IN THIS BULLETIN:
- NEW THINKING: The sorry state of student unions
- EVENTS: With The Spectator; housing; the Union; globalisation; schools and much more
- ONLINE: Understanding the rich; quangos breed quangos; stakeholder need profits and more
BUT FIRST...
Barefaced cheek! As soon as I’m away, that Matt Kilcoyne sends out an e-bulletin like it came from me. If you were at death’s door, that guy would barge ahead of you.
Mind you, recently I thought I was at death’s door, having keeled over and been airlifted to hospital at Her Majesty’s pleasure (That’s us taxpayers’ pleasure, you’re welcome — Ed). Turned out to be something less thrilling than the medics hoped. (I still couldn’t function properly — so it was probably socialism. But a mild dose, because I’m fine now.)
When Rip Van Winkle woke up he found everything had changed, bizarrely. When I got back to the living I found that everything was, bizarrely, the same. We’re still talking about flattening curves, saving the NHS, lockdowns and economic catastrophe. Everyone’s still complaining about Boris, Chris Whitty still looks glum, and frontbench politicians are still vying to see who can crush most personal freedoms quickest. I fear we have our work cut out.
Covid numbers are rising. Some are saying it's because we're doing more tests (If you did more IQ tests, you’d discover more idiots. Particularly around Westminster.) but really we are just getting more positive results. In other news, the government’s ban on evictions ended this week. (There’s certainly one House I’d like to see empty. Though self-isolating would do just as well.) And twice of many of us are drinking too much. (So I'm fighting a war to rid the world of booze. Today I’ve killed two, and I have lots more prisoners in the fridge.)
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WELCOME!
We're so thrilled to welcome on board our two new gap-year interns! Joining us for a full year of think tankery are Joe Bradshaw, from London, and Hannah Ord, from Glasgow (well, just outside — Ed.). Our paid gap-year intern programme is one of the best things we do and we're so lucky to have these two as part of the team.
Joe's interests include psephology (that's the study of elections for the rest of us — Ed.), rugby (we all know that one — Ed.) and behavioural economics.
Hannah is a skilled chess player (we're waiting for the Hannah v Madsen grand championship — Ed.) and will be taking up a place at the London School of Economics next year.
You'll be seeing a lot more from these two so get used to those names!
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DO SOMETHING GREAT — DONATE
Let’s face it, this economy isn’t going to survive and revive on its own. It needs hard working business people and the development of good policies that enable them to thrive. Like relaxing silly regulations to allow restaurants to work as takeaways and put tables outside (both ideas from us), and many others.
We also need people who will stand up for personal freedoms, and make sure that young people understand the basis of free speech, a free economy, and a free life.
We invest time and talent doing just that. That’s why we need you to invest in us, to make a difference now and in the future. Do something great. Donate. It’s easy. Just click and see.
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NEW THINKING
Our newest report State of the Unions by Maximilian Young and Lucky Dube finds that student unions cost taxpayers and students £165m a year, but they have little legitimacy, undermine free speech, and need to be reformed. Just 1-in-10 students actually participate in union elections. Unions are hogged by activists using their public cash to pursue political agendas—as nutty as banning fancy dress parties (in case someone ‘appropriates’ another culture) and as serious as banning speakers and books from campus. The authors want to take the politics out of unions, return the cash to students, and insist on a strong defence of free speech.
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IN RESPONSE
The Winter Economy Plan was revealed today by Chancellor Rishi Sunak. It covers the Government’s next economic steps during the Covid crisis and recovery. Our Matthew Lesh‘s comment on the statement:
“The Winter Economy Plan is a sensible response to the need for greater restrictions on private sector activity over the coming months. It makes sense to replace the furlough scheme — that paid people to not work — with a wage subsidy scheme that helps struggling but viable businesses to keep employees on the job part time. Extending loan schemes and VAT cuts is also a measured response to lessen the shock as the Government furlough scheme is rolled back.
“This is not costless. The Government must resist becoming addicted to spending. Temporary spending is sensible to keep struggling businesses afloat, but in the longer run we are going to have to get the national accounts in order by reducing ongoing spending.
“If we are going to adapt to these difficult times and recover successfully, the Government must reduce the tax burden and cut red tape that undermines entrepreneurial dynamism."
This comment has already featured on BBC News, the most read news website in the country.
If the Chancellor is looking for more ideas for his next statement, may I direct him to our report Winning the Peace.
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We are thrilled to be partnering with our friends at The Spectator for their Alternative Conference from Sept 28th - 30th. We’ll be bringing you a virtual panel discussion called CANZUK: A bolder, bigger, and better union? Chaired by our Matt Kilcoyne and featuring Erin O’Toole, leader of the Official Opposition of Canada and the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. We will discuss the exciting and real potential of a CANZUK alliance founded on shared values, free trade, and freer movement.
Join us on Tuesday September 29th from 11:30am-12:00pm for this thrilling discussion.
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Tune in to our regular weekly webinars at 6pm every Tuesday—or re-live every glorious moment on YouTube later. Just reply to this email to make sure you get the weekly invitations.
Coming up: Matthew Lesh has assembled an all star cast of experts to discuss the Future of Cities.
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Cities are the engine room of modern economies. They are where we socialise, find entertainment, and find the most productive workers. Over recent decades, from the slums of the developing world, to the megacities of New York and London, it appeared that humanity would only become more urbanised.
Then, almost overnight, this all changed. Covid-19 has rapidly and dramatically changed the way humans live, work and socialise. Millions of people have started working from home, and are unlikely to return to city centres any time soon. Earlier this year many left major cities as restaurants and theatres shut and socialising was highly limited. Meanwhile, planning regulations have made it far too expensive for many to live in cities.
What looked inevitable — the unstoppable rise of the city — now looks brittle. How will the experience of this pandemic change cities? Rory Sutherland, the vice-chairman of Ogilvy and The Spectator's Wiki Man, Michael Hendrix, the director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute, and Vera Kichanova, urban policy analyst at Zaha Hadid Architects, join Matthew to discuss it all next Tuesday September 29th at 6pm.
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This week’s webinar was It’s the Supply, Stupid. In which our John Macdonald quizzes three experts on how to solve the housing crisis. Joining him are Vera Kichanova of Zaha Hadid Architects, the ubiquitous Sam Bowman from the International Center for Law and Economics and John Myers of London YIMBY (that’s ‘Yes in my back yard’). Among the takeaways:
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It’s only when supply is constrained that interest rates affect housing prices. The price of other durable goods such as boats and art do not fluctuate because supply is not restricted. The solution is thus not to raise interest rates but to liberalise housing restrictions
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A city is fundamentally a labour market. Density brings interaction, serendipity, innovation. Despite the pandemic, cities are there to stay. The main reason behind the housing crisis is that developers are told where, when, and for whom to build
- We should allow win-win negotiations to take place in the housing market. Smaller scales (#StreetVoting) might allow lower transaction costs: benefits of particular restrictions may not be worth the loss of restricted use.
On YouTube you’ll also find Rationing in Healthcare, where Morgan Schondelmeier attacks the hard questions around the limitations of the NHS with leading experts Dr Paul Bate of Babylon Health, Dr Laurence Gerlis of SameDayDoctor, and Dr Kristian Niemietz of the IEA. Remember - there are other systems which provide universal access to healthcare, free at the point of use, which don’t rely on such crude rationing systems like extended waiting times.
Then there is The Future of the Union. Matt Kilcoyne questions Scottish Tory MP (That’s a rarity — Ed.) Andrew Bowie MP, Conservative Home’s Henry Hill and Daniel Capurro of the Telegraph. Or how about Education in an Age of Covid-19 with our own Daniel Pryor plus CEO Joanna Williams, Unschooled author Kerry McDonald, and teacher/writer Calvin Robinson.
And you can also revisit our webinars In Defence of Globalisation, Cancelling Cancel Culture, The Green Uprising, and many more.
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MEEJA
In a return to discussing the B-word (s oon to be replaced by the C-word — Ed.), we’ve been giving our tuppence worth on the Internal Market Bill. Matt Kilcoyne appeared in CapX saying that it’s well within the government’s right to revise their plans, but Matthew Lesh says we shouldn’t be so quick to risk a deal with the EU in order to give subsidies to failing industries. Lesh might have won that argument as his comments also appeared in The Express.
In keeping with discussion of our union, our comments on Nicola Sturgeon’s ability to shoehorn independence into every discussion featured in The Express, twice. It appears that both Covid-19 and the reemergence of the Brexit debate due to the Internal Market Bill are the perfect justification for a new IndyRef.
But don’t worry, we’re still holding the Government’s feet to the fire on coronavirus. Morgan wrote about the causes and consequences of the failure on testing for CapX, and Matthew touched on the same topic for The Telegraph. In terms of the economic response, our comments featured in CityAM and Matthew appeared on the IEA’s Live with Littlewood to give his review of Boris’ policies.
In other news, ASI author Adrian Quine appeared on BBC Newsnight to discuss the continuing saga of HS2; Matt K wrote for The Times Thunderer calling for the UK to condemn China’s continued attacks on the free press following their attempted arrest of Australian journalists; two of our housing papers were mentioned this week, in Construction News and 1828; and I appeared in 1828 to share my thoughts on some of the problems with young people today ( none of the young people reading this newsletter, surely — Ed.).
And to wrap up this wrap up, our State of the Unions paper made big waves in the papers. The report featured in The Telegraph, The Express, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Telegraph, The Sun, The World News, Brinkwire, and Wired. Our authors Max Young and Lucky Dube did a great write up of the report for CapX, Max wrote a piece for ThinkScotland, Lucky featured in The Article, and Brian Monteith wrote a feature on the report for The Scotsman.
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ON THE INTERWEBS
Our Superblog
Interview with Rainer Zitelmann. The researcher, journalist, investor and author of The Wealth Elite tells us what makes the super rich tick. “Lots of people dream of being rich,” he says, “but there are few scientific studies about becoming wealthy, nor what people think of the wealthy.” Like envying them. It turns out that Britain is one of the least envious countries and people see the merits of having successful entrepreneurs around to boost general prosperity. Unlike France and Germany and other ‘enviers’ who think you need to make the rich poorer in order to make the poor richer. Fascinating stuff.
Quango wants more quangos. The Institute for government seems to want…er, more government. Specifically, they want a new quango to replicate the EU’s handouts of state aid. “The real challenge,” says author Matthew Lesh, “is to ensure we choose not to subsidise domestic industry.” And (he’s Australian, you know) “we don’t need another bloody quango.” So take that, Dominic Cummings.
Why Germany’s Covid response beats ours. Will Hutton (remember him?) praises Germany for its public sector testing capacity. But that’s a myth, says Tim Worstall. The public authorities in Britain (like America’s) tried to hog testing and it was a disaster—until 300 private, charity and research labs stepped in to multiply the capacity. And in Germany, the decentralised nature of the healthcare system explains why they’ve been so much more nimble than the lumbering, centralised NHS.
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Seen Elsewhere
Stakeholders or shareholders? Supposedly to protect ‘stakeholders', the Dutch government blocked Unilever’s departure with a new, arbitrary, €11 billion ‘exit tax’. Combine that with the Netherlands’ complex job protection laws, the result, say business economists, is that the Netherlands is unlikely to attract other corporate headquarters. Turns out the best way to help stakeholders is to maximise shareholder value, because shareholders prosper when stakeholders are happiest.
A Neoliberal Agenda for the 2020s. Former ASI Associate Director Sam Bowman has outlined once again his vision for neoliberalism, this time centering around three key policy ideas that neoliberals of all stripes can get behind: NIMBYism, support for immigration, and a carbon tax. He says, not only does he fully believe in these ideas, but “they are some of the most powerful of all possible policies we could enact to improve the lives of people around the world.” (Convenient! — Ed.)
China is expanding labour camps in Xinjiang. A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Xinjiang Data Project has determined that China has expanded the number of labour camps in the Xinjiang region, where it is understood to be keeping Uigur Muslims under a “re-education” programme. The United States and many leading UK figures have described these as modern-day concentration camps. Their expansion is concerning. The full report with infographics, satellite images, and information on the Xinjiang Data Project can be found here.
Vaccine nationalism is real, but so is vaccine multinationalism. Vox profiles Covax, the international coalition dedicated to ensuring a Covid-19 vaccine, when it is found, is available worldwide. In one of the largest multilateral public health initiatives ever, Covax is based on multinational cooperation, but is finding resistance from the US and China — two of the leaders in vaccine development. Proponents worry, without them, the initiative might fail.
Adam Smith and William Shakespeare. A scholar investigating the works of Adam Smith stumbled upon a rare edition of Shakespeare's last play, The Two Noble Kingsmen. The 1634 printing was still in it's original binding and mistakenly filed away under philosophy (makes me wonder when the last time someone visited that section was — Ed.). A wonderful amalgamation of two of this land's greatest exports.
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AND I QUOTE...
Talking about those student unions:
Free speech is like oxygen. You never notice it, until you run out of it.
—Douglas North
Bye…
e
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