Boris, BDSM and the banks
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** IN THIS E-BULLETIN:
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The Ayn Rand Lecture: Get yourself in to our flagship event.
New Research: On consent, Hong Kong, and other sources of stress
Other stuff: Boris (no, the other one), Keynes, Pinker, Churchill...
But first...
The economy is obviously doing very much better than the official statistics suggest. (It’s the only explanation for how many people seem to have the time to blockade and march up the streets complaining about climate or Brexit or whatever.) I hope they’re smiling: apparently the UK has almost as many facial-recognition cameras as China, with 20x the population. (Mind you, it looks as if there’s a few Westminster faces they won’t be recognising much longer.)
Google must have noticed a spike in Westminster searches for ‘deselection’ as Boris plays hardball with his rebels. (But if he really wants to beef up his tough-guy persona, the new Downing Street dog, a Jack Russell puppy called Dilyn, was a mistake. He should have got a fully-grown Rottweiler and called it Fang.) The MP behind the porn laws lost the whip after she rebelled against Brexit [it's what she would've wanted — Ed.]
The papers report that Jefferey Fry, 73, has worked at Waterloo Station for 58 years. (When asked whether he had seen lots of changes, he replied: “Nah, everyone’s still mumping on about that ruddy Europe thing.”)
But I digress...
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** Ayn Rand Annual Lecture
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** Thursday 14 November
City of London
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Star filmmaker and author Johan Norberg delivers this year’s Ayn Rand Lecture at the swank Drapers’ Hall in the City of London. His topic: Progress: Who Needs it?
Human creativity has given us a golden age of health, wealth and truly amazing technologies. But there are always people—Rand’s ‘parasites’—who prefer to live off these achievements, rather than help create them. Norberg argues that we need to embrace freedom and see off the parasites if we are to progress—and why failing to do so could produce an anti-industrial revolution and mounting poverty.
He’s a great speaker, by the way. You’ll love it.
Request a place (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=Ayn%20Rand%20Lecture%202019&body=Dear%20ASI%20events%20team%2C%0A%0ACould%20I%20please%20request%20a%20place%20at%20the%20annual%20Ayn%20Rand%20Lecture%20with%20Johan%20Norberg%20on%20Thursday%2C%2014%20November%202019%20at%20Drapers'%20Hall.%0A%0AYours%2C%0A)
** NEW RESEARCH ([link removed])
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Who’s body is it anyway? Our new report by Ben Ramanauskas ([link removed]) makes the case for dropping the legal bans on what you can do to your body. So if you’re into a spot of masochism or would like a superhuman set of pins so you can outrun the tax collector, Ben’s your man.
Our duty to Hong Kong. We said it in 1989, we said it again in 1997, and now we're saying it again ([link removed]) : the UK should welcome Hong Kong citizens who don’t fancy living under Chinese rule. The UK welcomed in ex-British citizens from Uganda who were being persecuted, after all. And the threat of large numbers of folk leaving might just convince China that it needs a dynamic, free Hong Kong after all.
No Stress IV: We’ve said this three times before too [and still it’s true — Ed.]: the Bank of England’s ’stress tests’ ([link removed]) to make sure that our banks are solid are…well, worse than useless. Confused aims, too narrow tests, low pass standards, useless measurements. I’m getting stressed just thinking about the ineptness of it.
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** MORE EVENTS ([link removed])
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In addition to the 14 November Ayn Rand Lecture, we have:
9 September: Boris! No, not that one: the Cuban journalist Boris Conzales Arenas ([link removed]) , who will be talking about press freedom (or lack of it) in his home country. And maybe there might just be some lessons for what certain people would like to do to press freedom here too.
30 September: We’re hosting a trio of events in Manchester, a panel on 21st Century Neoliberalism ([link removed]) with Lee Rowley MP, Jack Powell of the libertarian blog 1828 and our own Morgan Schondelmeier. Then we’re Reimagining Aviation ([link removed]) —a deregulated and more competitive sort of regulation that would cut costs and boost innovation. And lastly we are Fixing the Housing Crisis ([link removed]) with innovative experts from housing and architecture.
1 October: We’re saying No to the Nanny State ([link removed]) and Yes to Free Trade ([link removed]) (CANZUK), and Giving the Green Light to Cannabis ([link removed]) in another set of meetings in Manchester.
** ON THE ASI SUPERBLOG ([link removed])
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Infuriating statists since goodness knows when
State Ponzi scandal. The state pension is a massive pyramid-selling scam ([link removed]) , says our new recruit Charlie Paice. It worked when there were 8 taxpayers to each pensioner. But with our annoying habit of living so long, now there are half as many payers. It’s time to replace it with Chile-style personal accounts.
Let’s all agree not to exploit common lands. Sounds a great idea, but it’s sadly impractical, says our other new recruit Julia Behan. Local agreements might hold, if everyone signs up. But on a large scale…forget it. You’re better to use the market ([link removed]) .
How Keynes got work wrong. The invention of the vacuum cleaner, writes Madsen Pirie, reduced housework and freed domestic servants, mostly women, to take higher-status jobs elsewhere. Keynes thought that better technology could cut work hours; but it’s actually housework hours that have fallen most dramatically ([link removed]) .
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Matthew Kilcoyne speaks on BBC Radio 2 about the situation in Hong Kong
** MEEJA ([link removed])
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Daily Mail ([link removed]) on income taxes. Financial Times ([link removed]) on Labour's £300bn pension raid plans. Politics.co.uk ([link removed]) on why asylum seekers that want to work should be able to do so. The Times ([link removed]) on scrapping stamp duty. Sky News ([link removed]) on why we should expect a rise in the state pension age. Daily Express ([link removed]) on inheritance tax. Tortoise Media
([link removed]) on the best laid plans of mice and men in housing. The Sun ([link removed]) on Hong Kong's protests. CapX ([link removed]) on Russian pro-democracy protests. Telegraph ([link removed]) on global trade and freeports. City AM ([link removed]) on executive pay. BBC Radio 5Live ([link removed]) on why Britain's consent laws our out of date. And resident antipodean Matthew Lesh was quoted in the suspectly named Gimpie Times ([link removed]) [not an
innuendo — Ed.]. We’ve really had so many mentions or articles in the media that I just can’t realistically list them all and still maintain your interest.
Our paper on the UK’s outdated body modification laws Stirred them up a treat at Sky News ([link removed]) , Spiked ([link removed]) and elsewhere. Then our bank stress test report even made it into the Yorkshire Post ([link removed]) along with the usual national coverage. And our work on Freeports even sparked an enthusiastic piece in the Grimsby Telegraph ([link removed]) ! Woohoo!
** AND I QUOTE… ([link removed])
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Winston Churchill once remarked that the best argument against democracy was a five-minute converstion with the average voter. He was wrong: the best argument against democracy is a five-second soundbite from the average Member of Parliament [As I'm sure Boris is finding out... — Ed.].
Bye…
E.
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