The Pin Factory Blog

With a hat-tip to Guido Fawkes, here is Alex Masterly's brilliant question for Gordon Brown...

As the Telegraph picks over the bones of MPs already stained reputations, perhaps only one thing can be learned: financial incentives matter. As such, in order to ensure we get the very best entrants to the Young Writer on Liberty competition we have decided to increase the prize money. As such, as well as the winner getting £500, the second and third prize entrants will receive £250 and £100 respectively.

Remember, this is not one of those prizes that go to your school; instead the money will be given to you in brown envelope to spend on whatever you want, whether that be bathplugs, moats and tennis courts etc.

For more information click here

All entries should be sent to: andrew@adamsmith.org

Competittion closes: 15th June 2009

This year we ask students to submit three essays for the ‘Young Writer on Liberty’ competition on the theme:

Three policy steps to a freer, better world

The title of each article is entirely up to you.

1st Prize:
£500 cash prize
3 articles published on www.adamsmith.org/blog
3 books on the subject of liberty
2 weeks work experience at the ASI

2 Runners up:
2 articles published on www.adamsmith.org/blog
A collection of Adam Smith Institute books

Entrants must be 20 or under on the closing date, the 1st February 2013. All articles must be under 400 words. All entries and questions should be submitted to pete@adamsmith.org. Good luck!

The Adam Smith Institute invites you to enter our annual student competition, Young Writer on Liberty. This year’s theme is:

“Three policy challenges: how libertarians should respond”

In order to enter the competition, you must write three separate, blog-style articles, none of which may exceed 400 words in length. Any articles exceeding the word limit will be excluded.

Each article should identify a contemporary policy challenge, and then explain how libertarians – that is, people who believe in liberty, free markets and limited government – should respond.

You could, for example, look at the banking crisis and suggest a policy response. Or you could point to the growth of the surveillance state, and propose ways of restricting government power. Or you could look at the defects of the welfare state, and outline an alternative approach.

Those are just suggestions, and there are a huge range of other options you could choose from. Just pick up a newspaper and ideas should spring from the pages!

To enter, you must be aged 21 or under at the time of entry. Submissions should be emailed to tom.clougherty@adamsmith.org no later than Sunday 29 May. Please put ‘Young Writer on Liberty’ in the subject line.

Top prize is £500, three books on liberty, and two weeks work experience at that Adam Smith Institute. All three of the winners articles will be published here, on adamsmith.org/blog. Second prize is two books on liberty, and two articles published here. Third prize is one book on liberty, and one article published here.

After an exceptionally high number of entries this year, I'm pleased to announce the winners of the Young Writer on Liberty Award, 2011:

First: Henry Hill

Second: Adam Memon

Third: Karishma Puri

The standard of entries was extremely high and I'd like to thank everybody who entered on behalf of the Adam Smith Institute. The amount of clear and thoughtful writing in defence of individual liberty made even the most pessimistic of us wonder if the world might not be completely doomed after all. 

Even if you were unlucky this time, don't be discouraged! Be sure to re-enter next year, and do come along to one of our excellent student events in the meantime. We'll publish a selection of the winning entries on the blog over the next few days.

With our freedoms increasingly trampled underfoot, the ASI is pleased to announce its 2010 ‘Young Writer on Liberty’ competition.

Open to anyone under the age of 20, entrants are asked to write three short articles on ‘Ways to advance liberty’.The topics are entirely open to you: whether it is adjusting taxation, abolishing ID cards or the decriminalization of drugs, we are open to all views and opinions.

And, because incentives matter, the top prize includes £500 cash, 3 books, all 3 articles published on our blog and the offer of 2 weeks work experience at the Adam Smith Institute. To see all the prizes available, click here.

To enter, you must be under 20 on the entry deadline of April 30th, while each article must be under 400 words long. Simply email your entries, along with contact details and your DOB to charlotte@adamsmith.org.

This year we're running a competition to find the best Young Writer on Liberty. It is open to all under 19 year olds and requires the submission of three short articles on the subject of: The Three Greatest Threats to Liberty in 21st Century Britain.

1st prize includes a £500 cash prize, so click here to find out more.

As April 30th draws closer, time is running out to enter the ASI’s ‘Young Writer on Liberty’ competition. With economic freedom eroded by taxes and regulations and civil liberties trampled underfoot, we want to know what the next generation would do to reverse this depressing state of affairs.

For a chance to become the ASI’s ‘Young Writer for Liberty’ 2010, simply submit 3 short articles, each on a different ‘Way to Advance Liberty’. You might support drug legalization, an open borders policy or dismantling the state completely; we are open to all ideas for making the UK a freer place.

Incentives matter, which is why winners will receive literature to further their quest for liberty and see their work published on our blog, while the top prize includes £500 cash.

Entrants must be under 20 years of age on the day of the deadline. For more details, click here.

It is reassuring to see that the “new” generation has got a good grasp on the economic path that needs to be taken if the UK is to reverse its national debt. I'm not talking about Ed Miliband's new shadow cabinet, but the 18-24 year olds polled by Radio 1 about how they, the “new” generation, felt about the imminent cuts.

The poll showed that 62% of 18-24 year olds believe that cuts are necessary, and when asked whether they would prefer cuts or tax hike, 76% went with cuts. This shows that the proposals outlined by Lord Browne yesterday, in regards to University funding, should be welcomed by students above the previously muted graduate tax – what's good for the goose is good for the gander. It also gives the lie to the idea that young people are generally left-wing. Just because "student leaders" are loudly Marxist doesn't mean that the people they claim to represent are – most are elected with very low participation by an active minority, with the majority of students staying far away from the process. As in many groups of people, there is a silent majority of the young who simply want to be left alone to live their lives as they wish.

It is not just this younger generation, who arguably may not feel the full impact of the proposed cuts, who believe the coalitions cuts are necessary. A recent ICM poll showed that a majority of voters support axing child benefit for high earners. The same survey indicates that people would rather see cuts in welfare than in defence or education.

It appears that these recent polls show a swing towards rationality, particularly where cuts are involved. We cannot continue to live either, individually or as a nation on credit. Both individuals and the government have to take responsibility for their past actions; only when we acknowledge the problem can it start to be fixed. I'm glad that so many others agree.

Having seen the success of British TV's The Apprentice, France is going to do its own version. The format is exactly the same, except you're not allowed to fire anyone.

Headline from the Health and Safety Inspectors' Gazette: 'Old Lady Who Swallowed A Horse "Should Have Been Stopped Earlier"'.