Five Days in Quangostan or more like Five Days in Hell! That's one man's interpretation of what daily life in the UK could soon become, especially if it carries on journeying down the road it's currently on.
Greg Kane, an ordinary citizen, is constantly harassed and hounded by the state. It gets worse when he takes a highly confidential letter from the Chief Constable to the Home Secretary. On top of his day-to-day trials and tribulations due to the idiocy of bureaucracy he now faces up to the state’s trump card, the use of legitimate violence. From the first day in the novel, as a reader, you are left banging your head against a wall at just how ridiculous life is becoming but throughout you hope that the eponymous hero can outwit those that stand in his way of leading a 'normal' life.
This was an enjoyable read, irreverent and entertaining, if not a little worrying as a precursor to what the UK could become like as it slips ever more into the abyss. For my own tastes it is perhaps a little conservative but none the less the general theme is one that both libertarians and conservatives can attest to: the state and its agents are incessantly ruining the lives of the majority. I'm sure any person who reads this book can relate to at least one of the multitude of taxing experiences that the main character suffers. Which is testament to how far we have come down the wrong road!
While everyone is haring off trying to repeat or even outdo the New Deal, there's still a lot of controversy about whether it actually worked and if it did, which parts did?
What, in the words of a modern liberal, distinguishes a modern liberal from a classical. Arguing back is so easy that it is left as an exercise for the reader.
For example, we hear a little about government failure, but what do you do when a government is actually crazy?
We have set the date for the next Independent Seminar on the Open Society (ISOS), our one-day seminar for sixth-formers. It will run from 10:30am until 4:30pm including breaks and lunch.
ISOS is named after the seminal book: The Open Society and its Enemies, written by the philosopher Sir Karl Popper. It explores the principles and practicalities of an open, free and tolerant society.
ISOS achieves this through a crammed programme of household-name speakers – including politicians from all sides of politics, national media personalities, think-tankers, economists, and business leaders.
Previous speakers have included, George Osborne MP, Andrew Marr, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, John Whittingdale MP, Boris Johnson MP, Andrew Neil, Paul Ormerod and many, many more.
If you are a student or teacher and would like to attend this event, please visit the ISOS section of the website here.
That Czech sculpture. As in the earlier blog, it's all a most fun scam that's been played. Anyone want to speculate on whether the politicians and bureaucrats will see the funny side? Show they have a sense of humour?
Less amusing: unreason is now the basis for legislation.
What if this stimulus might have negative effects? Like, damage long term growth? Something which is far more important than a couple of years of below trend output.
"It takes a heap of Harberger triangles to fill an Okun's gap." Yes, but how many is a heap?
A good example of what long term growth actually means using refrigerators as that example.
Whether or not it's good art, the Entropa installation by Czech artist David Cerny is pure genius. The Czech Republic should be made permanent holders of the EU Presidency.
“Who is John Galt?" This is the opening line to Atlas Shrugged, a novel by Ayn Rand, one in which the world collapses under the weight of an oppressive robber class of politicians/bureaucrats. Fraser Nelson wrote on the Spectator Blog, having linked to a WSJ article, about the similarities of this day-and-age to those in Rand’s fictional world.
The story in Atlas Shrugged isn’t quite the same, the governments of that world appropriate successful businesses so as to enable the redistribution of the profits whereas now they are bailing out unsuccessful businesses. Quite the reverse. With productive taxpayers bailing out unsuccessful business! But the underlying theme of the book is that the government isn’t there to help and in the end it is not only a hindrance but more likely to be the harbinger of failure. Rand draws into her characters the tenets of her philosophy of objectivism and how their selfish disdain for others is ultimately the driver of their success. Though she venerates selfishness to an extreme, it is understandable in the climate of hatred held towards those that achieve.
This book, though not a direct warning to us, holds within it an insight into how those on the left view the average human, and how the average human can be bribed to support their ideals. It’s a future that no rational person would want to live in, not unless they knew the way to Cactus Gulch.
If you would like to further your interest in Ayn Rand then the ASI is hosting an event on February 10th. Dr Yaron Brook, Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Centre for Individual Rights will be speaking for around 45 minutes on Capitalism without Guilt: The Moral Case for Freedom. The event will be from 6pm for 6.30pm, following on Dr Brook’s speech there will be the usual question-and-answer session and drinks reception. If you would like to attend then please contact Philip Salter at events@old.adamsmith.org.
Five Days in Quangostan or more like Five Days in Hell! That's one man's interpretation of what daily life in the UK could soon become, especially if it carries on journeying down the road it's currently on. .jpg)
“Who is John Galt?" This is the opening line to Atlas Shrugged, a novel by Ayn Rand, one in which the world collapses under the weight of an oppressive robber class of politicians/bureaucrats. Fraser Nelson