IEA Podcast

Sunday 11th October 2020 marked the 15th anniversary of the death of Arthur Seldon, economist and polemicist and co-founder of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Sir Anthony Seldon is one of Britain’s leading contemporary historians, educationalists, commentators and political authors. He has written over 40 books on contemporary history, including the inside books on the last four Prime Ministers. Most recently he served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham.

The event was recorded on Thursday 15th September.

In this episode, Mark Littlewood, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, speaks to the Hon Tony Abbott, former Prime Minister of Australia and adviser to the UK Board of Trade, about the future of UK and global free trade.

The conversation centres around the newly created UK Board of Trade and its role in delivering economic growth and prosperity through exports, inward investment and outward direct investment.

This discussion was recorded with an invited audience on Tuesday 20th October 2020.

A new book from Dr Eamonn Butler explores and examines how entrepreneurship drives economic progress and how governments can create the optimal conditions for entrepreneurs to thrive.

What part does entrepreneurship play in boosting innovation, progress, productivity and growth – and why is this overlooked in economics textbooks? Do we underestimate the contributions of entrepreneurship, and how it affects us all as workers, consumers and citizens? How can the government best support entrepreneurs as we emerge from the Covid-19 crisis?

You can read Eamonn's book 'An Introduction to Entrepreneurship' here: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads...

IEA Director of Communications Annabel Denham is joined by Dr Eamonn Butler, Director, Adam Smith Institute, Lord Leigh of Hurley, British businessman and Conservative life peer, Emma Jones MBE, Founder, Enterprise Nation, Matt Ridley, Author, Journalist and Businessman.

Socialism remains a hugely popular idea among Western Millennials, but mention a specific example of socialism in the presence of a believer and you can be sure of a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. “That’s not real socialism”, they cry. So what is it like to live under socialism and have Western hipsters tell you your experiences are wrong, or don't count?

Emma Revell, IEA Head of Public Affairs, is joined by three people with personal experience and academic interest in socialism, and specifically Venezuela's "Socialism of the 21st Century". Jesus Armas is a Venezuelan politician and activist, who has spent most of his life there, and who is currently in the process of setting up a libertarian think tank in country. Roberto White is British-Venezuelan student of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, who lived in Venezuela from 2004 to 2010. Both are part of the IEA’s internship programme which you can find out more about on our website.

The third guest is Dr Kristian Niemietz, IEA Head of Political Economy, whose book “Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies” contains a chapter on the attitudes of Western intellectuals towards Venezuela’s socialist experiment.

At the start of the pandemic, various commentators argued, or at least floated this idea, that the threat of a deadly virus would put the culture wars and ‘woke politics’ on ice. The public faced with a real crisis, wouldn’t indulge in such matters.

But, as we very soon found out, this has not been the case. With the rise of identity politics, Black Lives Matter, the resurgence of Extinction Rebellion, and the toppling of statues left, right and centre, tensions are certainly heating up rather than thawing.

Some have argued that economics now comes second to cultural issues when defining where someone sits on the political spectrum.

IEA Media Manager Emily Carver speaks to the IEA's Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz, who has written an article for Reaction in which he argues that, while the culture wars may have drowned out economic issues to an extent, the culture wars will not replace economics, because the culture war itself has a strong economic component.

Read Kristian's article here: https://reaction.life/its-still-the-e...

‘School of Thought’ is the IEA discussion series based on ‘101 Great Liberal Thinkers’ by Dr Eamonn Butler.

Each week, Syed Kamall discusses classical liberalism’s role in bringing the modern world into existence, profiling the lives and ideas of some of the leading thinkers on individual liberty and examining their relevance today.

In this week’s episode, Syed sits down with Johan Norberg, classical liberal historian of ideas and author of 'Open - The Story of Human Progress' to discuss Anders Chydenius, the 18th century Scandinavian parliamentarian and classical liberal economist.

'101 Great Liberal Thinkers' is available to download for free on the IEA website - https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads...

Amid growing calls for a bailout of the university sector back in July, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson suggested institutions would first have to prove their commitment to free speech. His comments – and the Higher Education Restructuring Regime – signified growing concerns over censorship on campus. 

What impact does cancel culture have on the scope and quality of research output? Are strongly-held political attitudes are restricting the freedom of those who disagree to research and teach on contested subjects, as a recent Policy Exchange report suggested? If so: what can be done? 

IEA Media Manager Emily Carver is joined by IEA Fellow and Research Director of the Free Speech Union Radomir Tylecote, Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College and co-author of Policy Exchange report ‘Academic freedom in the UK: Protecting viewpoint diversity’ and Joanna Williams, Founding Director of the Cieo think tank and author of ‘Academic Freedom in the Age of Conformity’.

The long running trade dispute between Airbus and Boeing has wide-reaching implications, including an impact on the price of other goods including British goods such as bed linen, luxury clothing, biscuits, whisky and other alcoholic tipples.

Why? After a recent World Trade Organisation ruling against Airbus, the US government decided to levy import taxes on imports from the EU including from the UK, given that the UK is a partner in Airbus with France, Germany and Spain.

How did we arrive at the present situation? Why is the US not showing more goodwill towards the UK, given the "special relationship"? As the UK and US negotiate a FTA, how much faith can we put in early harvest measures?

IEA Academic and Research Director Professor Syed Kamall is joined by CEO of Competere Shanker Singham and the Cato Institute's Dan Ikenson to discuss the Boeing-Airbus battle, tariff retaliation and the UK-US FTA.

Read Shanker's recent report, "How the UK can deal with Tariff Retaliation: The Boeing-Airbus Fallout" here: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/bf4d...

‘School of Thought’ is the IEA discussion series based on ‘101 Great Liberal Thinkers’ by Dr Eamonn Butler.

Each week, Syed Kamall discusses classical liberalism’s role in bringing the modern world into existence, profiling the lives and ideas of some of the leading thinkers on individual liberty and examining their relevance today.

In this week’s episode, Syed sits down with Clemens Schneider to discuss Lord Acton. Clemens is the Director of Prometheus, a classical liberal think-tank based in Germany.

'101 Great Liberal Thinkers' is available to download for free on the IEA website - https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads...

The UK government is enacting a strategy of localised lockdowns, targeting specific areas where cases have spiked. These were first introduced in Leicester and now cover large areas of the North West. The intention is that this will prevent a ‘second wave’ of the virus.

But are these likely to prove effective? And has the original justification for lockdown to ‘protect the NHS’ now been completely side-lined considering how extensive these lockdowns continue to be?

The IEA's Media Manager is joined by Dr Stephen Davies, Head of Education at the IEA and Kate Andrews, Economics Correspondent at the Spectator to discuss.