Enjoy your bank holiday weekend with a little dash of freedom

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** IN THIS BULLETIN:
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* Winning the peace: Our principles and policies for post-viral recovery.
* Intellectual food parcel: Industry, invention and intrigue…
* Online: Webinars; prices, privatisation, protectionism and more


**
BUT FIRST...
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Of course I’m not confused. You can now go fishing (on your own) or play tennis (but not doubles) or golf (but no fourballs). But not in Scotland. And if you want to play that course with three holes in England and the rest in Wales, you’ll have to play the English ones six times. And you should wear a face mask. Except outside. Though it might not do any good. Simples! Oh, and we can all go back to work, except you should stay off the public transport that gets you there. But it’s a moot point anyway: the Government’s Cummings-designed earlier slogans (Lock yourself away! We’re all going to die! Soon!) have left us all too frit.

But it’s all led by the science: except that the government doesn’t publish what the science is, nor how the scientists came to their conclusions, nor who’s on the committee that evaluates it all. Sort of “The Gentleman in the white coat knows best.” So that’s reassuring, isn’t it? Sometimes I wonder whether science is all it’s cracked up to be. Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, declared in 1895 that heavier than air flying machines were impossible. After a bad day for business in 1899, the US Patent Office declared that everything that could be invented had been invented. And while Thomas Watson, Chair of IBM did not actually say in 1943 that there was a world market for maybe five computers, that’s what everyone thought. And don’t get me started on weather forecasters and hurricanes.

Meanwhile, Boris is praising the state healthcare monopoly, thinking of nationalising care homes too, planning to spend more on the railways, talking about tax rises, expecting the economy to be on its last legs for a while and paying people not to work for even longer. Sounds like we’re being softened up for the socialist paradise to come.

And tourism interests are saying we need another Bank Holiday. Well, some of us have just had six weeks of enforced holiday, so that’s going to go down like a lead balloon. And what are they expecting to happen when on the same Monday everyone drives down to the beach? Orderly social distancing? We’re adults, I think we should be left to decide our own holidays, not have politicians set them for us.

With the big push to keep people off the buses, there’s going to be loadsamoney (specifically, yours) spent on cycling schemes, brought to you by your ever efficient local council. No doubt HM Government will appoint some Cycling Tsar to mastermind it and get us all into our lycra. It’s bound to be some rake-thin geardo who hates motorists and pedestrians, of course. You have been warned.

I’d better stop there before I get angry...


** REPORTS
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Winning the Peace: It’s easy to freeze the economy. But like cryogenics, unfreezing something and bringing it back to life is not so easy. Our six-part blueprint ([link removed]) explains how to unwind the lockdown and crank economic life up again. That won’t be easy: thousands of jobs and businesses are already lost, and the Government has committed us to paying enormous costs. The focus must be on generating prosperity. Ending the emergency controls. Thinking flexibly, not bureaucratically. Using common sense, not micromanaging things. Supporting people, not politically favoured businesses. And accepting that the post-virus world will be different, and some old businesses simply won’t be viable any more. And if you want specifics:

* Low, simple taxes that encourage innovation and investment

* World free trade and liberal migration

* Planning reform to help build accommodation and cut living costs

* A simpler welfare system with guarantees that work always pays

The report was featured in numerous media outlets, including The Sun ([link removed]) , on TalkRadio, CityAM ([link removed]) , CapX ([link removed]) and Wired ([link removed]) .

Take a look at some of the stuff on e-scooter legalisation, cafes and pubs serving on the streets and to parks — you might have noticed our ideas are already being taken on by government. That's no coincidence. We're working to put ideas from our and your heads into decision makers' hands as soon as we get them to help deal with this crisis.
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Our Matthew Lesh gives his view to The Sun on how Boris Johnson should restart Britain's economy after the devastating impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.


** FREE TRADE NEEDS FRIENDS
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Free trade is always in the sights of mercantilists and lobbyists that want to think not of consumers but only producer interests. With the Trade Bill before parliament and free trade agreements in play between the UK, USA, Australia, and the EU we need more voices telling their MPs just how much more they want markets opened and trade flowing as we unlock our economy after COVID19.

Fortunately for you, we've done the hard work and made a template letter. Just send the letter or use the text in the pdf for an email to your MP — add your voice to the fight for free trade!
EMAIL YOUR MP ([link removed])


** EVENTS
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China—Reevaluating Relations: Covid-19 is just the latest pandemic, along with SARS and others, to come out of China in a short time. The communist authorities lied about it, brutally censured whistleblowers, and let it spread across the world. And there’s the crackdowns on Hong Kong democracy protests, military expansion in the South China Sea and much more. And yet, China is heading towards becoming the world’s biggest economy. So how should we engage with China after this latest experience? Our head of Government Affairs John Macdonald discusses the options ([link removed]) with Jonathan Ward (author of China’s Vision of Victory), Latika Bourke of the Sydney Morning Herald, and Juliet Samuel of the Daily Telegraph. The introduction to Jonathan Ward’s book is an excellent primer on China’s grand strategy, available here ([link removed]) .

Reopening—Lessons from Across Europe: The UK’s lockdown was imposed to save lives, but what is it doing to our livelihoods? It’s certainly causing psychological and social distress, and the longer it continues, the more the financial damage escalates. Businesses may be able to survive without customers for two weeks, but six or eight…? Sweden famously did not instigate a strict lockdown; Italy has already lifted key parts of theirs; Denmark aims to open up completely by early June. Is the UK’s hesitancy saving lives or costing them? I ask three experts, Otto Brøns-Petersen from Denmark, Nils Karlson from Sweden, and Alberto Mingardi from Italy.

Next Tuesday 26th May 2020 (at 6pm UK time) Dr Madsen Pirie will be joined by leading minds including Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, and another special guest as they discuss "What next?" in light of all the social, political, and economic uprooting we've seen in recent months due to this pandemic.
RSVP TO NEXT WEEK'S WEBINAR ([link removed])

[link removed]
Last week's webinar on post-Covid China relations saw our John Macdonald joined by Latika Bourke of the Sydney Morning Herald, Juliet Samuel of the Telegraph, and Dr Jonathan Ward author of “China’s Vision of Victory”


** TRACKING OUR IMPACT
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We've hit our stride at the ASI, adapting to our new reality and putting out quality content while streamlining our operations. More media hits, more event attendees, more reports than ever before. Each has found their way into the hands of policymakers — if you liked the announcement of pubs and cafes serving outdoors soon then know your support for us has made that happen. But we still need your help as Government overreach continues and our liberties remain restricted.

Our work has never been more important, and therefore neither has your support. If you can help us fight this fight please consider donating today. Every penny goes towards working to hold the Government to account, bringing certainty back to all of our lives, and ensuring the next generation knows the importance of our economic and social freedoms.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE ADAM SMITH RESEARCH TRUST ([link removed])


** ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB
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While we’re on the subject of protectionism, what about immigration too? HMG is looking pretty ridiculous in its efforts to keep out ‘low skilled’, ‘low paid’ foreign workers when it’s become obvious just how important nursing and care staff are. Not to mention the Romanian fruit pickers. Sure, we can recruit from home, but the locals haven’t exactly been queuing up to volunteer—particularly when they see the wages and the living conditions. My colleague Morgan Schondelmeier explains on CapX ([link removed]) why the new Immigration Bill is the last thing we need if we hope to revive our splattered economy. She and I would like to think that at least our leaders are red-faced about what their plans will do to social care, farming and many other low-paid but vital sectors. But sadly, it looks like they haven’t actually realised that at all.

This, too, shall pass: ASI President Madsen Pirie has a piece in The Critic ([link removed]) —excellent read, by the way, you should subscribe to it—on why those who think the pandemic will enable ideologues to remake the world are in for a rude shock. In countries that have emerged from lockdown, people do what they did before. They want to get back to normal, to improving their lives and enjoying themselves, not to building a brave new world that someone else has dreamed up.

It’s difficult to self-isolate in a crowded night shelter: homeless people and rough sleepers are having an especially miserable time of it lately and long-term fixes are needed more than ever. Thankfully our Daniel Pryor has some ideas over at ConservativeHome ([link removed]) like Housing First and (shockingly) building more houses. The evidence is clear and it’s time for the centre-right to act.

Why we need a Libertarian Party: Tim Worstall on the also-excellent Continental Telegraph website ([link removed]) (Oh, the ones you stole the ‘Food Parcel’ idea from?—Ed.) figures that, with Boris talking about more government spending on health, care, infrastructure, trains, cuddly toys etc., there is no reason why anyone who’s in or believes in the private sector should ever vote for them again. Is this the new post-May, post-Cameron consensus?

Well, at least there are a few free thinkers around: I talk to Syed Kamall of the Institute of Economic Affairs ([link removed]) on my IEA book Foundations of a Free Society. Have I any favourites? Well yes, there’s John Lilburne, who defied 17C censorship laws and was hauled before the secret Star Chamber court. For refusing to bow to the judges and demanding to know what the charges were, he was found guilty of contempt and sentenced to the pillory. But even from the stocks he handed out pamphlets railing against the government...

Toby Young: The headline says it all. The scourge of the conformists, fresh from founding his Free Speech Union ([link removed]) has redoubled in spades and launched Lockdown Sceptics ([link removed]) , in which he counts the cost of government lockdowns and questions whether the benefits have been worth it.


** WHAT WE'RE READING, WATCHING AND GAMING
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Daniel is roleplaying a neoliberal robot megacorporation in space on Stellaris, a PC game that sees the player attempt to take over the galaxy. The developers saw fit to add a powerful ‘marketplace of ideas’ game mechanic that helps create unity within your empire - perhaps they’re secret capitalists? He’s also catching up on past episodes of the 80,000 Hours podcast, with the most recent episode ([link removed]) on COVID-19 proving especially interesting.

Julia has been watching Tiny House Nation. An American show in which the hosts build a tiny home each week for the guest. She likes the show for its entrepreneurial use of space and given the state of the current housing market, a tiny house may be the only property she can afford when she does step on to the property market.

Charlie has been reading Mark Ravina’s account of Japan’s Meiji Restoration, To Stand with the Nations of the World. It gives an account of the Emperor’s rapid industrialization and adoption of modern practices while still emphasizing a rich national history and culture. He has also been watching the whole of the BBC Hollow Crown series because he doesn’t get to choose what goes on the telly.


** ON A SERIOUS NOTE...
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We are saddened by the death of Professor David Marsland. He was the last surviving member of the original academic advisory board (chaired by F A Hayek) which we set up when we founded the Adam Smith Institute in the late 1970s. An academic rebel who was highly critical of his own profession, sociology, he produced devastating critiques of the social, psychological and economic harm done by state welfare.

For us, he wrote The End of the Welfare State ([link removed]) , turning it into a BBC2 documentary provocatively entitled “Let’s Kill Nanny."


** ON THE SUPERBLOG
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Price gouging: From right in the centre of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, Alberto Mingardi of Milan's Bruno Leoni Institute, explains what happened ([link removed] ) when the Italian government—anxious to prevent ‘profiteering’, capped the price of face masks at a below market €0.50 three weeks ago. Since retailers had already bought the masks for more than that, they were not minded to sell them for less… Episode one in what I’m sure will be a long-running saga of government ineptness.

Privatisation and preparedness: When the water companies were privatised and were almost immediately hit by a one-in-a-hundred year drought ([link removed]) , they realised their performance had to be twenty times better than when they were state-owned. In fact, even that wasn’t good enough. And here we are, a century after Spanish Flu, hit by another one-in-a-hundred year event. Were our state-run healthcare services up to it? Er, no. Is our giant healthcare monopoly simply too big to manage? Er, yes. And should I iron that shirt? Er, yes, but I’ve been busy.

Collaboration, not protectionism: As Julia Behan reports ([link removed]) , we are glad to be part of the Geneva Network’s initiative to state the importance of open trade and innovation in tackling Covid-19—and other health problems, for that matter. Nationalism and protectionism will simply lead to shortages and conspire against the sharing of scientific knowledge So we're calling for permanent reductions on medical supplies, devices, medicines and vaccines—and for the WTO to keep it that way.



** MEEJA
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We made the front page of the Observer! But it seems they got the wrong end of the stick. They claimed the ASI (amongst our fellow think tanks) has come out in favour of vast public spending increases and ‘called time on austerity’. What actually happened is they took a few select words from an ASI quote and made it ~news~. Don’t worry, we set them straight in our blog ([link removed]) , and of course our latest paper saying the exact opposite. But we’ll still take the front page kudos!

We’ve appeared on TalkRADIO twice this week! Unfortunately it’s not available for playback but be sure to follow our social media so you can tune in when we’re on! We are frequent contributors to Julia Hartley Brewer’s morning show (6:30 - 9am), Mike Graham’s midday programme (10am - 1pm) and Dan Wotton in the evenings (4 - 7pm). This week, Matthew Lesh was one of Julia’s dedicated programme guests and Morgan Schondelmeier spoke with Mike Graham about the NHS Health Surcharge.

Our comments about HS2 (can anyone guess the tone? - Ed.) appeared across the pages, in Daily Express ([link removed]) , CityAM ([link removed]) , and Brinkwire ([link removed]) . Matt Kilcoyne said that if the Government wants to get back on sustainable financial footing then we can’t afford such vanity projects (okay - who guessed it?! - Ed.)

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Morgan Schondelmeier speaks to TalkRADIO's Mike Graham about the immigrant NHS Health Surcharge


** INTELLECTUAL FOOD PARCEL
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To keep your mind active during the long lockdown, here is my latest intellectual food parcel, containing all the brain nutrition you will need until the next. These ones are so hot off the press you can smell the raw ink, and get blisters even touching them.

Arts and Minds, by Anton Howes

It's billed as ‘a major new history of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce’ (the RSA to you and me). But it’s a lot more exciting than that sounds. What comes out is the backstory of innovation and invention, which Howes thinks was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution—and of which he has countless fascinating, surprising and eccentric examples. When dinner parties resume, this book will grant you an effortless superiority on every aspect of our social and economic development.

Check it out here ([link removed]) .


Party Games, by Fiona Cuthbertson

No, it’s not a guide to Flip the Kipper or Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The parties here are all political. The starting point is that corruption is inevitable in politics. (Well, spot on there, Fi—Ed.) The lead character is not interested in power and, as Parliamentary Counsel, wants to play things straight. But then (Oh, I see how this is going—Ed.) she meets Charlie, who wants to teach her to shoot for the stars… (I can hear bodices ripping all over Westminster—Ed.)

Find it here ([link removed]) .

But back to the high-minded stuff again….


How Innovation Works, by Matt Ridley

Innovation defines the modern age. In the last few decades we've had more innovation than hot dinners. And that is what has given us such high living standards—not government spending or state education or the NHS or Trump or Brexit. But hardly anyone, certainly not politicians and hardly any practical businesspeople, understands innovation—what promotes it, what nurtures it and what really messes it up. (I think I have an inkling on all three: freedom, light regulation, and governments thinking they know best. Right?—Ed.)

Get your copy here ([link removed]) .


** POETRY CORNER
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Our resident classicist Tim Ambler writes:

"We are fortunate indeed to have a leader with the finest classical education. It would there seem that, when Boris composed this ode, he was under the influence of Covid, not Ovid:

As we now begin to track n trace
You plebs must recognise your place.
We rulers rule in full alliance
With all the gentlemen of science.
Suggesting that they are not Sage
Does nothing, frankly, but enrage.
Yours is not to reason why;
Yours is but to do and die."


** AND I QUOTE...
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A note on ’science’ (among other things) and the state:

"The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government."

—Milton Friedman

Bye…

E

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