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September 2019

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Welcome to the IEA Weekend Newsletter!


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* Liberal...or not?
* Making the case for freedom
* Our big, fat, Greek book launch
* Blast from the Past
* You're Invited!

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** Liberal...or not?
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This past week saw the Liberal Democrats hold their 2019 Party Conference, which primarily focused on the party’s Brexit stance and plans to revoke Article 50, if they were to achieve a majority in the House of Commons in the next general election.

But public policy was a topic for conference too. In response to Jo Swinson’s leader's speech, the IEA’s Director General Mark Littlewood branded the Lib Dem’s policy offers “illiberal concoctions of heavy public spending and state intervention.” ([link removed])

Like its fellow parties, Mark argued, the Liberal Democrats seem to think more public spending is the answer to the nation’s woes, having pledged a £1billion investment package for colleges and education, seemingly without giving consideration to how it will be costed or the UK’s budget deficit, which has yet to be fully eradicated.

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And despite supposedly championing liberalism, Mark noted how the party is wedded to state intervention into people’s personal lives, signalled by party members’ passing motions which included a commitment to introduce minimum alcohol pricing in England, and giving councils power to ban new fast food outlets or such adverts within 500 metres of a school.

You can read Mark’s comments in full, here ([link removed]) .

Elsewhere in the news...

Associate Director Kate Andrews took part in the BBC Politics Live ([link removed]) panel on Monday, commenting on the Liberal Democrats’ Brexit stance, and on the realignment of politics ([link removed]) which has been expedited in recent years, affecting the Lib Dems and other mainstream parties.


And Mark appeared on Sky News ([link removed]) to discuss the Prime Minister’s trip to Brussels to continue Brexit negotiations, where he argued that the UK should adopt a liberal approach to goods flowing across borders post-Brexit.


** Making the case for freedom
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On this week's podcast ([link removed]) , our Director General Mark Littlewood welcomes new Research Director Prof Syed Kamall to the IEA family and asks about prospects, opportunities and challenges for free marketeers.

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The pair discuss what needs to be done to make the case for liberty more successfully, what can attract younger people to the movement, which free-arguments work, (which don’t…), and the right balance to strike between appealing to head and heart.

Listen to the podcast here ([link removed]) , and subscribe to our channel, IEA Conversations,here ([link removed]) .


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Our big, fat, Greek book launch
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Public choice theory, one of the most exciting schools of liberal thought, is virtually unheard of in Greece.

Our Greek sister organisation, KEFiM ([link removed]) , wants to change that. This week, they have published the Greek translation of the our book ‘Public Choice – A primer’ ([link removed]) by the Adam Smith Institute's Dr Eamonn Butler. Over 3000 copies have been distributed as a complimentary add-on to a local newspaper.


In the last year, KEFiM published 18 books about liberty, selling more than 54,000 copies, many of them originating from IEA authors.
If you are interested in the work of our sister organisations from across Europe, follow EPICENTER ([link removed]) , our network of free-market think tanks from the continent.


** Blast from the Past
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This week on our blog ([link removed]) , the IEA’s Editorial Fellow Prof Len Shackleton has dissected the idea of a four-day work week, which was recently praised by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP, in light of a new report out on the topic, written by distinguished historian and economist Lord Skidelsky.

The point that Professor Skidelsky misses, according to Len, is that the UK labour market offers a far wider range of employment contracts than most continental European countries, and thus has large numbers of people working short hours as well as many working longer hours.

One of the “odder elements” of this report which Len also flags is the belief that, despite the lowest unemployment rate for forty years, the UK still has a hidden unemployment problem to which the solution is a government commitment to ‘guarantee a job to any job-seeker who cannot find work in the private sector’.


This suggestion is uncosted and considers none of the difficulties which are known ([link removed]) to plague job creation schemes – deadweight, displacement, substitution. It is the sort of “well-meaning twaddle politicians love to spout”, says Len, but it is surprising to see it coming from a widely-respected academic.

Lord Skidelsky’s pamphlet, Len concludes, is far from representing genuinely new thinking on the economy, and is really just another nostalgic Blast from the Past.

Read the full blog here ([link removed]) .


** You're Invited!
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Beesley Lectures... ([link removed])

Next month we launch the latest in our series of Beesley Lectures.

Held in partnership with the Centre for Competition and Regulatory Policy at City, University of London, the series attracts leading thinkers in government, industry and academia.

The lectures address the latest developments in energy, water, transport, telecoms and banking regulation as well as competition policy.

Now in their 28th year, they’re held at the Institute of Directors in London and staged in memory of Professor Michael Beesley, who was a leading architect of the British system of utility regulation and a trustee of the IEA.

Starting on the evening of Wednesday October 2, the series of eight lectures begins with a critical appraisal of the role of energy suppliers in a technology-driven market and features Mary Starks, Executive Director, Consumer and Markets Directorate, Ofgem and Natasha Hobday, Group Policy and Regulation Director, Shell Energy.
The Beesley Lectures are organised in conjunction with Marketforce. Find out more here ([link removed]) .

Making the case again...

Come along to the Institute of International Monetary Research's Annual Public Lecture: The case for fiscal policy restated, by Lord Skidelsky on 12th November 2019.

Secure your place by RSVPing to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

GET INVOLVED

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