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Tom Harrington
West Hampstead, London
Interests: Liberty in our lifetime
Recent Activity
Does an Establishment represent a monopolisation of judgement and peacemaking? If so, does this reduce the quality of the decisions made and raise their economic costs?
In preference to such centralisation of judgement- making power would be its dispersal among competing natural elites.
However democratic processes and attachment to egalitarian sentiments inhibit such developments.
For a fuller explanation:
'Natural Elites, Intellectuals and the State'
http://mises.org/etexts/intellectuals.asp
The need for an Establishment
Here is a commonplace thought amongst Conservatives: in many areas of life, we cannot rely upon mere rules. Rules, baldly stated, without organic systems of interpretation and application, are unlikely to be robust to changing circumstances. Even if they aspire to include complex provisions, t...
Why Conservatives continue to believe that it's possible to put a bridle on the State so as to lead it in a conservative direction is a mystery.
The State has had an atrophying impact on the institution of marriage. Conservatives should be seeking to undermine its influence over marriage.
Trying to use the tax system to bolster the institution of marriage merely helps to legitimise the State's control. Over the longer term this has a highly corrosive effect on the very institution which you claim to support.
Sometimes Conservatives are just their own worst enemy.
A £20-a-week reward for marriage is a lot of money if your disposable income is £87-a-week
Since the Centre for Social Justice published its latest paper - earlier this week - on marriage there have been a number of commentators (eg Philip Collins of The Times and Bagehot) who have said that they wouldn't get married for £20 a week. It's such a misrepresentation of Tory thinking. A ...
Any political commentary that focuses on who's up, who's down, and whether a new policy represents a miniscule move to the left or right is a waste of time.
But on economic matters, Liam Halligan remains a voice of sanity, and over the last few months especially Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's articles have been unmissable.
Whatever happened to The Telegraph's coverage of the Conservatives?
Guido has blogged that The Telegraph is losing £200,000 a week. Ouch. A little while ago I paid tribute to The Telegraph for its expenses-gate coverage. Although the newspaper sometimes failed to make adequate distinction between different examples of abuse I stand by my view that it was - o...
Did Jesus not advocate free choice over the most important decision of all - whether to accept Him as our Saviour?
He didn't say lock 'em up till they repent and convert.
He encouraged people to set an example and to spread the message of Salvation through voluntary interaction.
Not State-coercion.
Many factors likely to tip Christians toward voting Conservative
The Mail on Sunday has the story about Labour's plan to scrap the voting rights of Anglican Bishops in the House of Lords: "Bishops are expected to retain their seats in the House of Lords but be stripped of their voting rights under reforms being drawn up by Gordon Brown. The Government will o...
Taking the property belonging to one individual, under threat of imprisonment, in order to give it to others, is violent. Try to resist, and the violence underpinning State power will become all too clear.
In my view, Christ's commandment to love one another does not find expression through the actions of the State.
Many factors likely to tip Christians toward voting Conservative
The Mail on Sunday has the story about Labour's plan to scrap the voting rights of Anglican Bishops in the House of Lords: "Bishops are expected to retain their seats in the House of Lords but be stripped of their voting rights under reforms being drawn up by Gordon Brown. The Government will o...
"The Conservative commitment to move towards 0.7% of GDP being spent on overseas development."
Why should a Christian support transfers of wealth enforced under threat of imprisonment?
This property, which is breezily described as "0.7% of GDP", ultimately belongs to individuals, rather than a meaningless aggregate.
I don't see the teachings of Jesus reflected in such an act of violence.
Many factors likely to tip Christians toward voting Conservative
The Mail on Sunday has the story about Labour's plan to scrap the voting rights of Anglican Bishops in the House of Lords: "Bishops are expected to retain their seats in the House of Lords but be stripped of their voting rights under reforms being drawn up by Gordon Brown. The Government will o...
To illustrate that one intervention will necessarily beget another intervention, we arguably need to go much further back in time.
Back to those times when market forces were displaced by central banking, when gold was incrementally displaced by fiat currency, and when taxpayers - rather than the individual bank - were forced to bear the risks inherent to banking systems based around fractional reserves.
The crisis is the culmination of these factors.
A fable
There was an old woman who swallowed a cow, I don't know how she swallowed a cow! She swallowed the cow to catch the dog, What a hog! to swallow a dog, She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, Imagine that! to swallow a cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, How absurd! to swallow a bir...
Richard Cobden
Which figures in British history do you think every patriot should know about?
Yesterday, David Cameron responded to Tim’s open letter calling for patriotism to play a big part in the Conservative manifesto. An aspect of Tim’s suggestions was to improve young peoples’ shockingly poor knowledge of British history because it is difficult to love a country you know nothing ...
It still remains a "fatal conceit" to believe that a centralised power can provide wise supervision.
George Osborne promises to put Bank of England back in charge of banking supervision
The Shadow Chancellor has just told the House of Commons that a Conservative government would restore supervision of banks, building societies and other major financial institutions to the Bank of England. That amounts to the effective end of Gordon Brown's Financial Service Authority. The proce...
"However, the good news is, because of what we have learned since the Great Depression, I believe we can avert such a disaster again. Problem is, this government is showing little willingness to implement the lessons we have learned, as there implementation could, in its view, jeopardise a Labour election victory."
But your article doesn't tell us what lessons you believe have been learned since the Great Depression.
Policy makers in central banks and national governments believe that they are implementing policies which reflect the lessons learned since the Great Depression, particularly in running large deficits and seeking to prevent a contraction in the money supply.
If you believe that markets should be allowed to liquidate, then it would be good to see you state it. Some of us would agree. But as your article stands, I have no way of knowing what lessons you believe have been learned.
Perhaps the lessons we should draw are those from the 1921 recession, which never became a 'great depression' because on that occasion markets were allowed to re-allocate economic resources.
Sajid Javid: The deep truth beneath Labour's green shoots
Sajid Javid is a private investor in small businesses. He was previously a senior Managing Director with Deutsche Bank in London, specialising in developing countries. He lives in London with his wife, Laura, and four young children. In this Platform argues that Labour is deliberately overp...
According to The Observer article the Tories want the voucher system to extend to China.
So yes, we'd be borrowing money from the Chinese in order to give it back to them as education vouchers.
While refusing to implement such a voucher scheme in the UK.
It's barking mad.
Conservatives are considering giving the world's poorest "aid vouchers" to buy education
One noteworthy story which was buried in yesterday's Observer suggests that Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell is considering a radical policy departure in his area. A draft document leaked to the paper stated that the party is considering "injecting free-market thinkin...
So the developing world would enjoy a relatively straight forward voucher system, allowing education services to be purchased from the private sector, but in Britain itself, the Conservatives will only introduce Michael Gove's rather more convoluted system.
Will people in the developing world be allowed to spend these vouchers at schools which select on the basis of academic ability? It would be good to know...
Conservatives are considering giving the world's poorest "aid vouchers" to buy education
One noteworthy story which was buried in yesterday's Observer suggests that Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell is considering a radical policy departure in his area. A draft document leaked to the paper stated that the party is considering "injecting free-market thinkin...
It's not sufficient to just gloss over the ERM episode as "ill-fated".
After Lawson's resignation, Thatcher was in an isolated and weakened position, and Major took full advantage to overcome her long-standing opposition to ERM membership.
Although she relented and Britain joined the ERM, Thatcher's scepticism was proved correct, while Major's enthusiasm led to disaster.
Maastricht was presented as an illustration of how the EU was moving in Britain's direction, and Major placed particularly heavy emphasis on subsidiarity. We now know this has amounted to very little.
"Prime Minister, you are no Sir John Major."
This past week I have found myself reflecting on one of the most devastating put-downs in political history was delivered on the 5th October 1988 during the televised US vice-presidential debate in Omaha, Nebraska by Senator Lloyd Bentsen: After his opponent Senator Dan Qualye likened himself ...
The Conservative Party's silence on quantitative easing makes it complicit in this act of vandalism:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/5742424/QE-just-acting-as-a-sugar-rush-for-insolvent-banks-that-deserve-to-fail.html
Sunday 5th July 2009
6pm Lord Bates on CentreRight: "Prime Minister, you are no Sir John Major." 2.45pm WATCH: Alistair Darling discusses banking reform and public spending during a 10-minute interview with Adam Boulton 10.45am WATCH: Sir John Major warns of the dangers of not correcting the public finances 10....
"Strip the Bank of England of its power.
Leaving a team of ‘wise men’ to set interest rates is absurd. Market forces will always do it better"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6619963.ece
Friday 3rd July 2009
5pm Seats and candidates: Another classic misleading Liberal Democrat bar chart 4.30pm Local Government: Another Council byelection result 4.15pm Jim McConalogue on CentreRight: Bill Cash receives overwhelming support 3.30pm Dr Patrick Nolan on CentreRight: Funding future care requires individ...
That should have been:
But it's those who eschew political action, in favour of ideas, who have benefited most from new means of communication.
Whither the IEA?
Tim raises some very good questions surrounding the future of the Institute for Economic Affairs. As someone heavily involved in running a think tank that is all about free markets over here in Washington DC, I hope that these observations will prove helpful to those who are to decide its futur...
I think you're correct to say that advocates of free markets must fully exploit the use of modern communication tools.
But it's those who eschew political action, in favour of ideas, would have benefited most from new means of communication.
The Ludwig von Mises Institute is an example of how to maximise the use of technology to spread ideas while rejecting politcal involvment. The LvMI website gets more visitors than Cato. LewRockwell.com gets more visitors than both Heritage and Cato.
LvMI and LRC are spreading ideas about Austrian economics and a non-interventionist foreign policy that the conservative movement, focused on political action, generally considered taboo.
You mentioned Ron Paul. In 35 years the Cato Institute has only invited him to speak there twice (the second time was last week) in spite of him being the strongest advocate of the ideas they claim to believe in (Individual Liberty, Free Markets and Peace).
But really, who cares now? Thanks to new technology it's possible to by-pass 'the movement' and to get ideas considered 'too radical' about gold, a non-interventionist foreign policy and the need to abolish central banks, directly into peoples homes.
Whither the IEA?
Tim raises some very good questions surrounding the future of the Institute for Economic Affairs. As someone heavily involved in running a think tank that is all about free markets over here in Washington DC, I hope that these observations will prove helpful to those who are to decide its futur...
I don't know any free marketeer who believes that the market can do no wrong.
Human nature is flawed, and since the market is a product of human action, it too is flawed.
The view from Steerage
I'm a huge fan of Nick Cohen's writing and his latest piece, in Standpoint magazine, is well worth a read. He writes about the inchoate and yet civilised anger of the public to the recent sequence of revelations regarding the abuse of our money, in both the City and in Parliament. I think it's t...
An interesting article, but for Cohen to call what we are witnessing "a crisis of capitalism" shows that he doesn't really grasp what's happened.
It's a crisis caused, not by mechanisms generated by the free market, but by mechanisms that have been imposed by State intervention, such as central bank manipulation of interest rates and fiat currency.
Cohen also writes: "It is as if the managers of the White Star Line had decided that there was no need to impose restrictions on the first-class passengers."
The idea that the banks were given a free rein by the State doesn't really capture the true relationship that existed between governments and banks. Even before the bailouts, some free market thinkers (Austrians mainly) made reference to Wall Street socialism, because of the degree of closeness between the State and the banks, e.g the characterisation of the US Treasury as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.
We haven't had spontaneously ordered markets. We've had regulation and State intervention. Cohen needs to re-assess his faith in the competence of the State, given its manifest failure.
The view from Steerage
I'm a huge fan of Nick Cohen's writing and his latest piece, in Standpoint magazine, is well worth a read. He writes about the inchoate and yet civilised anger of the public to the recent sequence of revelations regarding the abuse of our money, in both the City and in Parliament. I think it's t...
The Libertarian Party will field a candidate in the Norwich North by-election.
http://lpuk.blogspot.com/2009/06/norwich-north-by-election-july-23rd.html
Tuesday 30th June 2009
10pm Iain Murray on CentreRight: Whither the IEA? 4.45pm Seat and Candidates: Norwich North by-election will take place on 23rd July 4.30pm Harry Phibbs on CentreRight asks "Did Michael Jackson have a political message?" 4pm Greg Hands on CentreRight describes the "pantomime" of a visit to his ...
Economic necessity will see the IEA regain its relevance.
The rigors of classical liberalism will once again be required to dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. The self-consciously "compassionate" thinking, which has dominated the conservative agenda in more recent times, is already appearing less and less relevant to the economic circumstances we now find ourselves in.
As far as seeking to influence policy, The Spectator had an article last week - "Where is the Arthur Seldon for our own era?" - which made the point that at the IEA, Seldon always "insisted that authors take their arguments to their logical conclusions without regard for the ‘politically possible’".
The IEA has been extremely influential without deliberately setting out to influence party political policy.
This will be the case once again.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/3715908/where-is-the-arthur-seldon-for-our-own-era.thtml
Who can revive the IEA... and how?
Earlier today Iain Dale broke the story that John Blundell is to leave the Institute of Economic Affairs. The official statement is here. The IEA and the Centre for Policy Studies drove the Thatcherite revolution but the IEA has been much less influential since then. If I had to name the top ...
The Centre for Economics and Business Research is forecasting that public spending will reach 50% of GDP in 2010/2011.
For Wales and Northern Ireland it will be almost 70%. Cuba is a more modest 60%.
http://www.cebr.com/Resources/CEBR/Forecasting%20Eye%20Special%20Regional%20Expenditure%20Analysis%202009.pdf
Monday 29th June 2009
10.15pm ToryDiary: Conservatives 11% ahead in ComRes/ Independent survey 7.15pm ToryDiary: Who can revive the IEA... and how? 5.30pm Parliament: David Cameron taunts Gordon Brown about his "relaunch without a price-tag" 5pm WATCH: Baroness Thatcher arrives home from hospital in good spirits 4...
According to Eamonn Butler in today's Telegraph, "If spending since 1997 had risen no faster than inflation, we would be spending a third less than we do now, and could abolish income tax, VAT, and council tax entirely."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/5627352/Government-debt-Thatll-be-2.2-trillion-please.html
"Emergency cuts cabinet" could meet immediately after a Tory election victory
The Guardian is reporting this morning that if a Conservative Government is formed after the next election, then (shadow) chancellor George Osborne may seek to hold a "two-day emergency cabinet session" to discuss and agree how to bring public spending under control department-by-department. T...
The mitigation of adultery was suggested at the end of the article: "It is inevitable that some Tory MPs will chase their secretary round the office. If that secretary is also the MP’s husband, wife or civil partner that’s one less thing Mr Cameron has to worry about."
"There are a great many organisations in the City and elsewhere which forbid office relationships." And the same approach could apply to MPs and those they employ.
But instead of adopting such an approach, it's being suggested instead that MPs should be able to employ their spouse, as a way of minimising inappropriate office relationships.
This sort of reasoning is completely outlandish.
If someone in Tesco or Marks & Spencer suggested to their line manager that they should be able to employ their spouse as their PA, so as to reduce the likelihood of them having an affair, they would be laughed out the building. A similar reaction would be forthcoming if someone said that they need to employ a relation because the information they deal with is very sensitive.
We're in danger of rationalising privileges for MPs that would be considered simply absurd in other jobs.
In praise of nepotism
Amidst all the sensible suggestions flying around about how to reform the House of Commons there is one which I completely reject - that MPs should be banned from employing members of their family. I see the temptation. There is a fear that expenses will continue to be abused by some MPs who ...
We need to stop yielding to the temptation to insulate MPs from the day to day inconveniences that others have to deal with in the course of their work and family life.
"An MP needs to be able to trust their assistants implicitly and intimately." Yes, just like anyone who employs a secretary or a personal assistant.
"Being an MP puts an enormous burden on family life." Yes, just like so many other jobs that involve unpredicatable hours and travelling.
"Then there is the fraught matter, if such staffing situations are banned, of what happens if an MP and their secretary start a relationship". I can hardly believe I'm reading this. It is not the role of the taxpayer to fund employment relationships that mitigate the potential for MPs to commit adultery.
The justifications put forward for allowing someone to employ their spouse would not be persuasive within a large publicly listed commercial organisation.
If we continue to treat MPs as a class apart, they will come to resemble one more and more.
In praise of nepotism
Amidst all the sensible suggestions flying around about how to reform the House of Commons there is one which I completely reject - that MPs should be banned from employing members of their family. I see the temptation. There is a fear that expenses will continue to be abused by some MPs who ...
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