Mar
12
6:00 pm18:00

The Next Generation with Saqib Bhatti MBE MP

We are thrilled to announce that on Tuesday 12th March the Adam Smith Institute will welcome Saqib Bhatti MBE MP, Minister for Tech and Digital Economy for The Next Generation.

Please note, this will be a 6pm start due to potential voting, rather than the usual 6pm for 6:30pm start

Housekeeping:
Date: Tuesday 12th March 2024
Time: 6:00-8:00pm
Where: 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3DJ

​​Refreshments provided 🍷

​​A bit more about these meetings:

​​At TNGs, we throw our doors open to Westminster’s finest to enjoy a political discussion over a few glasses of (free) wine. Open to parliamentary staffers, journos, SpAds, consultants, and even the odd civil servant, TNG is a place to network, chat, relax and always feature great remarks from our guest speaker. Whatever your politics, we just like interesting ideas and we hope you do too. It’s for under-35s, it’s informal and we normally end up at the Marquis of Granby.

​​Please note this event is for under-35s.

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Feb
28
6:30 pm18:30

The Next Generation Centre Launch

We are delighted to invite you to the launch of the ASI's Next Generation Centre, with remarks from guest speaker Bim Afolami MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. We are excited to share more with you about our new project focusing on economic challenges facing young people.

Housekeeping:

​Date: Wednesday, 28th February 2024

​Time: 6:30pm - 8pm

​Venue: Open Council Room, 7th Floor, 18th Smith Square, Westminster, London SW1P 3HZ

​ Refreshments provided 🍷

​Please note that this invitation is invite only and non-transferable. Due to space limitations and anticipated high demand, RSVPs will be on a first come, first served basis.

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Feb
13
6:00 pm18:00

The Next Generation with Rachel Cunliffe, The New Statesman

We are thrilled to announce that on Tuesday 13th February the Adam Smith Institute will welcome Rachel Cunliffe, Associate Political Editor of The News Statesman for The Next Generation.

Housekeeping:
Date: Tuesday 13th February 2024
Time: 6:00-8:00pm (don't come before 6pm - we won't let you in! Even if it's raining...our house, our rules)
Where: 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3DJ

​Refreshments provided 🍷

A bit more about these meetings:

​At TNGs, we throw our doors open to Westminster’s finest to enjoy a political discussion over a few glasses of (free) wine. Open to parliamentary staffers, journos, SpAds, consultants, and even the odd civil servant, TNG is a place to network, chat, relax and always feature great remarks from our guest speaker. Whatever your politics, we just like interesting ideas and we hope you do too. It’s for under-35s, it’s informal and we normally end up at the Marquis of Granby.

Please note this event is for under-35s.

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Dec
13
5:30 pm17:30

We The Living Film Screening: Ayn Rand Centre Europe x The Adam Smith Institute

We’re hosting a cinema premiere with our friends from the Ayn Rand Center Europe of the classic 1942 movie We the Living, directed by Goffredo Alessandrini. It’s based on the 1936 political love-triangle novel by Ayn Rand and stars nobody you’ve ever heard of, but it should be a fun evening in an old-school cinema and post-screening cocktails. Venue and date to be confirmed, but please register your interest here.

RSVP FORM NOW CLOSED

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Nov
16
5:30 pm17:30

In Conversation with: Mick Mulvaney

Join the ASI and our Patron, the Rt Hon Sir Brandon Lewis CBE MP, in conversation with: Mick Mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff. Q & A afterwards.

Venue: Central London, TBC

Timings: Doors open 5:30pm, talk begins at 6pm.

RSVP FORM NOW CLOSED

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Oct
25
6:00 pm18:00

Dr Madsen Pirie's Freedom's Fighters: The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP

Join Dr Madsen Pirie in a new series of Freedom’s Fighters. These exclusive interviews will bring out what motivates our chosen Freedom Fighter, where the audience gets to enjoy some personal life stories and reflections on their careers.

On Wednesday 25th October, we will be welcoming The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP as our guest. Doors open at 6pm for some wine, before we take our seats and listen in on an intimate, never heard before interview. The evening finishes with drinks and networking. No Q & A - that’s Madsen’s job.

RSVPs are now closed

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Oct
10
6:00 pm18:00

The Next Generation October 2023 with Bim Afolami MP

We are thrilled to announce that on Tuesday 10th October, the Adam Smith Institute will welcome Bim Afolami, Member of Parliament for Hitchin and Harpenden on 'how to embrace youth voting and win a fifth term'.

Housekeeping:
Date: Tuesday 10th October
Time: 6:00-8:00pm (don't come before 6pm - we won't let you in! Even if it's raining...our house, our rules)
Where: 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3DJ.

If you are interested in this event, please email events@adamsmith.org to be added to our TNG invitee list.

A bit more about these meetings:

At TNGs, we throw our doors open to Westminster’s finest to enjoy a political discussion over a few glasses of (free) wine. Open to parliamentary staffers, journos, SpAds, consultants, and even the odd civil servant, TNG is a place to network, chat, relax and always feature great remarks from our guest speaker.

The Next Generation events (or TNGs as we like to call them) are aimed at creating a network of young people interested in ideas that are shaping our world. Whatever your politics, we just like interesting ideas and we hope you do too.

It’s for under-35s, it’s informal and we normally end up at the Marquis of Granby after for some non-free booze!

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Jun
13
6:00 pm18:00

The Next Generation: Christopher Snowdon

On Tuesday 13th June the Adam Smith Institute is proud to host Christopher Snowdon to talk about the Nanny State. Chris is the Head of Lifestyle Economics at the IEA and ASI Fellow, alongside being an author, and a long time friend of the institute.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP at events@adamsmith.org.

The details are as follows:

  • Date: Tuesday 13th June

  • Time: 6:00pm for 6:30pm start

  • Where: Adam Smith Institute, 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3DJ

  • Refreshments: (free wine!) will be provided

  • Limited capacity… first come first serve! So get your RSVPs in

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Jun
6
6:00 pm18:00

Adam Smith, Marx or Keynes? Prof. Mark Skousen Talks with the ASI

On Tuesday 6th June the Adam Smith Institute is proud to host Professor Mark Skousen, Presidential fellow at Chapman University, prolific author and eminent economist, to give his talk, Who is winning the Battle of Ideas? Adam Smith, Marx or Keynes?

If you would like to attend, please RSVP at events@adamsmith.org.

The details are as follows:

  • Date: Tuesday 6 June

  • Time: 6:00pm for 6:30pm start

  • Where: Adam Smith Institute, 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3DJ

  • Refreshments (free wine!) will be provided

  • Limited capacity… first come first serve! So get your RSVPs in

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RELAUNCH of The Next Generation
May
9
6:00 pm18:00

RELAUNCH of The Next Generation

After an elongated office refurbishment, we are thrilled to announce the long-awaited return of our TNG events! On 9 May the Adam Smith Institute will welcome Rt Hon Lord Frost CMG, former Chief Negotiator for Exiting the European Union and Europe adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Minister responsible for EU relations.

We are excited to welcome everyone back and would love for you to join us.

Housekeeping:
Date: Tuesday 9 May 
Time: 6:00-8:00pm (don't come before 6pm - we won't let you in! Even if it's raining...our house, our rules)
Where: 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3DJ
RSVP: events@adamsmith.org


A bit more about these meetings:

At TNGs, we throw our doors open to Westminster’s finest to enjoy a political discussion over a few glasses of (free) wine. Open to parliamentary staffers, journos, SpAds, consultants, and even the odd civil servant, TNG is a place to network, chat, relax and always feature great remarks from our guest speaker.

The Next Generation events (or TNGs as we like to call them) are aimed at creating a network of young people interested in ideas that are shaping our world. They’ve been going for as long as the ASI has, and have been attended by people who went on to become Cabinet Ministers, Prime Ministers, Editors, and CEOs. The Tory and Labour spinner who dated on The Thick of It met at a TNG, according to an old BBC backstory document. So whatever your politics, we just like interesting ideas and we hope you do too. It’s for under-35s, it’s informal and we normally end up at the Marquis of Granby for those of you who just want to turn up for the non-free boozing in the pub.
 

If you would like to attend, RSVP to events@adamsmith.orgIt is invitation only, but if you would like to request a plus one, please do let us know. If we reach capacity with RSVPs, will we add you to our waiting list and let you know if a place becomes available. 

Hope to see you there!

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Tale of Two Recoveries: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Five Years on
Mar
21
6:00 pm18:00

Tale of Two Recoveries: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Five Years on

  • 6pm Arrival for a 6:30pm Start

Dr. Tyler Goodspeed’s Tale of Two Recoveries: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Five Years on

As the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act hits its fifth birthday, Dr. Tyler Goodspeed, who helped to author the bill as President Trump’s Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, talks to us about its legacy. He will then discuss why the US and UK seem to be having two completely different post-pandemic economic recoveries.

This insightful talk will be followed by a comprehensive Q&A.

Speaker:
Dr. Tyler Goodspeed

Details:
Tuesday 21 March
6pm
Church House, Westminster

Please RSVP at events@adamsmith.org - the event is free and wine will be served.

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Forgotten Medium: realising the potential of mid-sized firms
Mar
7
5:30 pm17:30

Forgotten Medium: realising the potential of mid-sized firms

Forgotten Medium: realising the potential of mid-sized firms

A new report from the Adam Smith Institute co-authored by our Executive Director, Duncan Simpson; Director of Research, Maxwell Marlow; and Head of Research, Daniel Pryor, finds that medium-sized businesses (MSBs) and their size-specific challenges are often neglected in public policy debates. MSBs are the “Forgotten Medium”. This panel, including ministers, MPs, and entrepreneurs - will tackle the question of how to stop neglecting MSBs when it comes to policy.

This insightful panel will be followed by a comprehensive Q&A.

Speakers:
Duncan Simpson

Minister Kevin Hollinrake MP

Saqib Bhatti MP

Richard Harpin



Details:
Tuesday 7 March
5:30pm
Church House, Westminster

Please RSVP at events@adamsmith.org - the event is free and wine will be served.

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ASI at Conservative Party Conference - Prioritisation: Delivering for the people of the UK
Oct
4
1:00 pm13:00

ASI at Conservative Party Conference - Prioritisation: Delivering for the people of the UK

Join us inside the secure zone of Conservative Party Conference 2022

Prioritisation: Delivering for the people of the UK

A new Government has the opportunity to reset and re-evaluate their priorities. After years of acute challenges and decades of stagnant growth, it’s important that the new Government focuses their agenda, streamlines government and the civil service, and delivers for the people of the UK.

At Conservative Party Conference, we will discuss recent Adam Smith Institute polling, calling for the Government to concentrate on a few key priorities that matter to the British public, as opposed to pursuing pet projects and hobby horses. This would involve going into Government departments and setting highly focused legislative agendas, working on policies that are of greatest importance to the electorate.

Speakers:
Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP
James Johnson, J.L. Partners
Alys Denby, CapX
Tom Harwood, GB News
Morgan Schondelmeier, ASI (Chair)

Details:
Tuesday 4th October
13:00 - 14:30
Dolce Suite, Hyatt

All ASI events are free to attend and there is no need to register. Attendees must have a Conservative Party Conference pass to attend the event.

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ASI at Conservative Party Conference - Shut the Backdoor: Redrafting the Online Safety Bill
Oct
3
3:30 pm15:30

ASI at Conservative Party Conference - Shut the Backdoor: Redrafting the Online Safety Bill

Join us inside the secure zone at Conservative Party Conference 2022

Shut the Backdoor: Redrafting the Online Safety Bill

The Online Safety Bill presents a threat to online privacy and the operation of the Internet as we know it. Countless lawyers, civil rights groups, and regulators have raised concerns about the Bill’s broad and legally vague language. Not only does it attempt to regulate ‘legal but harmful’ speech online, but it also opens the door for the Government to compel violation of end to end encryption, damaging the underlying structure that underpins our experience online. 

In this panel, we examine the ways in which the Online Safety Bill should be redrafted to remove the most restrictive policies in order to maintain free speech and protect our online rights.

Speakers:

Professor Ross Anderson, Cambridge University
Graham Smith, Bird & Bird LLP
Sam Ashworth-Hayes, freelance journalist
Jun Pang, Liberty
Emily Fielder, ASI (chair)

Details
Monday 3rd October
15:30 - 17:00
Andante Suite, Hyatt

All ASI events are free to attend and there is no need to register. Attendees must have a Conservative Party Conference pass to attend the event.

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ASI at Conservative Party Conference - Levelling the Playing Field: Addressing Intergenerational Inequality
Oct
3
10:30 am10:30

ASI at Conservative Party Conference - Levelling the Playing Field: Addressing Intergenerational Inequality

Join us inside the secure zone at Conservative Party Conference 2022.

Levelling the Playing Field: Addressing Intergenerational Inequality

The young have suffered from stagnant wage growth since the 2008 financial crisis and rapidly rising house prices. They now also pay far more in tax than they did 10 years ago, and are far behind previous generations in home and asset ownership. The pandemic will have exacerbated this; educational opportunities have diminished, early career opportunities have been curtailed and social freedoms have been curbed. This is to say nothing of the fact that the burden of paying for the pandemic will fall on the young, who will likely be doing so for their entire lives. 

The Adam Smith Institute is researching the underlying causes of intergenerational unfairness and the Government’s approach to supporting the prosperity of the younger working population. 

At Conservative Party Conference, we will discuss policies that can boost opportunities for young people, renewing aspiration as a core value of the Conservative Party.  

Speakers:

Rt Hon Mark Harper MP
Aria Babu, The Entrepreneurs Network
John Ashmore, CapX
James Dickson, Commentator
John Macdonald, ASI (Chair)

Details:
Monday 3rd October
10:30 - 12:00
Fortissimo Suite, Hyatt

All ASI events are free to attend and there is no need to register. Attendees must have a Conservative Party Conference pass to attend the event.

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Governing Artificial Intelligence
Jun
9
6:00 pm18:00

Governing Artificial Intelligence

If you can’t make it in person, you can join the Zoom livestream of this event (beginning at 6:30pm) by clicking here.

Following on from his essay 'The Proper Governance Default for AI', Adam Thierer will be discussing why it is so essential to get our policy defaults set properly if we hope to encourage entrepreneurialism and growth.

Adam will comment on recent artificial intelligence policy in the EU and how the UK and US can chart a wiser course by avoiding the the heavy-handed, precautionary principle-based approach that the EU is set to impose via the new AI Act and other cumbersome regulations.

About the Speaker:

Adam Thierer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Thierer serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Artificial Intelligence Commission on Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation. He is also a member of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project.

Thierer has authored and edited several books, including his foundational book on the freedom to innovate, Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom

Previously, Thierer was president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, director of Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute, and a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He received his MA in international business management and trade theory at the University of Maryland and his BA in Journalism and Political Philosophy from Indiana University.

Full details:

Date: Thursday, 9th June 2022

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open + welcome drinks

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

For more information or to request a place, please contact events@adamsmith.org

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How Liberty Made the Modern World
May
31
6:00 pm18:00

How Liberty Made the Modern World

If you can’t make it in person, you can join the Zoom livestream of this event (beginning at 6:30pm) by clicking here

Any innovation—mechanical, biological, institutional, scientific, artistic, personal—begins of course in a human mind. The point is obvious, but has not been prominent in economics. The unprecedented economic growth since 1800, a Great Enrichment of a fully 3,000 percent increase in real income per person, has been traced by economists instead to various intermediate and largely material causes—investment; exploitation; the rule of law—not to the creative fundament of ideas in human minds.

Economics needs to understand the conditions for the flourishing of liberty and its fruits in enriching ideas, and to see that good laws and long railways and creative science and strong institutions depend on it and the ethical accompaniments of liberty, every time. This talk will examine how the role of ideas such as a culture of free speech and an economy of enterprise are key factors that explain the 'Great Enrichment'.

About the Speaker:

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Economics and of History, and Professor Emerita of English and of Communication, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Trained at Harvard in the 1960s as an economist, she has written twenty books and some four hundred academic articles on economic theory, economic history, philosophy, rhetoric, statistical theory, feminism, ethics, and law.

She taught for twelve years at the University of Chicago in the Economics Department in its glory days, but now describes herself as a “literary, quantitative, postmodern, free-market, progressive-Episcopalian, ex-Marxist, Midwestern woman from Boston who was once a man. Not ‘conservative’! I’m a Christian classical liberal.”

Her most recent popular books, for example, are Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All (Yale University Press, 2019) and with Art Carden Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich: The Bourgeois Deal (University of Chicago Press, 2020).

Full details:

Date: Tuesday, 31st May 2022

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open + welcome drinks

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

For more information or to request a place, please contact events@adamsmith.org

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Ayn Rand’s Philosophy for Freedom and Flourishing
May
24
6:00 pm18:00

Ayn Rand’s Philosophy for Freedom and Flourishing

If you can’t make it in person, you can join the Zoom livestream of this event (beginning at 6:30pm) by clicking here.

Ayn Rand described Objectivism as “a philosophy for living on earth.” This is because it provides principled guidance for making life-serving choices, taking life-serving actions, and establishing a free society—so that we can make such choices and take such actions. Craig Biddle will outline the basic principles of Objectivism, with emphasis on how they can help you think more clearly, live more fully, and defend freedom on solid ground.

About the Speaker:

Craig Biddle is cofounder and director of education and programs at Objective Standard Institute, cofounder and editor in chief of The Objective Standard, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. His books include Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Forbidden Facts: Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know.

Full details:

Date: Tuesday, 24th May 2022

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open + welcome drinks

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

For more information or to request your place, please contact events@adamsmith.org

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Misrepresenting Adam Smith
May
4
6:00 pm18:00

Misrepresenting Adam Smith

If you can’t make it in person, you can join the Zoom livestream of this event (beginning at 6:30pm) by clicking here

It is common to see short quotes from Smith used to claim that he supported policies such as progressive taxation, public schooling, or antitrust policy, was more nearly a modern progressive than a modern conservative. In fact, he was neither. In each case, reading the full passage the quote is from makes it clear that the claim is false.

About the speaker:

David Friedman is an academic economist with a doctorate in physics retired from twenty-three years teaching in a law school. His first book, The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, was published in 1973 and is now in its third edition. It includes a description of how a society with property rights and without government might function. There as elsewhere, he offers a consequentialist defense of libertarianism.

His most recent non-fiction book is Legal Systems Very Different from Ours, covering systems from Periclean Athens through modern Amish and Romany. He is also the author of three novels, one commercially published and two self-published, and, with his wife, a self-published medieval and renaissance cookbook and a larger self-published book related to their hobby of historical recreation.

Much of his published work, including journal articles, essays, drafts of forthcoming work and the full text of several books, can be read on his web page: www.daviddfriedman.com.

Full details:

Date: Tuesday, 4th May 2022

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open + welcome drinks

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

For more information or to secure your place, please contact events@adamsmith.org



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Sailing Free: What Law in Medieval Iceland Can Teach Us Today
Apr
12
6:00 pm18:00

Sailing Free: What Law in Medieval Iceland Can Teach Us Today

If you can’t make it in person, you can join the Zoom livestream of this event (beginning at 6:30pm) by clicking here

Dr Gabriel Stein and John Nugeé’s new book ‘Sailing Free’ uses the history of the Icelandic Commonwealth to explore questions of politics, religion and sovereignty: themes which are just as relevant today as they were a thousand years ago.

From about 930 CE onwards there was no king, no government, no army and no police (and so no state monopoly of violence). One might expect such a system to be inherently unstable and not survive very long, but it lasted for over 300 years. As a libertarian experiment it has much therefore that is worth studying.

About the authors:

John Nugeé is an independent commentator and public speaker on financial, economic and political issues. He currently lectures in Politics and Economics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Previous books include: Confessions of a Business Traveller, Reflections on Global Finance, The Wisdom of Markets, and A Psalm a Day.

Gabriel Stein is an independent macroeconomist with more than thirty years experience, specialising in monetary trends. He regularly guest lectures at universities in a number of countries; and from 2019 to 2021 he taught a course on EU Politics and Policy at St Mary’s University Twickenham. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Economics History at the University of Buckingham. In addition to Sailing Free, he has written three historical novels that take place in the Byzantine Empire.

Full details:

Date: Tuesday, 12th April 2022

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open + welcome drinks

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

For more information or to secure your place, please contact events@adamsmith.org



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Resource Depletion? Don’t Worry!
Mar
3
6:00 pm18:00

Resource Depletion? Don’t Worry!

This event is now fully booked.
To add your name to the waiting list, please email
events@adamsmith.org

Join the Zoom livestream of this event (beginning at 6:30pm) by clicking here.

In current-day environmental discourse, the concern of overpopulation and resource depletion looms large. If population growth grows unchecked, and consumerism remains rampant, resources will run dry and our collective future will be imperilled. 

This ASI evening lecture will tackle this challenge and provide a contrarian perspective. Prof Gale Pooley will provide new data showing that resources have actually become more abundant over time, thanks to human innovation and market-based entrepreneurial discovery. He will also illuminate the importance of economic reforms and growth in powering environmental progress.

About the speaker:

Prof Gale Pooley is an associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He has taught economics and statistics at Alfaisal Univerity in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boise State University, and the College of Idaho. Pooley has held professional designations from the Appraisal Institute, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and the CCIM Institute. He has published articles in National ReviewHumanProgressThe American SpectatorFEE, the Utah Bar Journal, the Appraisal JournalQuilletteForbes, and RealClearMarkets. Pooley is a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute, a board member of HumanProgress.org, and a scholar with Hawaii's Grassroots Institute. His major research activity has been the Simon Abundances Index, which he coauthored with Marian Tupy.

He is the co-author of a newly published book Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet.

Full details:

Date: Thursday, 3rd March 2022

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open + welcome drinks

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

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Tackling poverty with planning reform — John Penrose MP
Nov
30
6:00 pm18:00

Tackling poverty with planning reform — John Penrose MP

John Penrose MP’s forthcoming paper, Poverty Trapped, emphasises spreading opportunity by equipping people with the skills, education and attitudes — rather than equalising incomes.

The paper highlights the importance of addressing the mounting cost of housing. Planning reform would remove a huge barrier to opportunity by reducing living costs and making it easier to move for a better job.

Penrose focuses on street votes for greater density and design, upwards house building in cities, and delivering greater benefits from housebuilding to local communities through a levy on land given permission, all of which will enable increased housebuilding and act as a catalyst for greater prosperity.

Join us at the ASI for a lecture and drinks to launch the Poverty Trapped paper.

Full details:

Date: Tuesday, 30 November 2021 

Time: 18:00 - 20:00

Agenda:

18.00 - Doors open 

18.30 - Lecture starts 

19.15 - Q&A 

20.00 - Event closes

For more information or to secure your place, please contact events@adamsmith.org

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Ayn Rand Lecture 2021 with Luke Johnson
Nov
23
6:00 pm18:00

Ayn Rand Lecture 2021 with Luke Johnson

This event is now full and we currently cannot accept further RSVPs due to limited capacity.

On Tuesday 23rd November 2021, we will be honouring Ayn Rand and the enduring appeal of her ideas with a special guest lecture at the prestigious Drapers’ Hall.

Luke Johnson, serial entrepreneur and acclaimed author, will be giving our annual Ayn Rand Lecture on "Entrepreneurs – the Last Best Hope". The lecture will defend the idea that entrepreneurs are society’s finest defence against a risk-averse, overcautious culture. Government and big business are not the answer to our challenges.

Luke Johnson is one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs. He is Chairman and founder of Risk Capital Partners LLP and a former chairman of Channel 4 Television. He wrote a weekly column for successively The Sunday Telegraph, The Financial Times and The Sunday Times for a combined total of 20 years about business. In the 1990s he was Chairman of Pizza Express PLC. Currently he is Chairman of Brighton Pier Group PLC, and a director and significant shareholder of both Gail’s artisan bakeries and Brompton Bicycles. He has written a number of books about business, and co-founded The Centre for Entrepreneurs think tank.

Schedule:
18:00 - Doors open
18:45 - Lecture starts + Q & A
20:00 - Drinks Reception

Dress code: Smart (lounge suits/business wear)

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Recovering Stolen and Looted Art
Nov
9
6:00 pm18:00

Recovering Stolen and Looted Art

Dr Anja Shortland, Professor in Political Economy at Kings College London, will speak at this evening about her latest book—Lost Art—in which she explores how the market developed a private art recovery alternative to expensive litigation: a firm specialised in negotiating voluntary restitutions, profit-sharing between claimants, and - occasionally - ransoms.

Countless dollars of art are stolen or looted every year, yet governments often consider art theft a luxury problem. With limited public law enforcement, what prevents thieves, looters and organised criminal gangs from flooding the market with stolen art? How can theft victims get justice – even decades after their loss? What happens if the legal definition of a good title is at odds with what is morally right?

Enter the Art Loss Register, a private database dedicated to tracking down stolen artworks. Blocking the sale of disputed artworks creates a space for private resolutions – often surprisingly amicable but sometimes entertainingly adversarial. Anja Shortland’s new book Lost Art explores the dark side of the global art market through the recovery stories from the Art Loss Register’s archive.

Anja Shortland is a Professor of Political Economy at King’s College London. Anja studies private governance in the world’s trickiest markets: hostages, fine art, and antiquities—and how people live, trade, and invest in complex and hostile territories. Anja was an Engineering and Economics undergraduate at Oxford and did her Masters and PhD in International Relations at the LSE. Before coming to King's she worked as a lecturer in Economics at Leicester, a Reader in Economics at Brunel University and as a consultant to the World Bank.

We open doors at 6pm and the talk itself will begin at 6.30pm, with a Q&A session taking place after the lecture at approximately 7:15pm.

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Back Better Builds - ASI at Conservative Party Conference
Oct
5
3:30 pm15:30

Back Better Builds - ASI at Conservative Party Conference

  • Manchester Central Convention Complex (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

For far too long, the housing crisis has been a topic of conversation without enough supporting action. It seems to be a political landmine –– necessary to avoid at all costs. At the same time, generations of Brits are being priced out of the housing market and many more are stuck in homes that do not fit their needs.

With so many conflicting interests in the housing debate, it has been difficult to determine what matters to homeowners and home-seekers alike. Now, with original polling by the Adam Smith Institute and C|T Group, this panel will investigate public attitudes towards building, housing development and the solutions to the housing crisis we can all get behind.


Panelists:

Ben Everitt MP, Chair - APPG for Housing Market and Housing Delivery
Anya Martin, Director - PricedOut
Samuel Hughes, Research Fellow - University of Oxford
Alex Crowley, Founding Partner - Shared Voice
John Macdonald, Head of Government Affairs - ASI (chair)

Details:

Date: Tuesday, 5th October 2021
Time: 3:30pm - 5pm (UK time)
Location: Exhibition Event Room, Manchester Central

The event is being held inside the secure zone of the Conservative Party Conference. You will need a conference pass to attend. Refreshments will be served. 

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Online Safety & Free Speech - ASI at Conservative Party Conference
Oct
5
1:00 pm13:00

Online Safety & Free Speech - ASI at Conservative Party Conference

  • Manchester Central Convention Complex (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

With the Legal to Say, Legal to Type campaign


The Government has now published a long-awaited draft of the ‘Online Safety Bill’. The Bill will create a “duty of care” on social media sites and search engines to safeguard users from both unlawful and “legal but still harmful” content as well as safeguard freedom of expression and democratically important content.

The Government claims this will make the UK the safest place in the world to surf the internet, protect free speech and tackle issues like child abuse, terrorism and racist abuse.

But critics, including the Adam Smith Institute and the Legal to Say, Legal to Type campaign, warn that it gives extraordinary power to the state and the regulator, Ofcom, to censor legal speech.

This panel aims to highlight the unprecedented threat to free speech posed by the Online Safety Bill and examine the unintended consequences of such a draconian approach.


Panelists:

Baroness Claire Fox, Director - Academy of Ideas
Jim Killock, CEO - Open Rights Group
Camilla de Coverly Veale, Head of Regulation - The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec)
Lulu Freemont, Head of Digital Regulation - techUK
Matthew Lesh, Head of Research - ASI (chair)

Details:

Date: Tuesday, 5th October 2021
Time: 1pm - 2.30pm (UK time)
Location: Exhibition Event Room, Manchester Central

The event is being held inside the secure zone of the Conservative Party Conference. You will need a conference pass to attend. Refreshments will be served. 

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The Golden Opportunity: How Britain can embrace tobacco harm reduction - ASI at Conservative Party Conference
Oct
4
3:30 pm15:30

The Golden Opportunity: How Britain can embrace tobacco harm reduction - ASI at Conservative Party Conference

  • Manchester Central Convention Complex (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

In partnership with JTI

2021 is a pivotal year; with the UK no longer part of the EU, the UK has the opportunity to become a world leader in Tobacco Harm Reduction. We are now better placed than ever before to improve our world-leading tobacco harm reduction approach—both on the domestic and international level.

The Adam Smith Institute has published research on how vaping, snus, heated tobacco and other smoking alternatives can play a vital role in tobacco harm reduction while retaining freedom of choice, and the current political landscape makes reform a more attractive option than ever before.

Having left the European Union, lawmakers are better able to pass vital regulatory reforms that can provide smokers with a range of products to choose from. On the international stage, our representatives at COP-9 later this year have the chance to push back against the World Health Organisation’s deadly campaign against vaping and promote the superiority of the UK’s more liberal, effective approach to tobacco harm reduction.

This panel aims to explore how the UK has been successful in embracing safer smoking alternatives, what reforms could help more smokers make the switch, and what steps we can take to safeguard and advance this approach at the international level.


Panelists:

Nicky Small, Fiscal and Regulatory Affairs Director - JTI (Japan Tobacco International)
Louise Ross, Interim Chair - NNA (New Nicotine Alliance)
Mark Oates, Founder - WeVape
Chris Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics - IEA (Institute of Economic Affairs)
Daniel Pryor, Head of Programmes - ASI (chair)

Details:

Date: Monday, 4th October 2021
Time: 3.30pm - 5.00pm (UK time)
Location: Exhibition Event Room, Manchester Central

The event is being held inside the secure zone of the Conservative Party Conference. You will need a conference pass to attend. Refreshments will be served. 

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Barriers to a Green Revolution - ASI at Conservative Party Conference
Oct
4
1:00 pm13:00

Barriers to a Green Revolution - ASI at Conservative Party Conference

  • Manchester Central Convention Complex (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

With a target of Net Zero by 2050, the UK has a daunting task ahead. Many groups would see the Government take a heavy-handed approach to a green revolution, including tariffs, subsidies, fines, and more, all to achieve their goals. 

At the same time, the market is driving innovation every day, as new companies, entrepreneurs, charities and scientists devise ways of doing more with less. We must encourage a productive and flexible economy that can solve the issue of climate change through growth and innovation, not through draconian restrictions that lower our living standards. 

All too often, revolutionary technologies face barriers to success –– restrictive government regulation, administrative hurdles, and lobbying on behalf of incumbents. This results in stifled progress. We need to remove regulatory barriers that stand in the way of a green Britain. 

This panel aims to outline the core principles of free market environmentalism and show how they can lead to a greener, freer, more prosperous society for future generations.


Panelists:

Hon George Brandis QC, Australian High Commissioner to the UK
Rt Hon Chris Skidmore MP, Member of Parliament for Kingswood
Connor Tomlinson, Policy Advisor - British Conservation Alliance
Russ Tucker, CEO - Ivy Farm Technologies
Morgan Schondelmeier, Head of External Affairs - ASI (chair)

Details:

Date: Monday, 4th October 2021
Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm (UK time)
Location: Exhibition Event Room, Manchester Central

The event is being held inside the secure zone of the Conservative Party Conference. You will need a conference pass to attend. Refreshments will be served. 

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Health Provision Around the World: Problems and Solutions
Jul
27
6:00 pm18:00

Health Provision Around the World: Problems and Solutions

Click here to register for this Adam Smith Institute webinar.

The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the disparities between successful and unsuccessful healthcare systems. With some systems facing collapse and needing protection, to others adapting quickly and with agility, there are many lessons to be learned.

What makes for good health provision? How can we create an accessible, adaptable, and quality healthcare service? Is there a system which ticks all the boxes? Is it sufficient to only provide healthcare “free” at the point of use? How can the private sector get more involved in provision while maintaining universal healthcare?

As we look to tackle the backlog following the pandemic, all of these questions will be weighing heavily on the minds of policymakers and healthcare professionals.

Join us on 27th July at 6pm BST to discuss the problems and solutions we face with health provision around the world.

Panelists:

Dr. Madsen Pirie (host) is President of the Adam Smith Institute.

Dr. Laurence Gerlis is Chief Executive Officer and Lead Clinician at Samedaydoctor.

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Sweet or Salty? Evaluating the National Food Strategy
Jul
20
6:00 pm18:00

Sweet or Salty? Evaluating the National Food Strategy

Click here to register for this Adam Smith Institute webinar.

This month saw the publication of the National Food Strategy, a government-commissioned review led by “Food Tsar” Henry Dimbleby.

The wide-ranging report covered everything from the environmental impact of food production to eligibility for free school meals, but the proposal attracting the most attention is a new £3 per kilogram tax on sugar and a £6 per kilogram tax on salt in processed foods from supermarkets and prepared restaurant meals.

Supporters of these new taxes and similar measures point to the cost of Britain’s obesity crisis and believe that taxes can encourage companies to reformulate their products into healthier alternatives.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has signalled his scepticism at the idea of raising food prices for ordinary families and other critics are concerned that it will ruin the taste of popular foods while doing little to change our eating habits.

To discuss the pros and cons of the National Food Strategy, we have assembled an expert panel.

Panelists:

Daniel Pryor (Chair) is the Head of Programmes at the Adam Smith Institute.

Christopher Snowdon is the Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Kate Ferguson is the Deputy Political Editor at The Sun.

Darwin Friend is a Policy Analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

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