Join us as we take on the tankies

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IN THIS ASI BULLETIN:


* THINK TANK: Against the odds our rail report makes it onto the otherwise-distracted media.

* GAS TANK: A singer, a philosopher and an economist walk into the ASI…

* BATTLE TANK: Death cultists, death cults and over-meddling politicians


But first, the week in review...

The shops are suddenly full of products with tinsel and reindeer on them, which can mean only one thing—it’s time for the annual Royal Mail Christmas strike. Facebook says it is going to fight fake news. [Bad marketing—it’s only the lack of unrelentingly awful real news that makes Facebook bearable — Ed.]

Lonely Planet says the UK is second only to Bhutan as a tourist destination. Presumably Lonely Planet admires Bhutan’s autocratic government, idleness and complete lack of modern technology. (Mind you, if Jeremy Corbyn gets elected, we’ll easily overtake them on those scores.) [Could be sooner than you think—Ed.]

Tory MPs have called Jeremy Corbyn two-faced for first demanding an election to discomfit the government and then blocking an election because he knows he’d lose it. (Nonsense, of course: if he really were two-faced, would he be wearing that one?)

Port Talbot, which the Welsh actor Michael Sheen claims is a favourite stopover for UFOs, delivered a Labour majority of 16,761 in the 2017 election. Is it any wonder that the government wants to introduce voter ID cards?

The Queen was in Westminster to open Parliament last week. (I noticed she was clutching tightly onto her purse.) Her job was merely to read out the government’s programme, which could be done better by any BBC announcer. (As long as they didn’t demand equal pay, of course.) Prince Charles also attended, as he is next in line to the pretend crown: the real monarch remained in the Supreme Court building.

There, and I didn’t even mention the B-word.




** Ayn Rand Lecture
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** Thursday 14 November
6pm-9pm
City of London
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Star filmmaker and author Johan Norberg delivers this year’s Ayn Rand Lecture at the swank Drapers’ Hall in the City of London. His topic: Progress: Who Needs it?

Human creativity has given us a golden age of health, wealth and truly amazing technologies. But there are always people—Rand’s ‘parasites’—who prefer to live off these achievements, rather than help create them. Norberg argues that we need to embrace freedom and see off the parasites if we are to progress—and why failing to do so could produce an anti-industrial revolution and mounting poverty.

He’s a great speaker, by the way. You’ll love it. Lubrication provided, of course.
RSVP NOW (mailto:[email protected]?subject=RSVP%20to%20Ayn%20Rand%20Lecture&body=Dear%20ASI%20events%20team%2C%0A%0ACould%20I%20please%20request%20a%20place%20at%20the%20Ayn%20Rand%20Lecture%202019%20at%20Drapers%20Hall%20in%20the%20City%20of%20London%20at%206pm%20on%20Thursday%2014th%20November%3F%0A%0AKind%20regards%2C)

THINK TANK

We figured there was no point in releasing much when the papers are running you-know-what news on pages 1, 3-14, 21, 35-38. So we have a backlog to release when all the arguing’s over. Should be quite a busy time for us in 2024, then. Still, our recent paper on HS2 ([link removed]) , which will deliver 78p of value for every £1 spent (and there’s quite a few billion of those) got extensive coverage, so that’s good. [There’s quite a few coming in the next couple of weeks boss — Ed.]


GAS TANK


Last week we staged a sensational and packed meeting with Denise Ho, Hong Kong singing star turned rights activist, on the civil unrest in the territory. Unsettling stuff. Watch out for it on our YouTube channel. And she’s a lot prettier than Matt Lesh, who does most of our other videos. [I don’t think you’re allowed to say that—Ed.]

Coming up, we have a sensational speaker of a quite different sort, the noted philosopher, business analyst and liberal guru Dr Elaine Sternberg. Her subject will be Spontaneous Order: Common Confusions, Unexpected Examples. Sounds riveting, huh? But actually you need to be there to understand a key defence of individual liberty. Economists know all about the ‘invisible hand’ but social ’scientists’ and politicians just don’t get why the rest of society can run itself perfectly well without them. Friday 29 November at 6pm. Ask [email protected] for invites.

In December it’s the celebrated ASI Christmas Party [Christmas? Look, you can’t say that anymore either—Ed.]

And then in January KCL Prof Dr Anja Shortland will tell us about The Economics of Kidnapping. No, it’s not a how-to-do-it manual, but she will explain why kidnapping is not just random but a complex and well-run international business—as is the response to it. An intriguing insight into a hidden world. Wednesday 22 January at 6pm. Ask [email protected] for invites.

Leading economist Roger Bootle is joining us in February, by the way, to talk about Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age. [If he charges us a speaking fee we’ll be replacing him with a robot!—Ed.] Details on www.adamsmith.org/events .

Remember: Ninety percent of success in life is simply turning up… [The rest is having lunch—Ed.]

Speaking of lunch, our friends over at the Institute of Economic Affairs are hosting Ron Manners who is launching his new book “The Lonely Libertarian” – a compelling book explaining how to combine a successful career whilst simultaneously still speaking up for liberty. The event will take place on Wednesday 30th October 11am to 1pm at IEA’s offices in Westminster. To get yourself a spot and a sandwich, email [email protected]


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BATTLE TANK


Extinction Rebellion—the only pressure group to pick its name out of a thesaurus—chose to stand outside our door beating drums and hurling slogans, insults, and puerile speeches at the government department opposite. So we made them feel how annoyed ([link removed]) ordinary folk get by such things by drowning out their speeches with loud music ([link removed]) blaring from our window. They didn’t much like it…
Yes, the planet will overheat and we will all die...I think. Though ten years ago a NASA scientist predicted that the Arctic would be ice-free by now and that New York would be under water, while in the 1970s satellite data made everyone worried about the coming Ice Age. In 2002 we were told we’d all be starving by now unless we stopped eating meat and fish. And every year since about 1910, people have predicted that oil will run out in ten years. Just some of the interesting death-cultism recorded by Dr Madsen Pirie ([link removed]) .

Meanwhile, Parliament has decided to ban gas boilers (even biogas or hydrogen) in new homes from 2023. (Poor dears, they are getting so confused about things these days—Ed.) They’d be better to specify outputs, not particular technologies, says Tim Worstall, but they have form: in 1690 Parliament voted money for new warships, specifying the tonnage and artillery for each. So the Navy ended up with cramped, weak, unstable and over-heavy ships. Why not leave the actual technology to people who actually know something?


PRESSURE TANK


The Government has announced that the Porn Laws - age verification for adult content -will not go ahead ([link removed]-) . This is a huge victory for online freedom and privacy. You will not be forced to enter identification to view perfectly legal adult content.

This follows the Adam Smith Institute'sextensive campaign ([link removed]-) covered byThe Sun ([link removed]-) (a fewtimes ([link removed]-) ),Evening Standard
([link removed]-) , Daily Mail ([link removed]-) , Daily Star ([link removed]-) ,The Telegraph
([link removed]-) , UniLad ([link removed]-) ,Attitude ([link removed]-) ,i Newspaper
([link removed]-) ,Guido Fawkes ([link removed]-) , and including opinion pieces inThe Times ([link removed]-) ,CapX ([link removed]-) , and
Spiked! ([link removed]-) .

The government’s social-justice proxies are at it again. The Bank of England now wants even more businesses to release their ‘gender pay gap’ statistics. Our Morgan [despite the unisex name, she’s a woman - Ed.] roundly dismisses the idea in The Telegraph ([link removed]) .

Gap year kids Charlie and Julia have been writing non-stop for 1828. Charlie on reforming National Insurance ([link removed]) [he’s very annoyed at the amount the Chancellor takes out of his paycheck every month — Ed.], and Julia on the failures of Spain’s socialist party ([link removed]) to come up with any good ideas [despite writing up 370 of them in their manifesto — Ed.]


EXPANSION TANK

Charlotte Kude has now joined us as our new Head of Government Affairs and is already making her mark, explaining to CityAM ([link removed]) why the UK should resist any level playing field requirements in the next round of EU-UK negotiations.

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MONUMENTAL TANK


Today the ASI launched our newest project, a memorial to F A Hayek. We had such fun raising a statue to Adam Smith in Edinburgh that we had to give it another go. This time we hope to erect a monument to the work of Hayek in London, his adoptive city. To find out more (and to donate to the cause) visit adamsmith.org/hayek ([link removed]) . [Excuse the language, only so many ways to say ‘put up a statue’ … - Ed.]


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ANTI-TANK


As the UK Parliament drowns in its own chaos, I recall the wise words of philosopher Sir Karl Popper:

"I am inclined to think that rulers have rarely been above the average, either morally or intellectually, and often below it. And I think that it is reasonable to adopt, in politics, the principle of preparing for the worst…"

The Open Society and its Enemies, Ch. 7

Bye…

E


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