Make liberalism IT!! again

Why two more guys have decided the world needs another newsletter

The GOATest campaign poster ever produced

Brits have a lot to grumble about. Economic growth has flatlined since the Financial Crash. Wages have scarcely managed to keep pace with inflation. Outside of a few pockets of dynamism, businesses in much of the country remain stagnant. If we were a US state, we’d be one of the poorest, and economies we were once comfortably ahead of are now overtaking our standard of living.

Our economic malaise has many root causes. Building anything here invariably takes longer and costs more than it does in other countries. Our energy prices are among the highest in the world. Our transport infrastructure is scandalous. For millions of young people, the dream of homeownership is exactly that – a dream.

Meanwhile, the state is helping itself to an increasing portion of what we produce while offering increasingly less in return. Daylight robbery is on the rise while the police are knocking on doors for Facebook posts. The NHS is in a perpetual state of crisis. Higher education sits on a precipice. A pensions time bomb is ticking ever louder. Worst of all, getting a pint after 11pm in the capital city is nigh on impossible.

One government that failed to address many of our fundamental problems has been replaced by another which, though making positive noises in some areas, still must be judged against delivery. A very real risk exists that, despite sitting on a healthy majority in Parliament, the current Government will fail to take the hard decisions necessary to stave off decline, and we simply end up with more of the same.

What is decidedly not staying the same is the public mood. People are waking up to the fact that maybe Britain is not so great anymore, and they want to do something about it. It is clear that if we don’t, the exodus of ambitious people to countries which are more dynamic and offer more opportunities than ours will accelerate, and fewer will be drawn to the UK from elsewhere.

In the search for answers, populist narratives have successfully offered a comforting embrace for many. Anti-establishment figures, on the left and right, have seen their stock rise. Some of this is welcome – if only to sharpen the focus on where we’ve historically gone wrong. But to think a better future awaits down the path of shonky economics and disregard for liberal principles is absurd.

We readily admit that the standard bearers for liberalism have not covered themselves in glory of late, either. Too often they’ve turned a blind eye to real concerns, or sought opportunistic wins at the expense of longer-term campaigns. Too often they’ve failed to convincingly communicate why liberalism matters, and as such have reduced themselves and our philosophy in size and in stature.

Reversing this state of affairs is imperative if Britain is to stand tall again and respond to the newly unfolding geopolitical realities of today. And it is possible. The United Kingdom has historically been a bastion of both liberal thought and practice. Home of the rule of law, free markets, free trade, free speech and free people. The ideas that led to the Glorious and Industrial Revolutions and defined the Enlightenment still burn bright. Returning to the liberal tenets of spontaneous order, primacy of the individual, freedom of expression and a limited-but-effective state will be fundamental to turning Britain around.

We are launching the Liberal Digest to bring together liberal voices who refuse to accept mediocrity, and to push back against the rising tide of populism. From the original think tanks who won the last major battle of ideas, to new campaigns and thinkers popping up today, this weekly newsletter will compile highlights from across the liberal spectrum to like-minded liberals and the intellectually curious.

We won’t be so foolish to try to define what liberalism is and is not. But as a general principle, we believe that if you want to be, say or do something, the burden of proof should be on those who want to prevent you from exercising those rights, not the other way around. We believe that individuals should typically have autonomy over their decisions, and that central planning is a road to serfdom where neither economic nor social freedoms are respected.

This is a non-partisan publication. We take no sides in political debate and are not aligned to any one political party. We hope that individuals from all parties and none will find value in this newsletter.

A tribute must be paid to our sometimes friends, sometimes opponents at the Conservative Reader, who’s model this newsletter takes direct inspiration from. If you are interested in why we aren’t conservatives, Friedrich Hayek explained it pretty well. But Hayek himself acknowledged that there is often overlap between the two philosophies, so we will remain ready consumers of the Conservative Reader even while we may not always agree.

To begin with, this endeavour will be run as a weekly email on Fridays, compiling the best of liberal thought and argument in the UK. It will always remain free to read. We will do our best to cover everything, but will happily accept suggestions of things we might have missed – from columns to podcasts to think tank reports, good tweets, graphs, podcasts and beyond. If you have anything to offer or feedback to give, please never hesitate to get in touch.

It was liberalism that first made this country great, and we firmly believe it can do so again. For that to happen, however, we need to make liberalism “IT!!” again. We hope this newsletter can play a part in doing that.

Callum and Eamonn