LulzSec and the open society

Written by | Wednesday 13 July 2011

The first subversive act I can remember carrying out was during the spring of my senior year in high school. At the time, I had signed up for intramural ultimate frisbee – I didn't take to interscholastic sports and never saw the point of spending my weekends being carted off to faraway destinations in a van, just to throw a ball at some people I'd never met before. Everything was going swell until one day, after arriving to practice bare-footed as usual, I was ordered to go back to my room to throw on some shoes.

How better regulation can make Private Military Contractors work

Written by | Monday 11 July 2011

Introduction

A thicket of summer grass: the thymotic anger behind the strikes

Written by | Thursday 16 June 2011

Summer is very nearly upon us, and for many it is a happy time of year, one we associate with pleasant memories of carefree youth and halcyon days gone by. I for one remember, as a child, lazy Sundays fishing on the creek that flowed out of the marsh alongside our house; as a teenager, spending hot and breezy afternoons skippering a rickety, thirty-year-old catamaran on Long Island Sound; and, as a law student, flying back to America to watch the Fourth of July fireworks by the water with my family.

The folly of the public benefit test

Written by | Thursday 26 May 2011

This week the long running dispute between the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and the Charity Commission moves towards a conclusion in the courts. While Robert Pearce’s comments on Friday will come as a disappointment to association members hoping for clarity on the question of how schools may meet the new public benefit requirement, I can’t help but think that the issue has become little more than a distracting side-show.

Free Schools are heading for failure

Written by | Wednesday 11 May 2011

So now it’s official: of the 323 free school proposals received by the DfE as of 11th February, 282 were turned down. Less than 50 were given an amber light. It looks likely that roughly ten will open their gates in September. The century of civil servants seconded to process applications can breathe a sigh of relief and go back to whatever it was they were doing before they were so rudely interrupted, for it’s unlikely under the strictures of the new applications process that for 2012 there will be anything like the volume of the first tranche.

The impact of proportional representation and coalition government on fiscal policy

Written by | Monday 18 April 2011

Introduction

For many years, there have been calls to change the electoral system within the UK from First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) to a more proportional system. This has featured in successive Liberal Democrat (formerly the SDP/Liberal Alliance) manifestos, as the FPTP system favours a two party system as the percentage of votes does not reflect the number of seats won in Parliament.

The case for NGDP targeting – lessons from the Great Recession

Written by | Monday 11 April 2011

The Adam Smith Institute’s latest report, The Case for NGDP Targeting by US economist Scott Sumner, argues that that the Bank of England’s inflation targeting regime was proved inadequate by the Great Recession, and should be replaced. Instead of targeting inflation, the Bank of England should target nominal gross domestic product (NGDP). This is sometimes referred to as nominal income targeting.

In making his case, Sumner argues that:

To have or to be? A reflection on the anti-cuts march

Written by | Monday 28 March 2011

As this Saturday was the first in a while that I've had to myself, I woke up early and resolved to make a particularly special effort to spend the day doing things that make me happy. One of these is to take a walk in Hyde Park around the Serpentine, maybe with a cup of tea, as my father and I sometimes do when he visits. When I got there, however, I discovered – to my horror – that the park was completely overrun with thousands of trade unionists.

What will the Bribery Act mean for business?

Written by | Thursday 24 March 2011

The Bribery Act 2010 may put Britain in a difficult position. The Act will require companies with a UK connection to put in place what the Act vaguely describes as “adequate procedures" to prevent bribery. The extent and costs of these procedures are unclear. The worst case scenario is that multinational firms and organizations, for legal reasons, may be wary of having any connection with the UK in order to avoid this strict liability offence (ie, no proof of intention required) and the associated costs and reputational damage of having to defend if prosecuted..

How Ireland can leave the euro

Written by | Monday 28 February 2011

Dear Minister,

Congratulations on your new appointment. As you read the civil service briefings on the present crisis, you will come to appreciate that Ireland's problems would be much easier to manage if your administration could choose the country's own exchange rate and interest rate. However, your officials and your colleagues may believe that there is no practical way to leave the present European monetary union and so achieve this flexibility.