This week another book on communism was published. We know what you’re thinking. This time, it’s going to be different… So we question various obvious, and not so obvious, aspects to communism. What happens to privacy when others decide what I am allowed? How much slavery is acceptable? How is value determined? How can communism cope with scarcity? After all, resources aside, there are only a certain amount of man (or robot) hours in a day, limiting what we can build.

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This time, we revisit Change UK: The Independent Group. Actually, hang on: Change UK and The Independent Group. The splitters have split again. Warning: contains mild gloating.

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In this latest episode, we discuss the Lib Dems and their recent successes in the EU elections and the latest polls. We reason why they’ve experienced a recent uplift before discussing Change UK: The Independent Group and why they’ve seen precisely the opposite.

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This week, we try to steel man the arguments against freeing up the steel industry. Steel is always sold as a strategic industry. We’re often told that we cannot free the market, that we must have tariffs on foreign steel, and that we must protect (subsidise or nationalise) our own steel industry. We conduct a thought experiment on what would actually happen if the steel market was given a little (and a lot)more freedom before moving on to freeing up other industries like nuclear power. And chicken.

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

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This week, we discuss Castor Semenya and the controversy surrounding intersex & transgender athletes. We talk about the definition of intersex, the rules around competing against females and if there’s a way forward that can please everyone.

Where should the line be drawn when deciding who can compete in the female category in sport?

Is this even the right question? Should there only be one set of rules?

Is there a way to treat all people fairly?

Are the media telling people everything about this particular, significant case?

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

The post The Castor Semenya Controversy: Is it time for competition in competitions? appeared first on sounding board.

Politicians are rushing to regulate the internet with the EU copyright directive, age verification on porn sites and now a new regulator of social media platforms to police so called online harms.

In this edition we look across the globe to Vietnam, who at the turn of the year passed a law banning any criticism of the government online and ask if here in the west we are heading down that same authoritarian path.

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

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This week we discuss whether Britain’s current constitutional crisis is actually a good thing. As Classical Liberals & Libertarians, should we delight in people realising that the current system of government isn’t working and cannot cope with incompetent or even sinister Members of Parliament?

Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash

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This week we discuss why we find buying each other communist memorabilia amusing but would not feel the same about fascist merchandise. We also question the rules around humour and what makes one ideology an acceptable target, but another not? Will Nic stop using his treasured Soviet tea set?

Photo by Kirill Sharkovski on Unsplash

The post Why Is It OK To Laugh At Communism? appeared first on sounding board.

This week we discuss the difference between stated and revealed preferences. How do economists and politicians use preferences to form policy and should they ignore stated preferences altogether?

We also delve deeply into falsified preferences, a particular type of stated preference, and how we are all threatened by the psychology of this phenomenon and it’s effects on free speech.

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

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It turns out no deal isn’t better than a bad deal even though the commons has certainly expressed its opinion that the Withdrawal Agreement is very bad indeed.

The Irish Backstop is the clincher, and this week the power was firmly in the hands of Geoffrey Cox, the government’s lawyer in chief, who with one decisive blow, single-handedly ensured that the government would be defeated again.

We discuss the events of the day after, when the commons voted on a motion to take “no deal” off the table, and on the Malthouse compromise amendment.

Will members of the Cabinet resign after abstaining? What about those who voted for the Malthouse version of Brexit?

And finally, we discuss the shenanigans in the Labour Party, and how in “normal” times, this would have been big news.

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