|
ASI Bulletin: Ayn Rand Autumn
Dr. Eamonn Butler, our Director and Co-Founder, takes you through the last few (always hectic) weeks at the Adam Smith Institute.
| |||||||||||||||
 |
Donate here, and help us in fighting our cause
If you like this Adam Smith Institute e-Bulletin, tell your friends. If you don’t, tell me.
Rand Lecture: To be honest, you need to be there.
Reports: A better migration plan. And a better plan to shift the Overton Window.
Party conferences: No escaping the ASI presence.
But first...
Lots of grumbling at the Labour Conference about Suitgate -- Lord Alli’s £39,000 donation of suits, specs and booze to Swiftie Prime Minister, Keir Starmer — not to mention Deputy PM Angela Rayner’s £68,000 personal photographer. I suppose electing Starmer was always going to make us a sausage to fortune.
Here’s an amusing barometer that tells you just how much your own MP has been raking in through gifts and donations. (Nice work, if you can get it.)
Meanwhile, the new remaining Tory MPs will whittle down the four leadership hopefuls to two this week. (This context is not so much a beauty contest as the Hunger Games.) Then the Party membership will vote for the one that the MPs don’t really like so much, leading to a subsequent coup, defenestration of the leader, and a new leadership contest. (You read it here first.)
In other news, the PM wants to ‘reset’ the relationship with the EU. (Apparently, the first step seems to be handing back the Elgin Marbles.) A BBC survey has identified the places with the worst GP shortages in England has just been published. (Turns out it’s every place.) Mohamed Al Fayed turns out to be a predatory scumbag. (So I've learnt something: I didn’t know he was predatory as well.) And restaurant staff are to receive all the tips customers give. (Here’s mine: Highland Spring in the 6:66 at Kempton.)
Though I digress...
EVENTS
Ayn Rand Lecture 2024
 |
On Thursday 10th of October, Charles White-Thomson, Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute and former CEO of Saxo UK, will give our Annual Ayn Rand Lecture on "The Importance of National Honesty” in Drapers’ Hall.
As well as listening to Charlie’s lecture, and asking him some questions yourself, you’ll have the opportunity to network for two hours in one of the most beautiful buildings in London. Make sure to invite your friends and family to one of the highlights of the liberty calendar!
The Next Generation
 |
We're delighted to release our ‘Term Card’ of TNG speakers for the rest of the year. Click below to sign up for invitations to these events. Please note that TNGs are for under-35s.
Our next TNG will take place TODAY at 6pm. We'll talk with Alys Denby, Opinions and Features Editor of CityAM. She'll be making ideas conservative (again!), so come and discuss some erudite musings over drinks. RSVP below!
Enlightenment Evening
 |
On Tuesday, 14th October, we'll be discussing our report Selecting the Best: Building a Future-Focused Immigration System. Come along to find out how to create a sustainable migration system that attracts global talent, ends low-wage dependency and supports productive investment.
The event will be live-streamed on X, and later uploaded to YouTube.
PARTY CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
I missed them all (thank goodness) because I was off speaking in Perth, Sydney and New Delhi (yes, really) but the team has been hugely active in this year’s round.
At the Reform Party Conference, we hosted a panel on The Bully State: How Nanny is taking over Britain.
 |
At the Labour Party Conference, we hosted a panel on Markets not Marx: Why Labour Should Embrace the Market As A Tool for Social Justice.
At the Conservative Party Conference, we had two panels. The first, What does the City of London look like in 2030 discussed how to respond to the host of challenges facing the City and improve its global performance.
 |
The second panel — Extinction-Level Event: Why The Conservatives Will Only Survive If They Win Back Young People considered how we can re-engage young people in politics, and what policies we should offer to tangibly improve their lives.
And that’s not all. Sam Bidwell (Director of The Next Generation Centre) took part in 6 additional panels — 5 of which were about the Next Generation.
Emily Fielder (Director of Communications) took part in 2, on London’s nightlife and on paternalism.
And Maxwell spoke on a panel hosted by the Conservative Environmental Network on whether the free market will help or hinder environmental action.
REPORT
Overton Window
Our Dr Madsen Pirie’s new discussion paper stands back from the constant cut-and-thrust and point-scoring of everyday politics to examine what a Better Britain might look like if some of its problems were addressed by imaginative and long-term solutions. He delves into thorny topics like education, pensions and healthcare. Give it a read below!
Selecting the Best
This paper looks at the economic impacts of mass migration, and finds that high levels of low-skilled immigration are propping up a low-wage, low-productivity and low-growth economy. Authors David Cowan and Tom Jones argue that we should end the UK’s dependence on low-skilled migration for a more selective system, by investing in automation, capping visas and seeking out the best talent from across the world.
Tuition Tensions
Director of Research Maxwell Marlow has released a second report on the impact of charging VAT on private school fees. This time he has looked specifically at what would happen to the economy if parents who pull their children out of their private schools decide to work fewer hours. Unsurprisingly, it would be bad news.
Treasury Consultation
Not content with working on these two papers on the topic alone, Maxwell has also summarised our findings about what would happen if you put VAT on Private Schools in a submission to the Treasury.
Saving London’s Nightlife
Director of Comms Emily Fielder contributed to a City Hall Conservatives report, which sets out 10 recommendations on how to turn around London’s ailing nightlife, including expanding the night-tube and cutting VAT and beer duty.
Out today: Millionaire Tracker
This is our new initiative which calculates the proportion of the population who are millionaires, and how this is forecast to change over time. We found that the UK is set to lose the greatest proportion of millionaires in the world over the course of this parliament- a whole 20%.
But when we keep threatening wealth-creators with new taxes and are so generally hostile to them, we can hardly be surprised that so many are thinking about leaving.
Our Millionaire Tracker report was featured on the front pages of the Telegraph and CityAM, and was also covered in the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Express, in the Politico London Playbook Newsletter, and on LBC and Times Radio.
OTHER NEWS
I spoke to Sydney’s Centre for Independent Studies on the recent political shift following the Labour Party’s election victory - and what that means for the economy.
Our Dr Madsen Pirie appeared on GB News with Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg to talk about his new book The Philosophy of Conservatism. You can buy one of the few remaining first editions of this book here.
And Maxwell Marlow appeared on BBC R4’s More or Less to discuss our research on levying VAT on Private Schools.
Former Cabinet Minister Lord Lilley has joined the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), as a Senior Fellow.
Lord Lilley is eager to engage in School and University visits. His subjects of preference include: Thatcher and Thatcherism; Economics of Climate Change; Does Mass Migration Make Us Better/Worse Off?; Benefits and Costs of Brexit; Negotiating Trade Deals and Energy Policy. He is already scheduled to speak at an economics festival at Cranbourne School in November and Manchester Metropolitan in December.
If you would like to arrange a school visit from Lord Lilley or another member of our staff, please email [email protected]
We’re also delighted to announce that recent Cambridge grad Jasper Ostle has joined us as our new Engagement and Operations Manager. Jasper is a true liberal, and a fan of Popper and Hayek. Catch him for a chat at our suite of upcoming events.
And I quote…
Seeing all these party conferences in operation, I can’t forget Adam Smith’s warning:
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
Bye,
e
OUR SOCIALS
Thanks for reading the ASI’s e-Bulletin! Subscribe for free to receive new content, information about events, and other soundness.
You're currently a free subscriber to ASI Bulletin. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
| ||||||||||
