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October 2019

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Welcome to the IEA Weekend Newsletter!


**
* Thinktent overload!
* Paying lip service...
* Our digital takeaway
* Hayek 2019 - reserve your seat!
* Best of the blog
* You're invited!

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** ThinkTent overload!
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This week, IEA staff headed up to Manchester to co-host the annual ThinkTent at Conservative Party Conference (CPC) with the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

ThinkTent has become a staple of the Fringe programme at CPC. Across the twenty events held in the Tent over three days, the vast majority were standing room only, with queues around the Tent to see our panels and In Conversation events.

Highlights for the IEA included our In Conversation event with the Chancellor, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, chaired by City AM’s Christian May.

Ahead of the event, IEA Director General Mark Littlewood and Chief Executive of the TPA John O’Connell co-authored an article for City AM ([link removed]) , arguing the Chancellor should prioritise tax cuts over spending hikes.

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

The event was written up as breaking news in over 250 media outlets, including BBC News ([link removed]) , Sky News ([link removed]) , and the Daily Telegraph ([link removed]) , after the Chancellor hinted during the event that he would be looking to reform inheritance tax.

Our other In Conversation events were also featured in the press, including a Daily Mirror ([link removed]) write-up of our discussion with the Housing Secretary, the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP.

Other highlights included our socialism balloon debate, which was packed to the rafters, and our Sunday night drinks reception with Leader of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, and the Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP received punchy write-ups in the Spectator ([link removed]) , the Guardian ([link removed]) , and the Evening Standard ([link removed]) .

IEA staff are back in London - slightly sleep-deprived and nursing Conference colds - but already looking forward to next year’s line-up! A huge thanks to all our ThinkTent sponsors, for making the events possible.


** Paying lip service...
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While at Conservative Party Conference, our Director General Mark Littlewood was also busy responding to the Chancellor and Prime Minister’s speeches, which paid plenty of lip service to the merits of free markets, but also promised quite a few (un-costed) spending projects.

Mark labelled the Chancellor’s speech a “mixed bag” of economic policies. He deemed the ‘Brexit red tape challenge’ a welcome step towards removing regulatory barriers that slow economic growth and particularly burden small businesses; but he warned against further politicising the National Living Wage, noting the possible dangers of creating a political bidding war, which would most badly impact the lowest-paid in Britain.

Read his full comments here ([link removed]) . His quotes were carried by the Daily Telegraph ([link removed]) andCity AM ([link removed]) .

Listening to Boris Johnson's speech on Wednesday,, Mark noted it's a "good day" when praise for free markets dominates the Prime Minister’s party conference speech.

But what was missing, he argued, were concrete policy plans to reduce the tax burden and roll back red tape, which would allow market mechanisms to flourish.

Read his full comments here ([link removed]) . His quote ran in the Daily Express ([link removed]) .

In her City AM column ([link removed]) this week, our Associate Director Kate Andrews followed on from Mark’s comments about the Prime Minister’s speech, arguing he can talk a good pro-market game, but matching policies are yet to follow.

Read her full article here ([link removed]) .

Kate also joined the Guardian’s podcast ([link removed]) while at CPC, to round-up the policy announcements from different departments. Listen here ([link removed]) .

And a big shout-out to the IEA’s Mark Littlewood, Shanker Singham, Kate Andrews, and Darren Grimes for making LBC host Iain Dale’s 'Top 100 Conservative Influencers' ([link removed]) list - the most representation on the list the IEA has ever had!


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Our digital takeaway
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This week on our podcast ([link removed]) , IEA Digital Manager Darren Grimes sat down to discuss the policy takeaways from Conservative Party Conference with the IEA’s Associate Director Kate Andrews and Prof Syed Kamall, Academic and Research Director at the IEA.

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The trio discuss the Chancellor’s plans to assess EU red tape, the plethora of spending promises, and the tribute paid to free markets and free enterprise in the Prime Minister’s speech.

Listen to the full podcast here ([link removed]) .


** Hayek 2019 - reserve your seat!
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The Institute of Economic Affairs will soon be hosting US author Professor Bryan Caplan, who is delivering our 2019 Hayek Memorial Lecture ([link removed]) , on 3rd December at Church House, starting at 6.30pm.

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] (mailto:[email protected]) or call 020 7799 8900


** Best of the blog
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On the blog this week ([link removed]) , Editorial Fellow Len Shackleton argues that if you must have a minimum wage, you need to look carefully at labour market conditions when you recommend rates.

Traditionally this is a responsibility which the Low Pay Commission (LPC) has discharged with some distinction for the last twenty years or so.

Len notes he “doesn’t often feel nostalgic” for Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling, but these two New Labour Chancellors recognised that raising minimum wages is a risky business and largely deferred to the LPC’s cautious recommendation.

But Sajid Javid, Len says, is now the third chancellor in a row to ignore the Low Pay Commission and pluck a number out of the air to set wages for millions of low-paid workers. Len argues that, unfortunately, it’s clear the LPC no longer serves a purpose and we should save the few millions of pounds a year it costs the taxpayer by abolishing it.

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

Download Len's IEA paper, 'Restructuring Minimum Wages', for free here ([link removed]) .


** You're invited!
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An Evening with Dr Tim Kane ([link removed])

We are delighted to invite you to our upcoming event with Dr Tim Kane on Tuesday 15th October, from 6-8pm, who will be discussing, ‘Inequality: Why do progressives ignore progress?’

Tim’s latest research looks at how much value there is in previously unmeasurable things that standard GDP doesn’t take into account, such as civil rights, national security and environmental quality. We are thrilled to be hosting the exclusive, first public unveiling of his findings.

Dr Tim Kane is the JP Conte Fellow in Immigration Studies at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he specialises in economic growth, immigration and national security.

If you would like to attend, please email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) to register.


Beesley Lectures ([link removed])

Our 2019 series of Beesley Lectures - which attract leading thinkers in government, industry and academia - is now underway.

Held in partnership with the Centre for Competition and Regulatory Policy at City, University of London, 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.

The second lecture - there are eight in total - takes place this Wednesday evening, October 9th.

The lecture will consider the future for public utilities under a potential Labour government and will feature James Meadway, former Economic Advisor to Labour’s Shadow Chancellor and George Yarrow, former Chair of the Regulatory Policy Institute.

The Beesley Lectures are organised in conjunction with Marketforce. Find out more here ([link removed]) .

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