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IN THIS BULLETIN:
- Freedom Week: live (and kicking dumb ideas)
- Disarming tobacco: our proposals to reduce smoking harm
- Spreading the word: podcasts, webinars, school visits, meeja and argument
And much more!
BUT FIRST...
The State Opening of Parliament was a trifle less spectacular than usual due to Covid restrictions. (Though I’m sure the Queen was relieved to be distanced from the politicians, and that there’s no hugging until next week.) Even when HM’s beneficent government graciously allow us to hug again, it seems unlikely that the Labour leader, millionaire Sir Keir Starmer, will be showered in kisses by the Shadow Cabinet members that he’s just fired, or for that matter Len McCluskey, John McDonnell and the other Corbynistas. (If he changes his curtains or buys a Dyson, there’s going to be a real furore.)
Odd, isn’t it, that Sir Keir's way of ‘taking full responsibility’ for the election meltdown is to get rid of everyone else? I fear that we can expect much of the same from the EU’s Michel Barnier, who has launched himself on the money-making book circuit, publishing his diaries on the Brexit negotiations. (I imagine this book as being a catalogue of taxpayer-funded fine dining in the Berlaymont, but I think the likely constant refrain of ‘I stamped my feet before breakfast, before lunch and before dinner’ might get a bit tedious.)
The Royal Mail says it’s now employing robotic drones to deliver letters (though some of us thought this had been happening for many decades). And Oxbridge students picketed AstraZeneca's offices to complain that the company, which is supplying vaccines at cost, wasn’t providing it for free. Or something like that. (Talk about robotic drones, indeed…)
But I digress...
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FREEDOM WEEK
Applications close soon!
Freedom Week, our immersion course on the foundations of a free society takes place physically this year, at Cambridge University over the week of 23 August. Run in partnership with our friends at the Institute of Economic Affairs, the week enables 20-30 talented students to discuss the principles of liberty with international experts on the subject. And have some fun in the process. Applications close at the end of May, and there is always strong competition, so get your application in now!
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Disarming tobacco: The UK has a golden opportunity to cut smoking deaths — and show the world how to do the same, says ASI expert Daniel Pryor in our new report, The Golden Opportunity How Global Britain can lead on tobacco harm reduction and save millions of lives. And it’s not by the Government setting an arbitrary 2030 ‘smoke free’ target and crossing their fingers. Rather, Brexit provides the chance to pass vital reforms that will help the UK’s 7m smokers to move to e-cigs and other much lower-risk tobacco products. Such measures include easing restrictions on safer products, with risk-based messaging rather than today’s counterproductive warnings, reviewing safety, and targeting smokers with information about safer alternatives. Read the report here.
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PORN LAWS REPEALED: In a victory for the ASI, the Government's Online Safety Bill will quietly repeal the Porn Laws: compulsory age verification to visit adult sites. This excellent news for privacy and online freedoms.
This means Brits won't have to buy a state-sponsored porn pass or provide a credit card, passport or driver's licence every time they visit a porn site.
But this is a pyrrhic victory. The Online Safety Bill will mandate age verification to access the adult versions of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Find out more here or get a run down on the proposals here.
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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:
Is the future of defence private? ASI Wunderkind Joe Bradshaw asks this iconoclastic question to a group of experts in our next webinar at 6pm UK time on Tuesday 18 May. From the history of private mercenaries in Ancient Greece to a growing presence of private defence contractors in the 21st century, there will surely be much to discuss. Register here.
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The future of taxation: With international powers exploring a trendy multilateral tax consensus, growing public appetite for increased spending, and major political parties in the middle of soul-searching missions, are we seeing a realignment in partisan attitudes towards tax? The ASI’s Morgan Schondelmeier wonders if our opinions on the specifics of fiscal rates or the theory that underpins them have changed and whether or not we still care about the tax burden? (There's a hint here about the likely date of Tax Freedom Day –– Ed.)
She’ll be joined by Steve Baker MP, Polly Mackenzie of Demos, and Richard Teather of Tax Strategy Consultancy. Register here now!
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Catch Up:
What to make of the midterms? Super Thursday was almost a national election, with devolved administration, local government and mayoral positions up for grab. The SNP upped their vote but still failed to win a majority. Labour did well in Wales, but lost the Hartlepool by-election. And the Tory candidate in London gave the incumbent mayor a fright. So what does that all tell us? Earlier this week, ASI’s Matt Kilcoyne brought in GB News journo Tom Harwood, New Statesman deputy Rachel Cunliffe, and Scottish Daily Mail columnist Stephen Daisley to find out. Watch it here.
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Our antipodean cousins: We've always been fond of our cousins down under, but what is the future of our relationship with our Australian friends? With vastly difference experiences of Covid, the looming threat of China, and a trade deal to sign, our connections with Oz have never been more important. Matt Kilcoyne is joined by four Australian experts and expats to discuss. Watch it here.
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Podcasts:
No pictures. Just great words. Greater listening.
Find The Pin Factory on all your favourite podcast providers: iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Podbean
British midterms and the Queen’s Speech. The dynamic duo of Matthew Lesh and Daniel Pryor sit down with The Telegraph’s Madeline Grant to chat about the fallout of the British midterm election results, as well as the highs and lows of the various policy pronouncements in the Queen’s speech.
Reopening, harm reduction and recovery. In this episode, the ASI’s Matthew Lesh and Daniel Pryor talk to the Institute of Economic Affairs head of lifestyle economics, Chris Snowdon, on the pace of reopening, on our latest report on tobacco harm reduction and how to propel the UK’s post-Covid economic recovery.
Lobbying, red tape and online safety. Our own Matthew Lesh and Daniel Pryor are joined by the Institute of Economic Affairs head of regulatory affairs, Victoria Hewson, to discuss the current state of lobbying in Westminster, how to unravel red tape and whether the proposed online safety law is really fit for purpose.
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Our school and university visits are up and running again, so if you would like an ASI speaker to talk to your class or society, contact our Head of Programmes, Daniel. Among our first events is a full-day ISOS — the Independent Seminar on the Open Society — scheduled in Surrey on July 13th. So again, if you would like us to organise a full-day course and bring in other schools, just email Daniel. We’ve also been holding virtual school talks, such as with Brentwood School’s Economics Society, so if you’d prefer a Zoom chat with our experts then do get in touch!
The final group of our John Blundell Studentships, set up seven years ago in honour of the late think-tank leader, will be announced soon. The studentships help students to complete higher degrees and go on to become ‘multipliers’ who spread an understanding of the principles of individual, social and economic freedom to future generations. Read more here.
Internships. We offer university students two-week unpaid internships in our Westminster office. The internships are a great opportunity for those with an interest in politics and economics to learn about (and be part of) the UK policymaking process. But it’s very competitive. So read about how to apply here — and get your application in straight away!
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Donate:
A few dedicated people really can change the world. If they have the support of people who understand that fact. We educate young people and the wider public about the principles of individual, social and economic freedom. And we don’t take government grants, furloughs or subsidies from hard-working taxpayers to do it. But we do rely on you.
Over a difficult year we have massively increased our outreach through webinars, podcasts, educational initiatives and event-changing research and publications. Help us keep up this momentum and educate the minds of a generation.
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We fought back against the nanny state in more ways than one this month. Daniel Pryor’s new paper on the opportunities to be gained by liberal policies towards vaping and reduced risk products featured in the Sun and in Wired. Then, with the resurgence of the Government’s total ban on ‘junk food’ advertising online and intrusive mandatory calorie labels, we made sure to show these policies for what they are: illiberal, ineffective, and unevidenced. Our comments featured in The Telegraph, The Evening Standard, the i Newspaper, MSN, and Wired, and Matt Kilcoyne wrote up the entire tale in The Telegraph. You can find out more about our position on the Mad Ad Ban Plan here.
Our words graced the pages of CapX all month: Research Associate Joe Bradshaw made his debut discussing the proposed voter ID laws; Fellow Tim Worstall wrote on the lessons of the Post Office scandal as well as the post-war period; Matthew Lesh warned against the Online Safety Bill once more and cautioned against the waiving of vaccine patents; and President Madsen Pirie busted the myth of trickle-down economics.
In other Covid-related news, ASI author James Lawson comments on Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, calling it propaganda seeking to undermine western vaccines. Meanwhile, Lesh wrote for The Telegraph on Australia’s monstrous and backwards border policies.
In other news: Matthew Lesh made his debut in the Wall Street Journal on how Oxford’s insistence on shunning profit set back vaccine development; head of Government Affairs John Macdonald wrote for the re-launched 1828 on the future of corporation tax; Lesh slammed economic-illiterate Sadiq Khan for his rent control ‘policy’ in The Express, and discussed planning reform in CityAM; Matt Kilcoyne’s comments on Biden’s international tax plan appeared in The Telegraph, and his comments on Scottish Help to Buy featured in Bella Caledonia; finally, Lesh rounded out his monthly quota of media bids by roundly criticising the Government’s shocking Online Safety Bill in both the Mail Online and Guido Fawkes.
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On our hyper-blog
Theorising about moral theory. I report on the two hundred and somethingth anniversary (oh, do get it right — Ed.) of Adam Smith’s first great book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which made his name and fortune. Smith’s groundbreaking account of how our views of right and wrong derive from our psychology as social beings shattered the consensus and became an international best seller — giving him the time and opportunity to write The Wealth of Nations.
Happy birthday, Hayek. Not Salma, but the important one. The great political and social thinker F A Hayek would have been, well, pretty old (there you go again — Ed.) this month. He showed how and why socialist central planning and Keynesian economic policies were based on the ‘fatal conceit’ that economists knew enough to run entire economies. (Most of them couldn’t run a chip shop — Ed.)
Tax expert (and upcoming webinar guest –– Ed.) Richard Teather wishes he’d thought of the title Tax Tyranny in his review of French economist Pascal Salin’s new book on the subject. Written for the general reader, the book zooms straight into the issues of what taxation is there for, how tax policy often misunderstands human nature, and why reducing the tax burden is vital if society is to work well. As for tax competition, well, we need more of it, not less (as the US administration is proposing to the world).
An excellent economic experiment. Economics likes to think of itself as a ‘science’, but there is precious little scope for economists to conduct useful tests of their theories, says Tim Worstall. But now a couple of US states are phasing out Covid unemployment benefits faster than the others, allowing us to see whether prolonged government support is really the way to rebuild a dynamic recovering economy. It’s not that ending the support is a good thing, but that we will be able to see the specific effects of governments stepping back a bit.
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AND I QUOTE...
I’m not sure who coined the phrase, but as they say in Westminster, you’re never more than fifteen feet away from a chatty rat.
Bye,
e
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