For Westminster watchers, this has been a long fortnight. Boris Johnson’s resignation has triggered a Tory leadership election and, thanks to the Party's large overall majority in Parliament, whoever wins will be immediately sworn in as Prime Minister.

While the media will spend the next six weeks fixated on the drama of the contest, we at the IEA care more about the policy implications. It's clear that after years of anemic growth, punctuated by various crises, we stand at a crucial cross-roads. Will the next Prime Minister set us on a path to prosperity – lower taxes and less regulation – or will we continue to see the state expand and the tax burden rise?

Free Market Forum, the IEA’s outreach group to Conservative MPs, has been working hard to offer all candidates the tools to deliver a manifesto for a freer economy and society. 

While tax has been a serious issue in the first week of the race, whoever wins will need a prospectus for a much wider range of issues facing the UK. How will they solve the housing crisis, which has resulted in the failure to build enough housing to keep up with demand, and left a younger generation doubtful that they will ever own their own home? 

What will they do to protect future generations from being crushed by the UK’s vast public sector debt and unfunded pension promises? Will they have a plan to reduce the regulatory burden harming British businesses and adding to the cost of living?

Hopefully the next six weeks will give us the answers to these questions and more. Whatever the result, we will continue to inform and, hopefully, convince second-hand dealers in ideas (as Hayek called them) of the benefits of free markets and limited government.

Sam Collins
IEA Senior Policy Advisor to the Director General

We at the IEA are keen to spread the ideas of free societies and free markets across the globe in conjunction with our partners in over 100 countries.

A new cooperation with Ideas Beyond Borders has helped us to reach over half a million Arabic speakers with the translation and videos about Classical Liberalism – A Primer.

The majority of the Arabic translations were viewed by people in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia – all regions where popular movements towards freer societies have surfaced powerfully in the last decade. Over two thirds of viewers are people below the age of 40, signaling that the next generation of thought leaders will be better equipped with the ideas of classical liberalism thanks to our partners.

Click here to watch the recent video discussing our primer on classical liberalism in Arabic. If you want to learn more about our activities abroad and support our endeavours, email IEA Head of International Outreach Adam Bartha, at [email protected].

iN THE MEDIA



Own goal.. The next Prime Minister will have a relatively short time to make their mark before the next general election. Writing for The Times, IEA Academic and Research Director James Forder argued that fostering innovation must be a top priority.

To do this, he or she must commit to reducing the UK's regulatory burden. The Online Safety Bill, independent football regulator and the planned Digital Markets Unit are examples of regulation that should be scrapped.

James commented: "All told, there is a regulatory hubris that demeans the free society and shows no sign of having learnt any lesson from the failures of the past."



Time to slash... James Forder also appeared on Times Radio to discuss his article. James made the case for deregulation of the economy to boost innovation and enterprise. You can listen to highlights here. 



Ding dong the Bill is dead... It was reported this week that the Online Safety Bill is to be put on hold, and potentially scrapped altogether. Quoted in the Financial Times and FT Adviser, IEA Head of Regulatory Affairs Victoria Hewson said: 

“The bill not only raises serious free speech issues but has also become complex and unmanageable. The latest amendments have made this situation even worse. The bill should either be abandoned entirely or stripped back to what is absolutely necessary to protect the safety of the most vulnerable."

You can read our latest report on the Bill, 'An Unsafe Bill', authored by Victoria and IEA Head of Public Policy Matthew Lesh, here.

Tighten the purse strings... The latest GDP figures – showing headline growth of 0.5 per cent in May – should ease fears that the UK economy is already tumbling into recession.

However, as IEA Economics Fellow Julian Jessop pointed out in The Telegraph, the data “strengthen the case for the Bank of England to step up the pace of monetary tightening at its August meeting. A half point increase in interest rates is now the bare minimum required to restore some credibility”.



Always look on the bright side... Quoted in The Express, Julian countered the narrative that Brexit has caused economic woe, noting that the recent GDP data prove Brexit has not caused the economic catastrophe that many claimed it would.

Julian commented: “It is notable how the economy has held up a lot better than most people expected so far this year, despite all the stuff about the cost of living and the scare-mongering about Brexit. There is a bias towards misery as I put it, for different reasons. I mean, obviously some people want to use it next chance to attack the Government."



Reasons to be cheerful... Julian Jessop also appeared on Talk TV to discuss GDP data with Julia Hartley-Brewer. The figures show that the economy grew by 0.5 per cent in May, prompting Julian to suggest that we may not be heading towards a recession as quickly as many thought.



An unsafe Bill... Writing for 1828, IEA Head of Cultural Affairs Marc Glendening called on the government to reconsider the proposed Online Safety Bill and examine its potentially dystopian consequences. Marc wrote:

"In a free, open society it is for citizens alone to determine the political opinions they want to access and then judge for themselves their validity or otherwise. The case for state censorship ultimately always rests upon the implicit (sometimes explicit in the case of overtly totalitarian states) assertion that members of the political elite are for some mysterious reason in a better position to decide what is ethically and factually correct than the masses (namely, you and me)."



To cut or not to cut... And with the tax burden at the heart of the leadership contest, IEA Head of Public Policy Matthew Lesh appeared on BBC Radio 2 to discuss whether tax cuts are viable during a period of high inflation. You can listen here. 

CALLING ALL STUDENTS!

We are excited to launch the Economic Thought Leaders’ Symposium at the University of Buckingham from 7-9 September 2022.

The theme for this year’s programme is The Economics of War and Peace. We will discuss topics like trade not war, international institutions, diplomacy and game theory. To apply, please send a CV and cover letter explaining why you’d like to attend, as well as 500 words on promoting the reconstruction of an economy after a war to [email protected] by 17 June 2022. You can find out more here.



We have launched the 2022 Dorian Fisher Essay Competition. Named after the beloved wife of our founder Sir Antony Fisher, this is our biggest essay competition of the year, exclusively for A-Level and IB students.

First prize will receive £500, with a separate prize of £500 for the school with the highest number of entrants. The deadline for this year’s competition is Friday 29 July 2022. You can find out more here.