The free market is a system of cooperation for mutual benefit.

I just spent a most enjoyable and productive evening with South Bucks National Farmers’ Union, which followed a recent visit to a local farm.

Discussing farming in Buckinghamshire

In particular, we discussed NFU President Peter Kendall’s speech, “Delivering Farming’s Future”. He repeated a point made by Norman Borlaug, a Nobel laureate and great agricultural scientist, that:

In the next 50 years we are going to have to produce more food than we have in the last ten thousand years.

I am reminded of a remark heard elsewhere that restrictive measures can only restrict production. We might do well to rethink farming regulation substantially.

Nick Herbert MP’s agenda for British farming, “A New Age of Agriculture”, seeks to do just that, with an industry-led review of all existing regulations. See page 7 of the policy document:

I was also asked to respond personally to a wish list from Chilterns Farmers formed at the 4 March Chilterns Conservation Board Farmers’ Forum: I believe I passed muster! It was certainly a very interesting discussion and, yet again, I am staggered by the grotesque bureaucracy which has been heaped upon practical, productive people.

I think perhaps it is time for change.

As Labour pours another £11bn of poison into the wells, I find myself reflecting on the economics of the Left, people who seem to be lamenting coming “Tory cuts” after so much “Labour investment”.

In the first place, Labour plan their own substantial cuts. More to the point, Labour’s spending was funded not by sustainable prosperity, but by one long credit expansion unbacked by real savings, which has now, inevitably, come to an end.

Left-wingers’ admirable intentions seem to be unmatched by a reasonable understanding of the means to bring about the good ends they intend.
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At last, a day of good light!

Well, after visiting the magnificent Wycombe Abbey School yesterday to discover that they are very happy to share their facilities with the state sector, and after a great doorstep session this morning in Totteridge, where I found Labour voters coming over to the Conservatives, I am feeling rather upbeat, despite disquieting polling and despite agreeing with William Hague:

And I say it is that most crucial election because I believe the choice for Britain is as stark as this: it is change or ruin.

…

We are telling the British people the truth: we cannot go on like this.

We say to them now: it is time, it is time to make the break. We cannot go on just borrowing money from China so that we can buy their goods and then borrow some more. Gordon Brown is like a credit card company who will always send you another letter saying it would be so easy when in debt to borrow even more. Every family, every small business, everyone except this Government knows it is the road to ruin.

…

So it is time for change. And if we do not take this opportunity, grasp this hour, to set a new direction for Britain, then I tell you in all frankness that it will be too late. It will be too late in 5 years’ time to say we should have got rid of them, too late to reverse the decline: the debt will be too big, the bureaucracy too bloated, the small businesses too stifled, the slope Britain is sliding down will be too steep.

Yes, this year, the choice is change or ruin, but I believe people understand that this is true. People know that the days of bureaucracy are over. People must have more to do with one another and the government less.

A new publication,  The choice at this election, explains how Conservatives will:

• Act now on debt to get the economy moving
• Get Britain working by boosting enterprise
• Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe
• Back the NHS
• Raise standards in schools
• Change politics

It’s this simple: vote for change, vote Conservative.

On Tuesday, I spoke at the IEA’s The State of the Economy conference, participating in a panel discussion on Fiscal Policy and Government Expenditure with Edmund Conway, Sir John Bourn, Graeme Leach and Danny Alexander MP.

Read more via Steve Baker speaks at the IEA on fiscal policy » The Cobden Centre.

Now For Change

In a letter to The Sun:

DAVID Cameron plans to return power to the people with a dramatic state revolution.

In an exclusive interview, the Tory chief reveals nurses, teachers and other public servants will be allowed to go it alone and run their own services.

Under his plan for public sector “co-operatives”, staff could axe useless bosses and, if efficient, keep the savings made.

via Tory pledge to give public sector workers power to axe boss | The Sun |News.

For more information, see the policy paper:

We will:

• Create a powerful new right to become your own boss. Staff in the vast majority of front-line public service functions will be able to bid to transfer to independence by creating a co-operative enterprise – there are already legally-recognised organisational forms they can simply adopt ‘off the shelf’;

• Enable shared ownership. Staff in the new co-operative would be genuine owners of the enterprise. Like employees in co-owned businesses, they would all be able to benefit from its financial success and could vote on how things are run;

• Create the freedom to innovate. They would simply be contracted by a relevant government department to deliver the desired outcomes – no more bureaucratic government process targets dictating how to achieve them;

• Allow staff co-ops to bring in the best expertise. To help overcome the barriers to rapid progress that co-ops can experience, they will be able to go into joint-venture with outside organisations. Partners could be offered a share of the revenues in exchange for management and operational expertise;

• Give staff co-ops the freedom to grow. Once successful, staff co-ops will be able to bid for other areas of government activity, or merge with other co-ops if they wish;

• Ban profiteering. While staff will fully own their new organisation, they will not be able to sell off any of the state’s assets they continue to use, like land and buildings. And because we expect them to make big efficiencies and improvements to services, their contracts will ensure any big surpluses they make will be shared with the taxpayer.

Today, I visited Jade and Jay, co-founders of Street Dreams to discuss their work in Wycombe’s deprived communities.

Steve and Jay, co founder of Street Dreams, discussing the Street Dreams Work Model

Too many people wrongly assume that Buckinghamshire is a utopia without social problems, but, as I have reported before, there is every reason to support good quality social action here. Jay and Jade explained how they help “disadvantaged, disengaged and disruptive young people to help them achieve a sustainable positive life”.

We discussed a wide range of issues from drug dealing and lack of parental support, to parental dependency on children, gang activity and imprisonment. The Street Dreams model to turn participants into volunteers and youth development workers promotes self esteem and programme sustainability, and I was delighted to find the team encourages entrepreneurship and sport.

We particularly discussed the operation of the third sector and I recommended the Centre for Social Justice report Breakthrough Britain: Third Sector and the Centre for Policy Studies paper A Step Change in UK Philanthropy. As the CSJ report says:

The war on poverty will only be won by liberating the third sector from the incessant pressure to do the government’s work in the government’s way. Innovative social entrepreneurs and grassroots projects need to be trusted and equipped to find new solutions to these intractable problems. It can be done.

At Street Dreams, as at The Oasis Partnership, the Lane End Oasis Centre and others, there is innovative social entrepreneurship happening in Wycombe: we must support it.

I had the pleasure today of meeting Ken Edwards, Peter Jennings and Michael Diggins of the M40 Chiltern Environmental Group. We explored the history of the M40, the problem and potential avenues to explore within today’s tight financial situation.

Living very near the M40 in Daws Hill, I have every sympathy with the Group’s objectives. The following chart is a noise report for my area:

Note that noise levels are for the most part above 65 dBA, which would be a reasonable level under European standards. I understand 25-30,000 people live within 300m of the motorway between junctions 3 and 8 and therefore suffer the noise. For many people, the noise is far worse than this.

Certainly a situation to be pursued actively!

Via today’s Cobden Centre article, A Free Money Movement, Antoine Clarke predicts the rise of the Free Money Movement called for by Hayek:

What we now need is a Free Money Movement comparable to the Free Trade Movement ofthe 19th century, demonstrating not merely the harm caused by acute inflation, which could justifiably be argued to be avoidable even with present institutions, but the deeper effects of producing periods of stagnation that are indeed inherent in the present monetary arrangements.

You can find the relevant Facebook groups here and here.