Welcome to the IEA Weekend Newsletter!

• Guess what's back, back again...
• ThinkTent 2019!
• Labouring the ideas
• Opposition overview
• Blowback...
• Hayek 2019

Guess what's back, back again...

On Friday the IEA republished a paper outlining one option for a comprehensive framework for future trade relationships between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

           

Plan A+ was first published in September 2018. Its publication followed the Chequers White Paper, which outlined the approach of then-Prime Minister Theresa May and her government to Brexit.

Shortly after its launch, the Charity Commission instructed the IEA to remove Plan A+ from publication, including from the IEA website, then issued the IEA with an Official Warning.

In 2019, following numerous communications and a complaint of unfair treatment by the IEA, the Charity Commission withdrew both the instruction and warning, and accepted much of the complaint.

This edition of Plan A+, issued with various amendments and clarifications, proposes the adoption of a four-pillared trade policy strategy, taking unilateral, bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral action to deliver a more competitive and thriving UK economy. These proposals can be understood as part of a possible spectrum of options which the UK could adopt after it has left the European Union.

Authors Shanker Singham, Director of the IEA’s International Trade and Competition Unit (ITCU) and Dr Radomir Tylecote, IEA Research Fellow, recommend what initial moves the UK could make to realise the benefits of leaving the EU, including proposals for how the UK could negotiate with the EU and others, what it could seek in the negotiations and how it could improve its domestic regulatory environment in areas like agricultural policy and fisheries policy.

Download the “reissued state regulator-compliant edition” here!

ThinkTent 2019!

This week the IEA will be in Manchester for Conservative Party Conference, hosting over a dozen events, most held in the ThinkTent, a staple of the fringe circuit. 

ThinkTent (inside the secure zone), is co-hosted by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and is the go-to place for thought-provoking panel discussions, debates and interviews with senior Cabinet figures – an essential stop for conference-goers interested in free market ideas.

           

Highlights will include three In Conversation events with Cabinet Ministers....the RT Hon Sajid Javid MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Liz Truss MP, Trade Secretary, and the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Housing Secretary.

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We’re also hosting events in the ThinkTent on tax cuts and spending...the net-zero carbon emission target...medical cannabis...Nanny State overload...the future of work...

         

...rail nationalisation v privatisation...socialism (future or failure?)...the case for recreational cannabis...and trade after Brexit.

Plus, IEA has teamed up with Oxfam to co-host ‘The Big Inequality Debate’ on the Monday night inside the Midland Hotel!

          

You can see our full line-up on our website, and you can follow along on Twitter to get live updates during the Conference!

Labouring the ideas...

At Labour Party Conference this week, a host of policy ideas were discussed, from abolishing tuition fees, to public sector house-building, to compulsory licensing for medication. 

IEA staff commented on a variety of the party’s public policy ideas, noting that push for state interference and control was likely to bring about a string of bad consequences.

Our Research Director Prof Syed Kamall weighed in on Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s call for a four-day work week, noting that this was “unlikely to liberate workers, but instead force many into looking for more work, in addition to their main employment, in order to pay their bills.” His comments were carried in the Daily Express.

IEA Editorial Fellow Len Shackleton also commented on McDonnell’s labour market policies for the IEA blog, arguing that they would nearly “eradicate” all forms of flexible working in the UK. 

Read the full blog here, and his comments also picked up in the Daily Express.

And our Head of lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon pushed back on Labour's pledge to close "tax loopholes for elite private schools" for Spectator Coffee House, arguing that the state should learn from private schools, not try to close them.

Meanwhile, the IEA’s Associate Director Kate Andrews commented on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s speech, nothing that his pledge to introduce compulsory licensing for medication and remove the profit motive from healthcare “is likely to worsen the problems that already exist in the NHS: rationing, limited patient choice, and the lack of innovation in the market for drugs and new treatment.”

Kate’s comments were carried by the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Yorkshire Post. 

She also wrote her City AM column on the Labour leader’s speech, arguing party’s dismissal of market forces is in contradiction with the desire to put money into the hands of the many, when “creating choice and flexibility on an open market is the sure-fire way to succeed.”

Read the full article here.

Opposition overview

With both the Labour Party and Liberal Democrat party conferences now over, what is the free market take on some of the policy announcements from them?

Joining the IEA's Digital Manager Darren Grimes to discuss additional education spending, the four-day work week and free trade on the podcast this week are the IEA's Associate Director Kate Andrews, Chief Operating Officer Andy Mayer and Communications Manager Emma Revell.

Listen here!

You can subscribe to this podcast channel on Apple Podcasts. Look out next week for the take on policies announced by HM's Government.

Blowback...

This week in his Times Business column, IEA Director General Mark Littlewood discusses how an increasing moral panic over vaping is leading to tighter regulations which could mean people continue smoking traditional cigarettes.

Mark notes that – although smoking has declined – there are still 34 million smokers in the United States and many of them are looking for safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes. Millions have switched to vaping – which Public Health England estimates is around 95 per cent safer than traditional smoking – but many countries including India and the United States are making the worrying decision to restrict assess to vapes.

Hayek 2019

The Institute of Economic Affairs is delighted to announce that acclaimed US author Professor Bryan Caplan will give our 2019 Hayek Memorial Lecture. 

The acclaimed author of The Myth of the Rational Voter - hailed as ‘the best political book of the year’ by the New York Times - will unveil his latest project, POVERTY - Who’s to Blame?

Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Virginia. He’s also author of The Case Against Education and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids.  He’s featured in many publications - from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post - and appeared on ABC, BBC, Fox News and more.

           

Our thanks to CQS for their generous sponsorship of the Hayek Memorial Lecture.

If you’d like to attend this must-see event, RSVP [email protected] or call 020 7799 8900