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The Archbishop of Canterbury caricatures consumers and fires at token targets

Written by | Tuesday 13 October 2009

The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged families to get in touch with "the natural rhythms of the seasons," and have "a sense of connectedness to natural processes." Instead of a consumerism which "treats each person as essentially a hole that you have to keep stuffing things into," he urges "a life that is balanced, that is at home with its material and human environment." These are fine sentiments, in that most of us would want balanced lives rather than unbalanced ones, and most of us would rather be at ease with the world than at odds with it.

Privatisation is no way to sustain Britain's runaway spending

Written by | Monday 12 October 2009

First there was "borrowing our way out of debt" which raised the eyebrows of sober-minded accountants. Then there was "printing our way out of debt," as quantitative easing magically created money out of nowhere. Now the latest round is "selling our way out of debt," as the Prime Minister announces the sale of £16bn worth of state-owned assets.

How David Cameron can reverse Labour's unjustified attacks on civil liberties

Written by | Wednesday 7 October 2009

Over the last few years, many traditional liberties which protected our way of life have been removed or compromised by the Government's initiatives. In the name of taking more effective action against terrorists, drug dealers or paedophiles, customs and practices that shielded the citizen from arbitrary abuse by authority have been over-ridden or subverted.

Yes, let’s tax home ownership

Written by | Monday 28 September 2009

Vince Cable’s proposed ‘mansion tax’ on high-value homes has come in for a lot of flack, including from the ASI blog. But is it justified? Despite all the debate, I have still not seen a good argument against it that does not apply equally to parts of our existing tax system.

An information revolution

Written by | Tuesday 22 September 2009

In hankering for wide and sweeping reforms of our public services, the smaller steps that can be taken towards meaningful change are often overlooked, dismissed as vote-catching fads or shunted off to the sidelines. A particular proposal taking form from the utterances of David Cameron’s Shadow Cabinet is one such specimen, and in forgetting about it, we risk jeopardising any further significant attempts at bringing greater choice and public decision-making into our public services.

In pursuit of the greatest happiness

Written by | Monday 21 September 2009

GDP is not the be-all and end-all of our existence; it talks of value added to economies but has little to say about anything else.

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