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IN THIS ASI BULLETIN
By Eamonn Butler and an army of freedom-fighters
THE UK’S GOING BUST. (But you probably knew that.)
£5,000 STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST
JOIN US ON YOUR GAP YEAR or as a summer intern!
BUT FIRST
Sir Keir Starmer has promised a ‘re-set’ with the EU. (It’s more likely that his own Party will soon re-set him out of Downing Street). Poor chap — not just his colleagues, but even his mirror can’t bear to look at him these days. Labour’s now polling at just 17% (that’s not a government, that’s a margin of error with power). Meanwhile, Chancellor Rachel Reeves hailed the Bank of England’s interest cut as the happy result of her policies. (Or is it that we’re plummeting so fast into a financial abyss that the Bank’s become desperate?)
Whatever you think about Donald Trump, you have to admit he has style. (He enjoys a game of Risk, but using real countries.) But perhaps not as classy as UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who chose the week we’d been dumped on by a foot of snow to tell us that energy bills were going up (again).
But I digress...
RESEARCH
How long before the UK goes bust?
The Adam Smith Institute’s new UK Fiscal Sustainability Model reveals that the UK’s public finances remain in a perilous position, despite Budget tax rises. In ten years we’ll be in a structural debt spiral, with debt reaching 330% of GDP by 2075. The causes? Already high debt, plus rapid growth in health and pension spending.
A cut of 9% in government spending right now could ensure could ensure that public debt remained below 120% until 2075. Wait until 2037, and the cuts would need to be much larger. Not easy if you’re determined to keep health and pension spending so high. An important (if depressing) read.
We also released new polling on quality of life across the UK. While results were broadly consistent nationwide, regions such as the North East, North West and London reported the highest quality of life. This suggests that where jobs, connectivity and opportunity are strongest, people feel the benefits most clearly in their day-to-day lives.
IN THE MEDIA
As ever, we’ve been making waves in the media.
Our Foreboding Fiscals research featured in The Telegraph, and Dame Priti Patel MP even referenced it on TalkTV. Mitchell Palmer penned an op-ed for CapX [ [link removed] ], while James Price highlighted the research in The Critic [ [link removed] ]. Our polling on Quality of Life polling was covered by GB News. [ [link removed] ]
Joanna Marchong’s investigation into potholes appeared in The Telegraph [ [link removed] ], and Maxwell Marlow joined TalkTV to set the world to rights. And that’s not all! Eamonn featured in The Economist [ [link removed] ], pushing back against its criticism of Adam Smith, while Viggo Terling wrote for ConservativeHome [ [link removed] ] on the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree.
The 250th Anniversary of The Wealth of Nations is next year! If you'd like to help us celebrate, please consider donating by clicking the link below.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Next Generation with Laila Cunningham
In January our young movers and shakers welcome Laila Cunningham, Reform UK’s newly announced Mayoral candidate. A former lawyer with the Crown Prosecution Service, she is a leading voice in London politics and staunch Thatcherite. She’ll be railing against the state's encroachment against British civil liberties. Not to be missed!

The Next Generation with Lord Elliot
In February we’re delighted to be joined by Conservative peer Lord (Matthew) Elliot of Mickle Fell, who founded the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Big Brother Watch, and played pivotal roles in the NOtoAV and Vote Leave referendum campaigns of the 2010s. In 2025 he wrote “Prosperity Through Growth: Boosting Living Standards in an Age of Autocracy and AI“ with Professor Arthur Laffer and others. Guaranteed to be interesting!
EDUCATION
It’s 250 years since 1776, a key date for freedom. Not just the Declaration of Independence, but Adam Smith publishing his Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations. (To mark the latter, we’re planning a big festschrift on Smith, and I’ll be publishing my Wealth of Nations—The Graphic Novel.)
And right now we’re inviting students under 24 years of age to submit an essay appraising the intellectual history of Adam Smith and America’s democracy with an eye to their application to the Middle East and the Islamic world, a realm underrepresented in the scholarship and popular thought about the Enlightenment. The top prize is £5,000 with £3,000 and £2,000 going to the second and third winners.

Spend your Gap Year at the Adam Smith Institute!
Each year, we take one or two students to come and spend their Gap Year working with us. To qualify, you should: be on a gap year between A-levels and university, be 18-20 at the start of the internship, be open-minded, inquisitive and friendly, be intellectually curious, eager to learn and interested in policy, understand the ASI’s perspective and what it does and have a broadly free-market perspective on the world.
It’s an amazing experience!
Intern at the Adam Smith Institute!
The Adam Smith Institute offers short, two-week unpaid internships to university students and recent graduates who are interested in politics, economics and policy work. These are an excellent opportunity to learn more about the policy making process and the wider free-market movement in the UK.
ASI ONLINE
On the ASI blog …
And, in a new video, Mitchell Palmer explains why Britain is sleep-walking its way into spiralling debt.
NEW MERCH
In celebration of the upcoming 250th Anniversary of The Wealth of Nations, we’ve launched a smart new collection of Adam Smith 100% silk ties in navy, pink and red, produced by the swank firm Colour Wovens.
We’ve also launched our exclusive new Adam Smith bust, showcased here by our Chairman, James Lawson. This hand-finished resin likeness of Adam Smith is beautifully presented with a bronze patina, capturing the timeless elegance of traditional sculpture. Each piece is carefully crafted to highlight intricate details and finished by hand for a unique, high-quality look. Ideal for offices, libraries, or collections, and a refined tribute to one of history’s greatest thinkers.
AND I QUOTE
AND I QUOTE…
In this 250th anniversary year, and with the UK’s debt spiral looming, I thought this from Adam Smith would be appropriate:
It is the highest impertinence and presumption … in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense …. They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will.
The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV, Chapter II, p. 456, para. 10.
Bye,
e
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