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IN THIS BULLETIN:
- JOY OF SPRING: Our events for young people start up again
- EVENTS: With the Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP, Johan Norberg, and me
- IN THE ETHER: No lockdown can stop ideas spreading. Take a look at ours
And much more!
BUT FIRST...
In Parliament there is a big debate whether MPs should continue to participate in debates via video link, or whether they should be back in the Palace of Westminster — plotting, scheming and backstabbing, dreaming up lots of new laws to enslave us, enjoying subsidised food and drink and generally packing out the bars as they fill in their expenses sheets. (Not really sure which side I’m on…) (I think that means we don’t have to go back either — Ed.)
Some things were just inevitable. A Paperwork Curtain has descended across the Irish Sea, with Brussels threatening to sue Britain for suggesting that we take a bit more time to sort out the snags. Various European countries have banned the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, because it’s British. French ex-President Nicholas Sarkosy has been found guilty of being as big a self-serving pompous ass as every other French ex-President. Hong Kong has been absorbed into Communist Party rule. Prince Harry has been absorbed into La-La Land. Edinburgh Council has put the Adam Smith statue on a ‘scrutiny list’ because his condemnation of slavery wasn’t woke enough by today’s standards. And so it goes on.
Just in case there’s any trouble when we are allowed to go out of our houses again, meet chums in the garden, play football in the park, travel abroad without an exit permit, down a swift half in the pub or join a protest, our enlightened Government is going to protect us by giving the police new powers, toughening sentences, and cracking down on actions that cause people ’serious distress’ (in my case, I guess, the LibDem Party Conference). So, I’ve never felt safer, particularly now I’ve lined the cupboard under the stairs with cotton wool.
A new global study reveals that elections make us miserable. (I don’t think it’s elections, so much, as the thought of what invariably follows them…)
But I digress…
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Our webinars feature real experts challenging orthodox thinking on key issues. They get thousands of viewers and win praise from politicians (and normal people) around the world. To see them in real time, just reply to this email and I’ll send you invites.
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Coming Up:
22 March 11am: The Perpetual Battle for Free Speech. The Right Honourable Dr Liam Fox MP, Former Secretary of State for International Trade and Former Secretary of State for Defence, speaks at the Adam Smith Institute at 11am on Monday 22nd March to make a pitch for free speech followed by an in-depth interview with journalist Jodie Ginsberg. Together they’ll explore the issues in civil society, law, and the philosophical battle over what we should be able to say, when, and where. We’re broadcasting it all to you live. Register Here.
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23 March 6pm: Open societies: the verdict. Our own Madsen Pirie has described Johan Norberg’s latest book, Open: The Story of Human Progress, as an ‘instant classic’. So now he has enticed the best-selling Swedish author and broadcaster along to back up the claim that openness promotes, not division and conflict, but ideas, innovation and progress. Register here.
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30 March 6pm: Adam Smith: culture warrior. My panel of Smith experts — GMU’s Daniel B Klein, Jimena Hurtado from UniAndes in Colombia, and University of Glasgow Enlightenment expert Professor Craig Smith (no relation) talk about the pioneer economist’s relevance for today — including statues, slavery, empire, free speech, culture, community and identity. Register here.
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Catch Up:
Police and Power. Sounds like a gruesome twosome. Led by our own Morgan Schondelmeier, ex-SPAD Anita Boating, journalist Sam Ashworth-Hayes, and The Sunday Times’ Hannah Al-Othman explain what the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill means for public safety, human rights, power and accountability.
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Budget: Best or bust? You decide, but one thing’s for sure, none of our three experts from the hospitality industry — Lance Forman (who cooks the London Smoked salmon), Kate Nicholls of UK Hospitality and Dan Mobley of Diageo — think much of the Chancellor’s plans to raise corporation tax. A sure way to choke off recovery?
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Podcasts:
No pictures. Just great words.
Find The Pin Factory on all your favourite podcast providers: iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Podbean
The City after Covid, Berlin’s Rent Controls and American Politics: The ASI’s Matthew Lesh and Daniel Pryor are joined by Manhattan Institute Policy Director Michael Hendrix, exploring the fallout from Meghan & Harry, deserted offices, Biden’s cash giveaway and much else.
UK Budget Special: In this podcast, the ASI’s Matthew Lesh and Dan Pryor are joined by Entrepreneurs Network research chief Sam Dumitriu, to forecast the effect of the Budget measures, on small and growing businesses in particular.
Plus, I joined our friends at Atlas Network for an episode of their podcast, AtlasNexus, to discuss my book Foundations of a Free Society. We talked about how the bedrock principles of small government, rule of law, strong private property rights, and free trade might be realized as the world emerges from an international pandemic.
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John Blundell Studentships
This is the final year of our studentship programme honouring the work and memory of the tireless liberal think tanker John Blundell. Grants of £3,000-£5,000 are available to students who help to advance personal and economic freedom and who are planning postgraduate work but cannot find sufficient funding. Application information will appear online soon.
Freedom Week
This year, we aim to make our annual one-week boot camp for promising young champions of liberty a real experience rather than a virtual one. We will be returning to Cambridge in August for the usual round of punting, partying and park-barbecues. Oh, and lots of first-rate experts speaking about the ins and outs of free markets and free societies. We’re just pulling the programme together, so watch this space for more information!
The Next Generation
You know how it is: Yvonne: “Will I see you tonight?” Rick: “I never make plans that far ahead.” But with any luck, our Next Generation evening mini-lectures (don’t forget to remind them about the wine — Ed.) will resume on Tuesday, 7 September. So if you’re under 30, note it down and watch this space!
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Donate:
Your support means so much to all of us. We could not have continued our work educating the masses about the benefits of free markets and free societies without your help. In what has been a tough year for all of us, we've managed to reach further and farther through our webinar and podcast; enact change faster than ever before with our groundbreaking research; and help educate children, even when they're not in schools.
Help us keep up this momentum as we continue moving back towards normality. We know we can always count on you.
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Following the Budget, our comments featured in The Sun, The Express, Conservative Home, The New Statesman, GuidoFawkes, the I Newspaper, Wired, MSN, with Fellow Tim Worstall writing about taxation by stealth in CapX, Matthew Lesh cautioning against rash tax hikes in CityAM and defending the merits of universal credit, also in CityAM, and a piece by me in The Telegraph on how the Government can get freeports right (you did write the book on them, after all –– Ed.)
Then, on the Covid-front, Matthew Lesh is back at it again, slamming the EU for their use of the precautionary principle with respect to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots in CapX, pushing back against the idea that Jenny Harries should be promoted after a year of mismanagement of covid response also in CapX, and criticising the EU for their simultaneous restriction of vaccine approval for their own citizens and export ban to other countries across dozens of publications at home and abroad. Matt Kilcoyne joined him in blasting the EU’s “Stalinist” approach to private property expropriation in The Sun.
Plus, ASI Fellow James Lawson is back in the Daily Mail on vaccines and Matthew Lesh writes a long read in Quillette on the miracle of Covid-19 vaccine development, what we can learn, and how we can do even better in the future.
In the never-ending fight against the nanny-state, ASI alum Sophie Jarvis stuck to her roots and wrecked Jamie Oliver’s continuous meddling in the Express, while ASI Fellow Tim Worstall lays bare the sugar tax in CapX.
In more from ASI Fellows, alum, and authors: ASI author Peter Jaworski writes for CapX on the remuneration of plasma donors and Fellow Sam Bowman writes in the New Statesman on the furore surrounding Facebook banning news in Australia.
As he is wont to do, Matt Kilcoyne came out swinging in defense of Adam Smith and free speech this week, with a piece in The Spectator defending Adam Smith’s legacy on slavery, backed up by a piece in Conservative Women, and a highlight in The Washington Post reaffirming Charlie Hebdo’s right to free speech following another controversial cartoon.
Finally, we joined several leading free speech and human rights organisations in joining the Save Online Speech Coalition. Along with Big Brother Watch, Open Rights Group, Article 19, and Global Partners Digital, we signed an open letter warning against the free speech implications of the online safety bill, as reported in the i Newspaper.
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On our hyper-blog
Reasons for optimism: ageing. Madsen Pirie, our in-house expert on ageing, explains some of the breakthroughs that are likely to bring us longer and healthier lives. Keeping our DNA in trim, fixing our deceit cells, and coaxing the body to repair itself. But will longer-living oldies squeeze out opportunities for young innovators and stifle progress? Tricky one.
The Irish Protocol. Is Brussels fairly implementing the UK-EU treaty on Northern Ireland’s trade and regulation? (Is this a trick question?—Ed.) The 1998 Good Friday agreement saw not only cooperation between communities but the dismantling of the ‘hard border’ So, asks Tim Ambler, how to square that with the EU’s Single Market, and stop untaxed goods heading south? The answer was, not a customs border, but a regulatory border down the Irish Sea. It’s not working, but official discussions on it are kept confidentially. Might a few business brains who understand international contracts help out here?
Tim Worstall is fed up of people blaming climate change on ‘market failure’. Markets haven’t failed to deal with the problem of carbon emissions, he insists. Rather, we have failed — to create markets. That is why the Stern Review proposed introducing one, in the shape of a carbon tax. And markets have application in other ‘public goods’ areas too, where they have never been tried — but where new technology is making them possible.
Seen Elsewhere...
The Super-Deduction: What to think about Rishi's radical corporate tax reform. ASI alum Sam Dumitriu and early proponent of 'full expensing' runs through the Chancellor's 'super-deduction' policy released to much fanfare at the Budget. In this full explainer, Sam tells us what full expensing is, why it's important, and how the super-deduction works. Well worth a read to understand this hot button policy.
Vaccines: A Very European Disaster. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes for the New York Times explaining how the EU's vaccine crisis is not because of the bad decisions of a few individuals, but an institutional and cultural inability to properly assess risks. He notes that because the EU is unwilling to risk side effects from the vaccine (even unproven ones), they are therefore willing to risk the subsequent damage to their vaccine programme. ( He must have gotten a look at Matthew Lesh's piece before publication –– Ed.)
Sturgeon's Future Now Hangs in the Balance. If you're struggling to make head or tales of the drama in Scotland and what it might mean, The Spectator's Alex Massie is your go to source to cut through all the nonsense and all the people –– whisper it –– playing politics.
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AND I QUOTE...
Lockdowns, exit visas, and more police powers remind me of this sage remark from the American novelist and thinker Ayn Rand:
There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws.
Bye
e
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