Witness neoliberalism live and in Technicolor!

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IN THIS ASI BULLETIN:


* FORUM: Quick fire ideas from flying cars to bashing Big Brother

* GIANT STATUE: Today's politicians need a large dose of Hayek

* VAPE NATION: How the UK can double down on alternatives to smoking


But first...

Pundits forecast an election boost for Boris if England won the Rugby World Cup, which they didn’t. (So I guess that means we’ll have to remain in the EU now.) Still, Jeremy Corbyn’s promise to ‘go after the billionaires’ must have been well received by the Tory election fundraisers.

Also in this campaign, doctors’ trade unions (aka ‘Royal Colleges’) say that the NHS should not be made ‘political’ in this election campaign. (Guys, we’re talking a nationalised state industry, spending £162bn of taxpayers’ money — second only to benefits and pensions. Of course it’s ‘political’.) LibDem leader Jo Swinson complained that she wasn’t invited onto the TV debates (and nobody noticed), while Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said he wasn’t standing (and got wall-to-wall coverage).

In Westminster itself, controversial Commons Speaker John Bercow has stepped down, and the Home Secretary has downgraded the national terrorism threat level. (Security chiefs would not be drawn on whether these two things are related.) The new Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, says he’s going to remove the ‘tarnish’ from Parliament. (You’ll need more than one can of Brasso for that, mate.)

The Royal Mint says it’s going to give away 20,000 old ‘silver’ threepences in order to encourage coin collecting. (Since they retail at £8.50 apiece, that’s £170,000 of taxpayers’ money that’s just being given away!) Still, they can always print some more — Ed. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of 'Brexit 31 October 2019' 50p coins are now redundant. (The Royal Mint is playing a blinder, isn’t it?)

But I digress…


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**
Forum 2019
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** Saturday 7 December
10am-5pm
Soho, London
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Forum is our day of machine-gun talks outlining radical (but reasonable) ideas that will make the world a freer, better, richer place. It will be at the Comedy Store in London’s West End (should be a laugh, then?—Ed.) on Saturday 7 December. Bookstore, bulk discounts and booze afterwards. Our panellists include top tweeter Sam Bowman, science writer man Tom Chivers, sociologist Dr Ashley Frawley, filmmaker Sophie Sandor, and lots of others, on topics from flying cars, Big Brother, political correctness and much else. Get your ticket before they sell out. Or tickets! We don’t discriminate… — Ed.
Buy your tickets here! ([link removed])

HAYEK MEMORIAL PROJECT


We are planning a memorial in London to the Nobel economist and liberal political philosopher F A Hayek. We have our eye on a site near to the London School of Economics, where he taught for 17 years and from which he launched his interwar debates with Keynes on planning and monetary policy. As one of the leading thinkers on free markets and the free society, Hayek deserves a memorial. Find out more or donate here ([link removed]) .

By the way, I told Sunday Telegraph ([link removed]) readers about the project and why the Tory Party should heed his words, end its managerialism, and return to principle. “We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage,” he wrote, calling for "a truly liberal radicalism … which does not spare the susceptibilities of the mighty ... and which does not confine itself to what appears today as politically possible….” Quite.

PUBLICATIONS AND EVENTS


Up in smoke: or perhaps vapour. A new report ([link removed]) by our vice expert (he only does theory, though) Daniel Pryor, notes that the UK is a world leader in encouraging its 8.5m smokers to switch to (95% less harmful) vape or heat-not-burn nicotine products. The majority of vapers are ex-smokers, but EU regulations prevent companies from telling smokers just how much safer the alternatives are. Come Brexit, that needs to change.

What a pity you missed our ‘The Next Generation’ event on 5 November. Appropriately we had the man himself — Guido Fawkes, alternatively known as Paul Staines. And we’ve moved our Christmas party to January. Haha, I thought you were against an extension — Ed.

Still, you can always come to our Ayn Rand Lecture next week (Nov 14)! Documentary filmmaker and author Johan Norberg delivers this year’s talk 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. Drinks provided, of course.
RSVP to Ayn Rand Lecture 2019 here! (mailto:[email protected]?subject=RSVP%3A%20Ayn%20Rand%20Lecture%202019&body=Dear%20ASI%2C%0A%0AI%20would%20like%20to%20request%20a%20place%20for%20the%20annual%20Ayn%20Rand%20Lecture%20on%20November%2014th%202019.%0A%0ABest%20regards%2C%0A)

And after that you can have philosopher and business guru Dr Elaine Sternberg stretch your mind on Spontaneous Order: Common Confusions, Unexpected Examples. 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. But you can. Friday 29 November at 6pm. Ask [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=RSVP%3A%20Elaine%20Sternberg%20Lecture) for invites.

We’re out and about as usual. Madsen did a talk to the Hayek Society in Oxford, I did the Libertarian Party Conference in Manchester (Libertarian and Party seem contradictory — Ed.) and I’m off to speak at our day-long presentations at schools in the Cotswolds and Wimbledon, Daniel rose from his sick-bed to talk to 100 school students but can’t quite remember what he said…and much more.

MEEJA


Tory to-do list: Our Deputy Director Matt Kilcoyne featured in ConHome ([link removed]) with recommendations for the Conservative Party manifesto. Conveniently, his recommendations looked nothing like the proposals from Labour’s John McDonnell which Matt bashed in The Telegraph ([link removed]) , The Sun ([link removed]) and The Daily Mail ([link removed]) .

Matthew Lesh had a few suggestions for the Tories of his own - appearing in the Telegraph ([link removed]) insisting that the Tories get back to the base that won them election after election in their heyday.

On the topic of speaking in the media, Lesh also called ([link removed]) for the need to defend free speech in light of the disgraceful kowtowing of UK universities to China as they continue to crack down on pro-Hong Kong demonstrations.

Our resident Spain-enthusiast Julia Behan tells us that ([link removed]) moving Franco’s remains was a step in the right direction and that Spain is confronting its fascist past.


ON THE BLOG


Gunpowder treason: Dr Madsen Pirie continues his anniversary blog with a 5 November piece on the Gunpowder Plot and how an anonymous tip-off saved Parliament from being completely annihilated. (Won’t save them this time round — Ed.)
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Tim Worstall notes how the literacy gender gap between school-age girls and boys is narrowing because, while the girls as always have their noses stuck into books, the boys are now gazing into their social-media screens. Well, I suppose that helps literacy of a sort.
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Charlie Paice reviews Roger Bootle’s The AI Economy. Bootle, he says, thinks government should set the right legal framework and pretty much leave artificial intelligence development to itself. And he is optimistic: much of what we have on our iPhones would have startled people as ‘machine intelligence’ only a few years ago, but now we live with it and benefit from it. Pretty much the same is likely to happen now. He’ll be speaking at the ASI in February, email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) for a place!
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AND I QUOTE...

An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.
—George Bernard Shaw

Quite. Bye…

Eamonn


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