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--------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS BULLETIN... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BATMAN SAVES THE WORLD (the world of free-market ideas, that is) VIDEO BREAKTHROUGH: A think-tank first on http://www.adamsmith.org EVENTS: Book booze-up, imbibing ideas, life in Fife, and reports SAD STATISTICS: More bizarre and bad news from Britain's papers BUT FIRST... As we await the Budget in March and the rise in National Insurance rates in April, you'll be glad to know that Gordon Brown is responding to criticism that he's made the tax system too complicated. The new tax form will have only two lines: 'How much do you earn?' and 'Hand it over.' (By the way, you can get a measure of how hard you have to work to pay off the taxman on our Tax Freedom Day site, http://taxfreedomday.co.uk ) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BATMAN SAVES THE FREE WORLD! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the author of a (too-long) book about the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, I was fascinated to come across the Batman Chronicles No 11 (Winter 1998) in which the caped crusader saves the libertarian luminary. No, for real. 'We've confiscated the property of a certain economist, Ludwig Von Mises,' says the baddie. 'He has written against Nazi police...he's been very critical of our decisions.' But luckily, Batman steps in and saves all. Just as well. 'Von Mises' anti-authoritarian ideas were first a threat to the Nazis, then the Soviets...' writes Robin, 'And to all increasingly regulatory governments in our own times.' Inspiring, or what? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIG BORIS...uncut and in colour --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHIE-COLOR: The Adam Smith Institute is never a think-tank to be behind in the use of new technology -- it was the first with push-button phones, the first to employ full-screen computers, and the first to have a website. Now it is the first to put up video recordings of its public meetings. Guinea- pig of this brave new world is Spectator editor Boris Johnson MP, whose ten-minute rant to the Institute's under-30s Next Generation group is at: http://www.adamsmith.org/tng/index.htm With ADSL/broadband it starts playing pretty well immediately, and continues to download as you watch. So check it out. It's very much a trial effort, and we aim to achieve improving quality as we go along. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMING UP: Full list on: http://www.adamsmith.org/policy/news/forward.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- AS YOU KNOW, we've lots of events coming up, featuring the Chairs of the Commons Committees on Environment, Administration, Home Affairs; talks by Tory Shadows John Whittingdale (Media) and Howard Flight (HMT); meetings with Sleazebuster-in-Chief Sir Nigel Wicks and the new Audit Commission supremo James Strachan... BUT YOU WON'T KNOW about these new ones: MULLIN THINGS OVER - 17 March. Chris Mullin MP, Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, is our guest at a Power Lunch. RUSH FOR LUNCH - 28 March. Greg Rushford, Washington-based trade expert and author of the Rushford Report, broods over the state of world trade. SCHOOL LUNCH - 4 April. Peter Housden, policy chief at the DfES, crosses Great Smith St for a lunchtime think-in on education, education, education. BRIGHOUSE BRUNCHES - 15 April. Professor Tim Brighouse, the new Commissioner for London Schools, is our guest at a Power Lunch in Westminster. DAVIS DINES - 20 May. David Davis MP, Shadow spokesman on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, talks at a Power Lunch re-scheduled from March. BOOK BOOZE-UP: Our author Professor John Hibbs launches his Kogan Page book 'Transport Economics & Policy' where he slags off transport planners for saying that commonplace economics doesn't apply to them...but of course it does. Reception, Tuesday 11 March at 6pm, 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1. Just tell events@adamsmith.org if you would like to come. IMBIBING IDEAS: Keith Boyfield and Eamonn Butler launch our 'Around the World in 80 Ideas' website http://www.80ideas.net (no, don't look, it's not really finished yet) on Tuesday 8 April at 6pm, 23 Great Smith Street, SW1. As usual, tell steve at events@adamsmith.org if you would like to come. LIFE IN FIFE: In Association with the Adam Smith Institute, the Liberty Club of the University of St Andrews is hosting a public lecture for 200 people in the Auld Grey Toon, featuring the erudite Bill Emmott, Editor of the Economist newspaper. Visit www.libertyclub.org.uk/economist to sign up for this event, which takes place on 21 March. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT US --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAX FREEDOM DAY: BBCi explains the principle of Tax Freedom Day -- how long you spend working to pay off your tax bills -- maybe better than we can, on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/business/money/youandyourmoney/tax/tax07.shtml ROAD PRICING ARGUMENT: London's road pricing experiment is a good idea but badly executed. To see why -- and how to improve things -- visit our website at www.adamsmith.org and click the 'Think Piece' heading in the red column. The piece is praised by the libertarian newsletter Samizdata: check it out. http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/002976.html#002976 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVENTS: Roads, Higgs, DTI, kids --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROAD PRICING LUNCH: An abnormally quiet Great Smith Street welcomed in the principle (if not the practice) of congestion charging with a Power Lunch led by Professor Gabriel Roth, one of the original members of the Smeed Commission on road pricing from the 1960s, who's idea has come to pass (in London, at least) after so long. See our Transport Issues Page for ideas and actions on transport policy: http://www.adamsmith.org/cissues/transport/home.htm Read our views on road pricing in London in More Roads! Less Taxes! http://www.adamsmith.org/cissues/transport/roadpricing.htm HIGGS AND EGGS: Derek Higgs, author of the government report on the role of non-executive directors, explained his ideas and countered criticisms at a special Adam Smith breakfast in the Palace of Westminster this week, kindly sponsored by CIMA. POWER LUNCHES: Chief economic adviser at the DTI, Vicky Pryce, joined us for an off-the-record briefing on industry policy last week. Broadcaster Andrew Neil told an earlier Power Lunch that war with Iraq could precipitate a major realignment in UK politics, so deep were Labour divisions on it. NEXT GENERATION: Former Palace pressman Simon Walker gave the Next Generation Group some insights into life working as the link between the media and the royals (and their dogs). Join or visit The Next Generation on www.tng.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAD STATISTICS gleaned from www.ePolitix.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Despite government efforts to reduce car journeys, the number rose last year by 2.4 percent to a record 485 billion vehicle-kilometres. - Angel Trains predicts that new train orders will fall from 1000 to 100 a year, because the government has abandoned its target of expanding the network. Mothballed trains will cost taxpayers 50 million pounds to store. - Labour secretary David Triesman noted that he could be fined or imprisoned because of the party's rising number of breaches in electoral law. - Britain's trade deficit is now 34 billion pounds, the worst since records began in 1697. - Half of Britain's universities predict operating deficits this year. - Almost 124,000 unemployed people under 25 have gone through the New Deal welfare-to-work programme twice, according to Tory MP Graham Brady. - Inland Revenue staff have lost more than 500 laptop and personal computers over the last five years, ministers told Parliament. - Efforts to recruit women on to public bodies are failing: a 50:50 ratio can't be reached until 2020 says an internal Women and Equality Unit memo. - The Bank of England is forecasting economic growth of 2 per cent ... far less than the Chancellor's optimistic 3.25 per cent prediction. - The drive to cut 2 billion pounds-worth of welfare fraud is threatened by cost-cutting falls in investigations, says the National Audit Office. e -- Dr Eamonn Butler Adam Smith Institute, 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BL, UK E-mail butler@adamsmith.org - Visit us online at www.adamsmith.org Tel +44 (0)20 7222 4995 - Fax +44 (0)20 7222 7544 To unsubscribe, visit www.adamsmith.org/lists.htm
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