Four new Samuel Brittan articles and

speeches‏

andrew.heavens@gmail.com

Sat 3/28/09

Why UK should not fret about national debt

The Financial Times 27/03/09

Of one thing I am sure. If we had the misfortune to engage in a major war, we would have far higher deficits and debts than anything now in prospect and few except some pacifists would worry. The second world war was financed in the UK with a 0.5 per cent bank rate. Why should it be more alarming for governments to get into debt to put people into useful work satisfying human needs than to borrow for guns and tanks whose only aim is to kill other human beings?

http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/text333_p.html

The simple case for taxing land

Speech House of Commons 24/03/09

The difficulty in stating the case for taxing land is that it is so simple; and simple things are often difficult to put across. There are indeed some who see land taxation as the basis of an entirely different economic order replacing market capitalism. Maybe. But it is also possible to see it as an improvement in the tax system of a normal capitalist mixed economy. Thus I do not believe that it will cure cancer, abolish war or even eliminate boom and bust. But it is still well worthwhile.

http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee58_p.html

The Economic Truman Show

Speech Bath 20/03/09

I don’t know if any of you recall a film which was all the rage ten years ago called the Truman Show. Truman is a straightforward ordinary guy who lives an uneventful, happy life in a small American town. What he does not realise is that his whole life is a fake as the people around him are all actors and the streets all around him consist of painted scenery. There is, however, a danger that all hell will break loose when he discovers how he is being deceived. Analogies are never perfect and in this case Truman stands for masses of people – ordinary citizens, politicians, officials, and many others. The actors consist of the American academic economic community who are putting up a show for the rest of us who mistakenly believe that we are being told how to run our economic policy. If you find all this a little mystifying please listen further and I will tell you how I came to this realisation.

http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee57_p.html

Why democracy is overrated

Speech Cambridge 03/09

Above all we need more careful use of language. Never let anyone, however eminent, get away with using “democracy” as a shorthand for everything politically desirable. A bad offender in the use of democracy as the be all and end all of wisdom was our old friend George W. Bush and the neo-conservatives who act in the spirit of “fight them, beat them and make them democratic”. It is worth noting that neither the US Declaration of Independence nor the US constitution contains the word “democratic”. What the constitution does guarantee to every state in the Union is a “republican form of government”.

http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/spee56_p.html

http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk

Four new Samuel Brittan articles and speeches‏

andrew.heavens@gmail.com

Sat 3/28/09