,000 people in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Qatar through local book clubs and digital libraries.
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IIMR WEBINARS
The Institute of International Monetary Research is holding a series of online webinars on pressing economic issues. Click the images below for more information.
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STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
Join the IEA's internship programme!... We are now welcoming applicants. From editorial work to aiding our operations team, there are a variety of opportunities on offer for sixth form and university students. Want to work for the UK's original free-market think tank? Click here to find out more and submit your application.
Our current cohort of talented interns put together a video providing an insight into what you can expect, which you can watch here.
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