ASI Bulletin: Farmageddon
Get the UK building again, school talks and why are so many millionaire leaving?
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IN THIS ASI E-BULLETIN:
Get UK building again, if you’re brave enough
School Talks (why not invite us to yours?)
Why are so many millionaires leaving? (Is this a trick question?—Ed.)
From the House of Common Sense
I was at the Guido Fawkes 20th anniversary dinner last week. As Sun journalist Harry Cole said, it was good to be alongside two former prime ministers, Liz and Carrie.
And on Tuesday I was pleased to meet some cheery members of Clarkson’s Army, protesting about the new Inheritance Tax (...and NI, and the new carbon tax on fertiliser, and the accelerated withdrawal of farm support, and ministers who visit them in £420 wellies...) We at the ASI support their calls to axe IHT on farms. In fact, we think IHT should be abolished altogether- you can read our paper on that here.
Over in the MAGA-sphere, President-Elect Trump has made some unexpected cabinet appointments. I was disappointed that Hulk Hogan wasn’t appointed Defense Secretary. But there’s still time to appoint Homer Simpson as Labor Secretary, Mr Bean as National Intelligence Director, Fred Flintstone at Science & Technology, The Grinch at the Treasury and Popeye as Chief of Naval Operations. Over here, of course our Cabinet all think they are Harry Potter or Hermione Granger — they imagine they just have to say some magic words and everything comes right.
But I digress...
NEW REPORTS
New Orders: Using Development Orders to Get Britain Building
None of the main political parties in the UK are willing to deliver real planning reform. No legislation is planned, even though the government has a large majority in the House of Commons. But, says Henry Hill, there are existing tools that could do the job — if our politicians are brave enough.
Development Orders, which let politicians grant permission to specific projects, or any projects in a certain area, could be widely applied to build the homes and infrastructure we need at pace.
The Return of Industrial Strategy
The industrial strategy consultation closes on the 24th November- and the Government is likely to recommend an expensive industrial strategy which tries to ‘pick winners’ and direct economic growth. In this impressive essay, Sam Bidwell outlines the real reasons for Britain’s industrial decline- namely industrial strategy!
Rather than embrace state-planning, Sam argues we should liberalise planning rules around housing and infrastructure, embrace innovation and address energy costs.
UPCOMING EVENTS
The 2024 Adam Smith Lecture 2024
On 27th November, we're delighted to be hearing from Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman of the advertising company Ogilvy UK and Britain's most bohemian adman.
The event takes place in Tavistock Square, London, and Rory will be talking about young people, creativity and capitalism. In a classic Sutherlandism, he'll be explaining what Adam Smith taught us about human nature—and what economists promptly forgot about it! We are now at capacity - but you can join a wait list here.
The Next Generation: Baroness Smith
As the days get shorter and the nights grow colder, wayward wonks seek solace in what they know best—talking politics. Combating the bleak midwinter, we're warming our bodies with mulled wine and our hearts with spirited discussion. So our next TNG guest is Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, the Plaid Cymru life peer and youngest member of the House of Lords. She'll be drawing on her experience and knowledge to discuss the importance of youth engagement with politics.
RECENT EVENTS
The Next Generation: We hosted Lord Mendelsohn of Finchley, Labour life peer and our new patron. He spoke about why he's joined the ASI and how Labour can make the most of its veritable free-market tradition.
Enlightenment Evening: Can Free Markets be Feminist? So asked a naked Dr. Victoria Bateman, economic historian and author of the books The Sex Factor: How Women made the West Rich (2019) and Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty (2023) at a recent Enlightenment Evening.
Enlightenment Evening: Farewell Non-Doms: And this week we discussed our recent reports Farewell Non-Doms: How non-dom reforms can damage Britain’s finances and Doms Away: Alternatives to the Abolition of the Non-Dom Regime. We figure the Budget’s changes to the non-dom regime could cost the UK £6.5 billion by 2035.
The issue was debated by Maxwell Marlow (Director of Research at the Adam Smith Institute), Tristan Honeyborne (private client lawyer specialising in tax), Sophie Dworetzsky (Partner at Charles Russell Speechlys; non-dom tax adviser; Top 10 tax adviser 2019) and Michael Brooker (Bloomberg Opinion Columnist).
We are- as the youths now apparently say- so back. Our events are all now standing room only or are selling out in advance. So if you’d like to come to any of our upcoming events, make sure to sign up as early as possible. And keep an eye on our website for the exciting programme of events we’ve got coming up next year.
SCHOOL TALKS
Our own Maxwell Marlow spoke at Kings College Maths School last week. As he says: "One of the best parts of working in a think tank is our educational outreach programme. We do dozens of school and university talks across the UK, bringing economics, philosophy, and policy analysis to classrooms and lecture theatres. At King’s Maths School, I addressed the dire effects of the housing crisis on the UK economy, and was pleased by the challenging and pertinent questions put to me by the students."
As well as Maxwell, our Senior Fellow Lord Lilley is scheduled to speak at multiple school talks. If you are a school teacher and think your students would benefit from a talk, lecture, or workshop with the Adam Smith Institute's team of experts, do get in touch with us at info@adamsmith.org.
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
ASI's Sam Bidwell was on Thought Leaders UK where he discussed how The Next Generation Centre is working to promote free-market ideas. Watch it here.
ASI Research Director Maxwell Marlow (He gets everywhere—Ed.) was in the Telegraph explaining how the Budget will increase the cost of mini-nukes. (That’s generators, not small missiles…) and on the front-page of the Telegraph (again) on why we shouldn’t prioritise relationships with Brussels over the US.
Senior Fellow Charles White-Thomson was in CityAM discussing the markets' response to the Budget (Rather glum, I’d think—Ed.)
Patron Nadhim Zahawi was in the Telegraph on what’s gone so wrong for the German economy- and the lessons we should be learning from it back here in Britain.
And Henry Hill was in Cap X on planning reform. He also discussed our Development Corporations paper on Times Radio.
ON THE SUPERBLOG
Maxwell Marlow on the US election: It's the (money), stupid.
Eamon Butler on how Milton Friedman was the economist who changed everything.
Cameron da Silva Clamp on the consolidation of pension funds.
Madsen Pirie has been busily suggesting ideas to government. He’s been writing blogs on alternatives to university loans, cutting Civil Service numbers and transforming ugly buildings.
OUR LATEST VIDEOS
Why are so many millionaires fleeing the UK?
Before the end of this parliament, the share of the population who are total millionaires will fall from 4.55% to 3.62%. That is a decrease of 20%. We take a look at why this is happening. For more, check out our Millionaire Tracker!
Is there a progressive case for reducing migration?
We discuss our recently released paper Selecting the Best: Building a Future-Focused Immigration System.
HELP US REVERSE BRITAIN’S DECLINE
Over the last year, we’ve been injecting sound ideas into the public policy debate, championing our entrepreneurs and wealth creators, and empowering young people to challenge the status quo through our educational outreach programme. And we’ve got even bigger plans for 2025- but we need your support.
This Christmas, please consider making a monthly donation to the Adam Smith Institute.
£10 a month allows us to host a panel discussion in our office for an audience of 40-50, bringing leading experts together to push forward the free-market solutions to the most pressing issues of today.
£50 a month significantly contributes to us being able to run an event for a larger audience of 100+, introducing more people to neoliberal economics and platforming even more visionary thinkers—like Lord Hannan, Steven Pinkerton and Rory Sutherland.
£100 a month empowers us to educate more young people through outreach (such as school visits and our coveted Freedom Week), or helps us pay for one of our Next Generation Centre fellows.
And I quote…
Strikes me that Marcus Tullius Cicero had it right in 55 BC:
“The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn’t want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
Bye,
e
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