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December 2019

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Welcome to the IEA Weekend Newsletter!


**
* Join our club!
* Manifesto overload
* Uber ‘n’ out
* The measure of poverty
* Best of the blog
* Last Chance - Hayek 2019!

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** Join our club!
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Books sit at the very heart of the IEA’s work as an educational charity. For over half a century our research publications – written by acclaimed authors from around the world – have promoted the intellectual case for free markets and the huge benefits they bring.

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TheIEA Book Club ([link removed]) is a brand new offering bringing you:
* Priority copies of the latest IEA Books
* Invitations to exclusive book launches and interviews
* The opportunity to hear from – and engage with – internationally-acclaimed and award-winning writers.
* The chance to network with leading think tank figures and become part of an exclusive community of individuals with a shared love of books, individual liberty and free markets

You can sign uphere ([link removed]) , or for more information get in touch with us at [email protected]

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If you join now, you’ll receive an invitation to two exciting and exclusive Book Club events, with author and journalist Charles Moore and Sir Anthony Seldon, where we will be celebrating their newly published biographies on the UK’s two female Prime Ministers.


** Manifesto overload
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Last Sunday, the Conservative Party launched their election manifesto, including a “triple tax lock” on income, VAT and National Insurance, a recommitment to bringing in a digital services tax, an end to hospital car parking charges for many users, and a £1bn boost in childcare subsidies.

IEA spokespeople responded ([link removed]) to the variety of proposals, noting that the Conservatives’ mantra of ‘get Brexit done’ has yet to be coupled with policies that would encourage an economic boom post-Brexit

IEA Director General Mark Littlewood argued that the manifesto raised a series of questions about the party’s commitment to fiscal responsibility, and whether the Conservatives can still meaningfully brand themselves the party of taxpayers.

He noted that “the Conservatives have yet to be clear about how they intend to meet their substantial spending commitments without either raising taxes overall, increasing public debt or both.”

Read the full press release here ([link removed]) , featuring comments from Mark, Economics Fellow Julian Jessop, Editorial and Research Fellow Prof Len Shackleton and Associate Director Kate Andrews.

The IEA’s responses were featured in a variety of media outlets, including in the Daily Telegraph ([link removed]) .

Mark penned an article for the Times Red Box ([link removed]) on the Conservatives’ ‘triple tax lock’.

Mark argued that while the proposal of a “triple tax lock” might sound like good news for low-tax, free marketeers, this is likely to put pressure on civil servants and politicians to increase other taxes to pay for the manifesto spending pledges.

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

Meanwhile, Kate Andrews used her City AM column ([link removed]) to argue that the Conservatives’ manifesto is short-termist in design and lacks a coherent narrative about the future of our economy, with pledges to increase spending and borrowing, while ignoring the near-50 year high tax burden.

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

Also this week, the Conservatives announced their 'Brexit roadmap', which includes plans to introduce a new state aid regime and to promote a 'buy British' rule for public bodies.

IEA spokespeople responded to the announcements, arguing that calls to expand state aid translate to "veiled support for cronyism", noting that interventionist and protectionist policies always end up disadvantaging smaller businesses in favour of a few giants.

Our comments were featured across the media, including appearing on the BBC News homepage ([link removed]) , in theFinancial Times ([link removed]) , the Guardian ([link removed]) and elsewhere.

Read the full press release here ([link removed]) .


** Uber-n-out
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This week, Transport for London publicly announced that it will not be renewing Uber’s licence in London.

The IEA’s Director of the International Trade and Competition Unit Shanker Singham commented ([link removed]) on the decision, noting it was a “dark day for competition”. The app has made significant safety improvements, Shanker added, and vulnerable groups will now be at “more at risk waiting on a dark kerb for a ride in the middle of the night.”

Shanker’s comments were picked up by City AM ([link removed]) and the Financial Times ([link removed]) .

Read his full response here ([link removed]) .


Writing for The Article ([link removed]) , our Director General Mark Littlewood argued that TfL’s effective ban on Uber shows “the direction of bureaucratic travel”. He went on to argue that the move demonstrates a desire to “strip us of making our own transport choices” and suggests the move is motivated in part by the entrenched and vested interests of the traditional cab industry.

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

Meanwhile, our Associate Director Kate Andrews discussed the topic on BBC Politics Live ([link removed]) , arguing that the ruling is an effective ban that will hurt the tens of thousands of workers and over three million frequent users of the app, to many of whom black cabs are prohibitively expensive.

Kate also penned a piece for Spectator Coffee House ([link removed]) , arguing that the Uber ban is “just more pointless protectionism” and will have a dramatic, and negative, impact on many Londoner’s standards of living.

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

And Head of Communications Emma Revell argued in a piece for CapX ([link removed]) that the decision to ban Uber went directly against the Mayor of London’s campaign to keep the capital “open for business” following the Brexit vote.

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


** The measure of poverty
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This week on theIEA Podcast ([link removed]) , Digital Manager Darren Grimes was joined by Dr Kristian Niemietz, Head of Political Economy at the IEA and author of the 2011 release ‘A New Understanding of Poverty' ([link removed]) to discuss how we measure poverty figures.

When the early poverty researchers Charles Booth and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree visited the East End of London in the late 19th century, measuring poverty was a relatively simple matter of counting the number of people engaged in a daily struggle to exist in the face of absolute hardship.

Today, measuring poverty in developed nations has become a far more complex and contested matter. The struggle to acquire the basic essentials (food, shelter and hygiene) no longer exists on such a widespread basis.

But many groups, including the UK government and charities such as Oxfam, believe that poverty remains rife in the United Kingdom.

The UK definition of poverty is relative. You are considered in poverty if you earn less than 60% of median income. But imagine a country in which the national median income is a million pounds - someone making £590,000 a year might well fall below the 60%, but that person would hardly be impoverished.

Is the UK getting its poverty measurements wrong? Is poverty relative, or is it absolute?

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

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) and Podbean ([link removed]) .


** Best of the Blog
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Boris Johnson has announced plans to rejig procurement rules to allow local authorities to support local businesses. Does this make sense in economic terms?

This week on the blog ([link removed]) , IEA Editorial and Research Fellow Prof Len Shackleton examines the economic case of the so-called ‘Preston model’ - the initiative aimed to revive and grow the economy of Preston, one of many apparently ‘left behind’ areas of the country.

As a result of this initiative, the share of the public procurement budget spent within the city has risen from 5% in 2013 to 18%. Similar initiatives across Lancashire have seen the proportion procured locally rising from 39% to 79%.

It has been claimed that as a consequence unemployment in Preston has more than halved, and that there have been above-national-average improvements in transport, skill development and (more tenuously) health and work-life balance.

But this model of ’socialism in one city’, Len argues, while an interesting experiment, seems to negate the advantages of national, let alone international, trade and capital mobility.

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


** Last Chance - Hayek 2019!
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RSVP: Hayek 2019 ([link removed])

There’s limited time left to secure your seat at our 2019 Hayek Memorial Lecture, this Tuesday 3rd December, to be given by acclaimed US author Professor Bryan Caplan.

Professor Caplan (whose book The Myth of the Rational Voter was hailed as the ‘best political book of the year’ by the New York Times) will scrutinise the role of governments and assess the impact of their policies on poverty.

If rich countries severely restrict immigration, does that prevent people from poor countries escaping their homeland’s bad economic policies? Do populist policies in poor countries deepen poverty? And where does individual behaviour come into the poverty equation?

These fascinating themes - and more - will be explored in Professor Caplan’s lecture, which takes place on 3rd December at  Church House, Westminster,  starting at  6.30pm. 


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 lecture.

Last chance to secure your seat at this must-see event, RSVP [email protected] or call 020 7799 890

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