#8 Done Deal
Plus: Reckoning with Reform, promoting parenthood, and tempting talent
Welcome to the eighth instalment of the Liberal Digest. White smoke came at long last for Catholics and advocates of a UK-US trade deal alike.
In this week’s edition: flying the flag for immigrants, cutting red tape down to size, graphs on growth, and are classical liberals losers?
Did we miss something? Let us know.
Stop the Press!
Best op eds, interviews, news and analysis of the week in the old-school media
Tyler Cowen asks whether classical liberals are losers in the Free Press:
“But as much as classical liberals can be the skunks at the garden party, whether they caucus with the right or the left, classically liberal attitudes have changed the course of history, albeit intermittently, in extremely positive ways.
“On this list of (partial and imperfect) triumphs we can put the growth of liberty in 17th-century England; the American Revolution and Constitution; the free trade era of the European 19th century; the abolitionist movement; the rebuilding of post-WWII Europe; the fall of communism; the growth of Israeli free enterprise; the liberalizing reforms of the 1980s and ’90s including in India; and the concomitant radical decline in global poverty over the last few decades.”
Lord Hannan offers a robust defence of the free trade deal with India:
“Britain has pulled off something that no other country has, at least not on anything like the same scale. It has secured a comprehensive trade agreement with a teeming sub-continent that contains the world’s largest and fastest-growing consumer class.”
David Gauke argues that Nigel Farage’s prominence gives Labour a new opportunity to attract tactical votes and secure re-election:
“Last year, the overwhelmingly anti-Tory mood, plus tactical voting, was a formula for Labour success. Next time the formula might still involve tactical voting, but with a focus on keeping out Reform instead. A general election which is a referendum on Reform, rather than the record of the incumbent government, is one Labour should be able to win.”
Jeremy Warner has doubts about Reform’s affection for free markets:
“Most nationalist movements start life on the Right of the political spectrum, in that they tend to be strongly pro-enterprise, free-spirited and anti-big government. But then in pursuit of the popular vote, they progressively shift leftwards and end up as big state interventionists.”
Lord Hague rattled off a list of ten ways that Kemi Badenoch could save the Conservative Party from extinction:
“Third, avoid the elephant trap of copying Trump. Sister parties of the Tories in Canada and Australia have just crashed down into it. So far, the Trump administration has strengthened China, emboldened Russia, divided the West and severely disrupted free trade. We should not be hostile in any way to the US, but our parties do not need to adopt the same policies. One of the things Nigel Farage will most regret is showing so much admiration for the US president.”
Rachel Wolf wrote for Politico about how last week’s elections were the predictable result of the failures of the last decade:
“They voted for Conservatives, they voted for Labour, and the change they wanted didn’t happen. On economics, they were the reason the Conservatives softened economic policy and abandoned austerity, why Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen supported the nationalization of his airport, why Labour had no problems with promising rail nationalization, and why Nigel Farage is advocating to nationalize British steel.”
Conservative Home: Tory MPs are trying to introduce national service, again
City A.M.: Government’s bid to cut red tape “has little chance of success”
BBC: MP urges rethink on football stands booze ban
The Telegraph: Reverse tax rises to make Britain attractive, says star fund manager
The Guardian: Keeping Farage from No 10 is ‘a battle for UK’s future, heart and soul’, Labour MPs told
Stacks of Freedom
Highlights from our fellow Substackers
Archie Hall explains why Britain has become a triage-ward state:
Stephanie Murray and Chelsea Follett discuss how to increase fertility rates while respecting personal liberty:
Tim Leunig makes the case for international students:
Noah Smith questions the notion that America’s middle class has been fractured by globalisation:
Wonk World
Ideas and analysis from the think tanks, academia and other clever sorts
Dan Neidle knocks down the ‘logic’ behind pleas to take our tax system back to the 70s:
“The lesson of the decades since the 1970s is that the best way to tax the wealthy is by expanding the base and closing loopholes. That makes a less snappy soundbite than sending rates sky-high, but evidence shows that it’s fairer and much more effective.”
Tuesday 6 May had the dubious honour of being the ‘Cost of Rent Day’, as dubbed by our friends at the Adam Smith Institute:
“The housing crisis extends beyond renters. It is too challenging to get on the housing ladder. The homes which people are able to buy are smaller, more remote, in worse condition, and more expensive than they should be.”
A supergroup of US think tanks released a bumper policy report on kickstarting America’s techno-industrial renaissance:
“For too long, many in Washington have lacked the same degree of seriousness. This does not imply imitating China, as US innovation does not depend on top-down economic mandates, forced tech transfers, or intellectual property theft. What America must take from China is not its methods but its attitude. A serious country would not allow overbearing red tape to hamper hundreds of billions of critical infrastructure investments. It would not educate the world’s brightest only to kick them out shortly thereafter—often into the arms of our adversaries, with disastrous consequences.”
The Startup Coalition published a paper on how to ensure the Regulatory Innovation Office can ease the burden of red tape that startups face:
“For the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) to add value, it will need to sit above regulators as the coordinating authority - the first amongst equals - with a bird’s-eye view across the economy and out over the horizon, as well as the power to direct and guide regulators toward innovation and growth.”
Andrew Bennett also took a look at improving Britain’s regulatory state, in a new report for the Centre for British Progress:
“[D]espite the challenges of privatised utilities, drinking water quality has improved, power cuts have decreased, and it is startups – the delivery units of progress – inventing small modular reactors, energy flexibility and satellite internet.
“Focusing exclusively on ownership is a red herring. Instead, we must fix the regulatory state to support agency and delivery at scale by unblocking our most innovative organisations – engines of abundance both public and private – and reigniting economic dynamism.”
And that’s not all from the Centre for British Progress, as their Co-Founder Julia Willemyns proposed the idea of establishing an Exceptional Talent Office to snap up the world’s brightest and best:
To achieve national renewal and sovereignty, Britain must compete in the global race for world-class scientific and technical talent. With the United States facing a potential exodus of scientists, and as China, the EU, and Canada launch aggressive recruitment drives, Britain must position itself as the premier destination for frontier innovators.
Hear Hear
Podcasts for weekend listening
In an interview with the BBC, former US President Joe Biden said he believed there is now a greater threat to democracy than compared to any time since the Second World War:
The New York Times’ Daily profiles the investor, philanthropist and ‘conscience of capitalism’, Warren Buffet, who announced he’ll be stepping down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by the end of the year:
Posting to Policy
Best of social media this week
Philip Klein: From many to one
Eamonn Ives: Thinking more than one step ahead
Joe Hill: Unexpected benefits of steel nationalisation
Alec Stapp: What’s gone wrong with our institutions in one short paragraph
Julian Jessop: Debunking dubious claims about the UK-India trade deal
Jim Pethokoukis: This is what happens when you think regulation is your economic superpower
Andreas Backhaus: Two wrongs don’t make a right
Scott Lincicome: Bernie learns to love abundance
Further Afield
Interesting stuff from around the world
The Economist reports on how China is intensifying its campaign against exiled Hong Kong dissidents:
Their family members have faced increasing harassment. Since January police have interrogated the families of at least five of the exiled activists, says Human Rights Watch (hrw), an ngo in New York. They raided the office of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, an institution associated with Chung Kim-wah, a scholar now based in Britain, and confiscated HK$800,000 ($103,000) from the family of Ted Hui, a former lawmaker who lives in Australia, both for allegedly contravening national security.
Ruchir Sharma documents in the Financial Times how Latin America is the one region where the traditional right is on the rise:
“With the far right ascendant in much of the west, it is notable that Latin America is not turning the same way, to a Trumpian closed economy. It is favouring leaders with more traditional agendas, based on free markets and open economies. This increases the region’s chances of escaping its damaging growth slump and attracting capital in this post-American exceptionalism world.”
BBC: Germany’s Merz becomes chancellor after surviving historic vote failure
Politico: Romanian election results: Trump fan George Simion wins first round, Nicușor Dan comes second
Graph of the Week
Any thoughts on Merz and the new CSU/CDU government? I’m cautiously optimistic, I like their policy regarding the debt brake. I’m concerned that Germany seems to be on the path to an AfD government.