Must be doing something right

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It does not look as though the truth is too popular amongst Guardian readers. Read 'Don't regulate banking – liberalise it' by Anthony Evans and decide for yourself.

ISOS - 15th October 2009

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On Thursday 15th October the ASI will be holding its next Independent Seminar for the Open Society; our one-day conference for sixth-form students with an interest in politics and economics. Named after Sir Karl Popper’s book The Open Society and Its Enemies, the conference is based upon the principles and consequences of an open and tolerant society.

ISOS always attracts prominent and distinguished names from all areas of politics, journalism and business; past speakers include the likes of Boris Johnson, Andrew Marr and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. A key attraction of ISOS is the way in which students are able to get involved with the issues discussed. Following each 15-20 minute talk students are invited to question each speaker on their topic, and voice their own opinions and reactions. Talks promise to be on the cutting-edge politics and economics.

This October the speakers will be Brendan O’Neil, editor of Spiked Online and co-founder of the Manifesto Club, Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind, LibDem MP Lembit Opik and ASI President Dr Madsen Pirie. This October will also see the first ISOS debate (debators tba).

To apply for a place, please send an e-mail to isos@old.adamsmith.org. School group bookings are welcome. Places for students are limited to 200. A flyer for the event is available to download here.

The UK's credit rating

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The Prime Minister's solution is to keep spending willy-nilly and paint anyone who asks questions as immoral. Yet it is Brown that is immoral. Our so-called leader is at risk of wrecking the UK's credit rating – a cataclysmic outcome that would result in genuine austerity budgets and annual debt service costs approaching what we spend on the NHS.

– Liam Halligan, ' Daring Darling finally puts Brown in his place ' The Telegraph

Dinner with Portillo

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Back in July, I recorded an episode of Dinner with Portillo, in which I discussed devolution and Scottish independence with Rod Liddle (of The Times and The Spectator), Michael Fry (the Scottish historian and author), Henry McLeish (the former first minister of Scotland), Hardeep Singh Kohli (from The One Show), Vernon Bogdanor (the Oxford professor), Timothy Garton Ash (of The Guardian and Oxford University) and, of course, Michael Portillo (the former defence secretary). Just in case anybody wants to watch it, it's on BBC Four tonight at 10pm.

On the money

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They say that 90% of America's $20 bills contain traces of cocaine. Nice to know greenbacks are still worth something, then.

How to rise to the top

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Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".

- Walter E. Williams

Inclement weather

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Forget wind, sea and solar... for the UK drizzle power is the future.

Is it contagious?

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Cameron is already preparing himself for the great trials of running this country.

The joy of forgetting

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The British Medical Association wants to see higher prices and advertising bans for alcohol. Meanwhile, American doctors have been praising alcohol, saying that despite the risks of over-indulging, it can stave off Alzheimer's. This doesn't strike me as good news: frankly, I don't want to remember all the stupid things I did when I was drunk.

BNP and the left

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"Labour has been forced to drop its policy of not sharing a platform with the BNP after the BBC confirmed that it is to invite Nick Griffin to appear on Question Time....Although Gordon Brown is understood to have been angered by the decision, Downing Street made no comment yesterday. Instead it was left to Labour sources to confirm that the party would field a senior figure to appear alongside Mr Griffin." (Article here)

Nothing could be more damaging to the left than for the public to hear the words, "I totally agree with you". Unfortunately it could well be uttered by Nick Griffin more than once.

Here's a few BNP polices that many on the left would be "proud of":

• The protection of British companies from unfair foreign imports
• The renationalisation of monopoly utilities and services
• Bring hospital cleaning back in-house and make high cleanliness a top priority
• More emphasis must be placed on healthy living with greater understanding of sickness prevention through physical exercise, a healthier environment and improved diets
• Develop renewable energy sources such as off-shore wind farms, wave, tidal and solar energy
• The introduction of a system of workfare for those in unemployment benefit for more than six months with compulsory work and training in return for decent payment
• Take all privatised social housing stock back under local democratically controlled council ownership

All from the policy pages of the BNP's website, if you want to scare yourself witless at the prohibitive costs of all this then click here. The BNP: the left's wolf in a red cloak.