Events

IEA Book Club with Paul Johnson

Date: Wednesday, 7 June

Time: 5.30pm — 7.30pm

Location: 2 Lord North Street, SW1P 3LB

RSVP: There are limited spaces avaliable for non-members, please click here to apply by email.

The IEA Book Club will host Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson on his latest book, 'Follow the Money: How Much Does Britain Cost'. IEA Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh will chair this event.

About the book

Follow the Money is a forensic examination – by the man best placed to do so – of the way the state raises and spends £1 trillion of our money every year. To follow the money, Paul provides an explanation of where that money comes from and where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change.

Paul shows how bad politics has resulted in poor and damaging policy decisions; why taxes are rising to unprecedented levels, and yet the welfare state is struggling under the strain of all that is being asked to do, and how we have neglected the young for too long. Johnson also challenges us to recognise that there are no easy solutions in making tough choices and the trade-offs that are the inevitable, if rarely acknowledged.

About the author

Paul has been Director of the IFS since January 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London. Paul has worked and published extensively on the economics of public policy, with a particular focus on income distribution public finances, pensions, tax, social security, education, and climate change. He was awarded a CBE for services to the social sciences and economics in 2018. As well as a previous period of work at the IFS his career has included spells at HM Treasury, the Department for Education, and the FSA. Between 2004 and 2007 he was deputy head of the Government Economic Service. Paul is currently also a member of the committee on climate change and the Banking Standards Board. He was an editor of the Mirrlees Review of the UK tax system.

IEA Book Club with Ross Clark

Date: Tuesday, 13 June

Time: 17:30 – 19:30

Location: 2 Lord North Street, SW1P 3LB

RSVP: There are limited spaces avaliable for non-members, please click here to apply by email

The IEA Book Club will host journalist Ross Clark on his latest book, 'Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won’t Even Save the Planet)'. IEA Energy Analyst Andy Mayer will chair the event.

About the book

The British government has embarked on an ambitious and legally-binding climate change target: reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero by 2050. The Net Zero policy was subject to almost no parliamentary or public scrutiny, and is universally approved by our political class. But what will its consequences be?

Ross Clark argues that it is a terrible mistake, an impractical hostage to fortune which will have massive downsides. Achieving the target is predicated on the rapid development of technologies that are either non-existent, highly speculative or untested. Clark shows that efforts to achieve the target will inevitably result in a huge hit to living standards, which will clobber the poorest hardest, and gift a massive geopolitical advantage to hostile superpowers such as China and Russia. The unrealistic and rigid timetable it imposes could also result in our committing to technologies which turn out to be ineffective, all while distracting ourselves from the far more important objective of adaptation.

This hard-hitting polemic provides a timely critique of a potentially devastating political consensus which could hobble Britain’s economy, cost billions and not even be effective.

About the author

Ross Clark is a journalist who writes extensively for the Spectator, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and for many other publications. For many years he wrote the Thunderer column on the Times. Ross is also the bestselling author of How to Label a Goat: The silly rules and regulations that are strangling Britain, The Road to Southend Pier: One man’s struggle against the surveillance society, A Broom Cupboard of One’s Own: The housing crisis and how to solve it, and The Great Before, a satire on the anti-globalisation movement.

The IEA has become renowned for the fascinating events we put on. From high-profile academics and journalists to leading politicians, we are always sure to host excellent discussions with the leading thinkers of our times.

There are limited spaces available for both book club events, if you would like to attend please apply by emailing or find out more about joining the IEA Book Club.