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Like this bulletin? Tell your friends. Don’t like it? Tell me. — E

IN THIS ADAM SMITH INSTITUTE E-BULLETIN:
* It’s privatisation, Jim, but not as we know it.
* Why it's good to be back in school.
* Resource depletion? Phooey.

BUT FIRST...

Steve Barclay, the new Downing Street Chief of Staff, has promised a smaller state. (Which sounds great, until you discover that he’s creating a new government department to deliver it.) Meanwhile, the UK economy has recorded the highest growth (7.5%) since the Second World War. (Yes, we’re very good at bouncing back from massive devastation created by power-mad politicians.)

Former PM John Major has publicly criticised fellow Tory Boris Johnson. (Wasn’t he the guy who took the Tories to their worst-ever election defeat?—Ed.) Prices are rising, and apparently you can pay up to £27,000 for a sheepdog. (Worth it, if it would round up all these bleating Tories.) Two days after London mayor Sadiq Khan said he had no confidence in the Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the Police Federation announced that it had no faith in him, either. (My mother always told me to trust the police, and it appears she was right.)

After a year of wrangling, the Scottish government has dropped its demand to call Scotland’s freeports ‘Greenport’ and will instead call them ‘Green Freeports”. (Well, that sounds like a good use of staff time and taxpayers’ money.)

But I digress…


** EDUCATION
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It’s good to be back. We delivered our first ‘Independent Seminar of the Open Society’ — a morning of whizzo iconoclastic thinking that kids don’t get in their school books — at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in West London. That’s the first since Covid went and splattered everything. And we have more school talks coming up Putney, Marlow and Battle Abbey. If you would like a speaker or an ISOS at your school, just email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

Applications are still open ([link removed]) for Freedom Week, our immersive free-society-fest in Cambridge (Cambridge? Free Society? isn’t that a contradiction?—Ed.) for talented university students, particularly those thinking of going on further in the academic world. It’s informative and fun so check it out and mingle with some great liberal minds.

Madsen's next economics video series (his last one got zillions of eyeballs) is coming soon, so keep your eyeballs firmly fixed on this screen.


** RESEARCH
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Space invaders ([link removed])

Our report on privatising space (no, I’m not joking and you’d have to read it to appreciate the benefits of the idea) got the front page of (appropriately) the Daily Star ([link removed]) , coverage in The Independent ([link removed]) , the i ([link removed]) , CapX ([link removed]) , by Sputnik ([link removed]) (how ironic). It was even picked up by ASI-super fan Senator Bernie Sanders ([link removed]) !

But that’s us: privatise where no one has privatised before. You really must read how author Rebecca Lowe applies Lockean philosophy to the final frontier. She says that a system of comprehensive moral property rights would increase prosperty, democratise space travel, and safeguard the natural space world for eons to come.


** PODCAST
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The latest episodes of our amazingly popular podcast cover the Russia-Ukraine crisis ([link removed]) , Levelling Up white paper ([link removed]) , our privatise the moon ([link removed]) report and more. So plug in them earphone thingies and expand the ol’ brain.

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Daniel Pryor, Head of Research, discusses potential post-Brexit deregulations.

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Tony Diver, political correspondent for The Telegraph, discusses the likely response to the Levelling Up White Paper.

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Director of Operations Morgan Schondelmeier debunks the idea that the current Government are 'low tax conservatives'.


** EVENTS

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Resource depletion?

Don’t worry, ([link removed])
says Professor Gale Pooley ([link removed]) , as you will discover on March 3rd if you care to register for our evening (in person!) lecture (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Prof%20Gale%20Pooley%20RSVP&body=Dear%20ASI%20team%2C%20%0A%0AI'd%20like%20to%20RSVP%20to%20the%20lecture%20by%20Prof%20Gale%20Pooley%20on%20March%203rd%20at%20the%20ASI%20offices.%0A%0ABest%20wishes%2C) on the subject. Overpopulation, running out of resources, general doom and all the rest is a load of toffee, it seems. Resources have actually become more abundant over time, thanks to innovation and entrepreneurship. Don't believe it? Come and find out the facts.
RSVP (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Prof%20Gale%20Pooley%20Lecture%20RSVP&body=Dear%20ASI%20team%2C%20%0A%0AI'd%20like%20to%20RSVP%20to%20the%20lecture%20by%20Prof%20Gale%20Pooley%20on%20March%203rd%20at%20the%20ASI%20offices.%0A%0ABest%20wishes%2C)


** DONATE
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Resource depletion you say? Help us make it not so by donating to our work!

We don't (never have, never will) take any money from government. It really means we're missing out on quite a lot these days. If you want to lessen the sting and help us fight back against the rising tide of the state, increase our student outreach, host interesting events, and publish even more reports, please consider donating.

We rely entirely on support from friends like yourself. It’s easy, just click the button below!
Donate to the Adam Smith Research Trust ([link removed])


** SUPERBLOG
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Recent posts on the ASI superblog include Dr Madsen Pirie on why windfall taxes ([link removed]) on oil and gas companies are a really bad idea, Tim Worstall on how George Monbiot does not understand the political economy of North Sea Oil ([link removed]) production and Tim Ambler on our strange inability to kick our habit of gold-plating EU regulations ([link removed]) .

I was on GB News at the weekend, reluctantly reckoning that the NHS was unreformable and we’d be better replacing it with — well, almost anybody else’s. And Daniel Pryor was on to chat about free speech online ([link removed]) and told the Daily Mail ([link removed]) about the benefits of market based solutions to climate change.

John Macdonald was in ConHome ([link removed]) on the (rhymes with corn) Laws, Morgan Schondelmeier was in CapX on the same ([link removed]) , and Daniel on GB News ([link removed]) ditto. Morgan was on BBC News ([link removed]) discussing windfall taxes on energy firms and John appeared in CityAM ([link removed]) and spoke to LBC on the same subject. (We’re opposed.) Madsen, meanwhile, was on BBC Radio Scotland on inflation and pay rises ([link removed]) .

ASI Fellow Mark Oates was in CapX ([link removed]) on missing out on a big Brexit benefit ––saving smokers' lives––and also in The Herald ([link removed]) , criticising Scotland's barmy vape ad ban that will actually kill Scottish smokers.

Plus, you won’t want to miss Madsen in CapX ([link removed]) lamenting why as long as politics prevails, policy is paralysed nor ASI Fellow Tim Worstall for Conservative Woman ([link removed]) : Was Johnson misled on his Road to Climate Damascus?


** FOLLOW US FOR MORE
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** AND I QUOTE...
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As we watch events in Ukraine, this from Thomas Paine comes to mind. Not quite the way I would put it, but he has a point:

"War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes."

Bye,

e

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I’ve told you once, but let me say it again. We don’t take any government grants, and over the last 18 months we’ve resisted taking furlough payments and loans from taxpayers who are well overburdened enough. That means we rely exclusively on the financial support of people who understand the importance of what we do, for rational public debate and for freedom and prosperity in the United Kingdom and beyond.

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