TALKING POINT: Where next for the lockdown?
By the IEA’s Head of Lifestyle Economics, Christopher Snowdon
As we enter the eighth week of virtual house arrest, we must never become accustomed to our loss of freedom. It is difficult to think of any historic precedent, even in wartime, for our current situation.
Never before have churches and pubs been closed for so long. Never before have we needed a ‘reasonable excuse’ to leave the house. If even a fraction of the emergency powers granted to the government remain in place after the crisis has passed, it will be a serious blow to civil liberties.
This week the IEA published my briefing paper explaining what the lockdown laws permit (not much) and what the long-term threats to freedom could be. I also wrote for the Telegraph and appeared on Sky News to demand some clarity from the government on why the lockdown is still in place despite the stated objectives being met.
Perhaps the greatest danger is that people will learn from the wrong lessons. It is an ill wind that blows no good and there has undoubtedly been a decline in carbon emissions and a fall in the crime rate. We must never forget the enormous economic and human cost that was required to produce them. I discussed this in more length with IEA Director General Mark Littlewood on The Definite Article.
Britain’s handling of Covid-19 could certainly have been better. The handful of countries that have reduced the number of new cases to zero have used diagnostic testing and contact tracing on a large scale and have recommended the use of face masks.
After two frantic months, the UK has just about got a handle on testing, but its embryonic contact tracing app has the hallmarks of another government IT fiasco, and there are barely enough face masks for health workers, let alone the general public.
Some have blamed under-funding but, as I showed in a new briefing paper on Thursday, NHS funding is at record highs and Public Health England’s budget for ‘protection from infectious diseases’ rose from £52 million in 2014/15 to £86.9 million in 2018/19. There have been no cuts in this crucial area.
The real problem is that only a fraction of England’s £4 billion public health budget is spent on genuine public health problems. For example, more than twice as much is spent on obesity than on preparing for pandemics. I wrote about this for The Spectator and for the IEA blog.
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Live with Littlewood
On Wednesday, the IEA hosted some of the UK’s finest free marketeers for the first edition of our new webinar, Live with Littlewood. Catch up here on our YouTube channel and tune in this Thursday, 14th May at 6pm for the next live edition.
Panellists included The Spectator’s Economics Correspondent Kate Andrews, Sam Bowman from the International Center for Law and Economics, Tom Harwood of Guido Fawkes, TaxPayers' Alliance Chief Executive John O’Connell and our Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz.
The thought-provoking conversation, led by our Director General Mark Littlewood and watched over 2,400 times, focused on the UK’s economic recovery.
Later in the week, Mark interviewed author and businessman Neil Monnery on Sir John Cowperthwaite: The Man Who Made Hong Kong. As Mark pointed out, there are lessons our leaders could learn from Hong Kong’s “Architect of Prosperity” as we begin to prepare to exit the lockdown. Watch here.
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Under threat
Since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic, we’ve seen countries shutting down, limiting flights and cutting off links with the outside world. Borders have closed and whole regions have been quarantined.
With calls for greater self-sufficiency, national food security and less international travel, globalisation as we know it is under attack. In a fascinating webinar, the IEA’s Senior Academic Fellow Professor Philip Booth outlined the positive aspects of globalisation and the threats to it. You can catch up on our YouTube channel here.
We also released a short trailer with Mark Littlewood, IEA Head of Education Dr Stephen Davies and the Swedish author Johan Norberg – asking whether Covid-19 will bring about a rise in economic nationalism.
The short and medium-term economic damage from coronavirus was the subject of a webinar with Rt Hon Sir Vince Cable, former Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, and Sam Bowman of the ICLE, moderated by our Academic and Research Director Professor Syed Kamall. Watch here.
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Zeroing In
One consequence of lockdown has been the dramatic drop in pollution, which has brought some comfort to environmentalists. But will this have any lasting impact on the climate change debate?
The IEA continues to examine free market approaches to the Net Zero by 2050 target. In this week’s episode of the IEA’s Zeroing In series, Professor Syed Kamall was joined by Bruno Prior, Director of Summerleaze Ltd and member of the IEA Board of Trustees, to discuss whether we could meet our energy needs purely from renewables.
You can watch the episode here on our YouTube channel.
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A question of latitude…
Governments across the world have handled the coronavirus crisis differently, but how have their populations reacted? This week, the IEA hosted a webinar with Sam Lyon, Managing Director of CTF Partners.
Sam shared newly gathered data from the C|T Group’s “Covid-19 Leadership Insights Tracker” which is running weekly in five countries (the US, UK, India, Hong Kong and Australia) tracking behavioural and consumption shifts, attitudes to the coronavirus crisis and public expectations of business.
Catch up on the presentation, followed by analysis from Mark Littlewood, Adam Bartha, Director of the Epicenter Network of European think-tanks, and Christopher Snowdon, IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics here.
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You're invited
Freedom or security? Governments everywhere are making choices between health security and economic and social freedom as they manage the current global pandemic. But will populations accept security at any cost?
On Tuesday 12th May at 6pm (BST), the Professor Syed Kamall will host a webinar with Grover Norquist, Founder and President of Americans for Tax Reform. Please follow the link here to register.
The key to prosperity… On Wednesday 13th May from 6-8pm (BST), the IEA Book Club will be hosting a webinar with Dan Hannan, former MEP and founder and President of the Initiative for Free Trade, and Daniel Lacalle, author of “Freedom or Equality: The Key to Prosperity Through Social Capitalism”.
In his book, Daniel proposes social capitalism as the key to delivering superior growth and prosperity worldwide. If you would like to attend, please register by following the link here.
And don’t forget to tune into our next Live with Littlewood webinar, Thursday 14th May, 6pm.
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