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An absolute Conservative commitment to an EU referendum

You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence “democracy”, and the other “tyranny”. — Karl Popper Before the Lisbon Treaty, I had no interest in being an MP. That Treaty was introduced to sidestep democratic rejection of the near-identical EU Constitution: I saw democracy dying at the hands of fanatical advocates of European political integration. Previously, I thought it was enough to vote Conservative [...]

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The appalling moral outrage of contemporary slavery

Last week, I attended a dramatic and distressing exhibition in the House of Commons highlighting the hidden nature of contemporary slavery. The exhibition, built by students from the Central St Martin’s College of Art, depicted the four different kinds of slavery hidden away in our society. Curtains, doors, drawers and tea chests concealed the stories and photographs of survivors. The survivors who shared their stories with the Human Trafficking Foundation to create the exhibition attended the opening. Among them was [...]

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Does Government Create Jobs?

Another superb video from LearnLiberty, Does Government Create Jobs: Related reading: Kirzner, How Markets Work

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Presentation to Windsor Conservatives

After this morning’s advice bureau, I had the pleasure of visiting Windsor Conservative Association Women’s Group, where I explained what I think are the long term causes of this crisis and what we should do about it. Here are the slides: I was delighted students from a local school joined us and were able to take away copies of Dr Nigel Ashford’s Principles for a Free Society, commissioned by the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation. As we were mostly discussing the problems of state-direction in [...]

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The Intelligence and Security Committee should have an elected Chair

Earlier today, I moved amendments tabled by Andrew Tyrie MP to make provision for an elected chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee which scrutinises MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. At present, the ISC is a Government committee of parliamentarians. The Bill makes it a Parliamentary committee whose members are appointed by the Houses of Parliament on the Prime Minister’s nominations. The nominees would then elect their own chair. The Committee must have access to highly classified material, so it can’t operate along identical [...]

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Principles for a Free Society, Dr Nigel Ashford

In just 96 pages, Dr Nigel Ashford’s Principles for a Free Society, commissioned by the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation, explains 12 of the founding ideas of free societies. These are civil society, democracy, equality, free enterprise, freedom, human rights, justice, peace, private property, the rule of law, spontaneous order and toleration. The excellent Syed Kamall MEP introduced me to the book when we took a large case of copies to Cairo in the run up to their presidential election. Young activists soaked [...]

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The madness of contemporary economists

The Bank of England is considering negative interest rates to “stimulate” the economy, together with more QE. It’s one thing to pay a bank for safe-keeping and other services, another for the central bank to manipulate the credit markets as a whole. It is explicitly a policy of expropriating savers, of which there is much to be said on another occasion. Allister Heath provides sensible comment here. What the Bank of England is trying to do is restart the money creation process [...]

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Dido has said in 8 words what I have tried to say in thousands

On the way to church this morning, I heard Dido’s new song, No Freedom: No love without freedom – no freedom without love. The longer I spend in politics, the more convinced I become that expanding freedom is near impossible without high standards of individual behaviour towards others. Unless people will choose freely to treat others as they would be treated, it’s difficult to see how politicians, officials and electorates will agree to refrain from the futile and counterproductive attempt [...]

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Via City A.M. – Boris on Starbucks and DC on judicial review

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On the cover of City A.M. this morning, Boris Johnson argues that Starbucks must do more for the UK. Apparently, the Mayor said of Starbucks, “It needs to reflect very fast and very seriously on its position…Either it makes a change in its tax arrangements or does a lot more to visibly serve society.” Now, I was critical of Starbucks in the press myself, but the Mayor is mixing up two issues: paying tax and serving society. As I said [...]

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Tomorrow’s most important political event?

Tomorrow, the BBC Radio 4 programme Analysis features Jamie Whyte’s Keeping the Free Market Faith at 20:30: The financial crisis has made many on the political right question their faith in free market capitalism. Jamie Whyte is unaffected by such doubts. The financial crisis, he argues, was caused by too much state interference and an unhealthy collusion between government and corporate power. Interviewees include Luigi Zingales, author of Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity and a professor at [...]

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Steve Baker is MP for Wycombe. He was previously an RAF officer then a business software consultant. Find out more...

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