On March 8th the Times published a letter from Lord Kalms saying that around 1991 he offered the London School of Economics a grant to set up a Chair of Business Ethics. The faculty rejected the offer as it saw no correlation between ethics and economics. By pure chance a Latvian cleaner at the LSE found what we take as a draft or copy of the rejection letter behind a cupboard. Although we cannot...

Rule Britannia – but who wants waves? On Saturday the Royal Albert Hall will ring to the stirring refrains of Rule Britannia in the belief that ‘Britons never shall be slaves.’ Far be it for us to spoil the party, but a moment’s thought will show how easily we are beguiled into thinking we are free.

Some commentators are suggesting that next week’s budget of retrenchment results from a re-run of the argument that arose in the 1930s. Introducing an article in the Financial Times on 17 June under the heading “Once again we must ask “Who Governs?”, Lord Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, wrote. “In one sense, next week’s...

Holiday time is here and the team is taking a break. Watch out for the occasional piece, though, and we shall be back regularly in late July.

Winston Churchill made this speech in 1909. We can’t put the case better ourselves. A century on, it remains clear, concise and to the point. We would commend it to David Cameron and his team. LAND MONOPOLY is not the only monopoly, but it is by far the greatest of monopolies — it is a perpetual monopoly, and it is the mother of all other forms of monopoly.

Bullseye! One of our members drew my attention to an old issue of our publication Practical Politics in which the editor, David Mills, had said that of the next slump “the seeds are being sown now”, and giving his prediction that it would occur “probably about seven years hence”. As this was in July 2002, his forecast turned out to be a bullseye hit. Is there a prize for...

This discussion paper by Henry Law written in August 1992 is here published with the aim of promoting discussion about the incidence and burden of taxes. Taxes on the rental value of land have been levied by governments since time immemorial.

The Right of Public Access We rely on the Right of Public Access whenever we go out in the countryside – whether it is to take a walk, go kayaking, climb a mountain or just sit down on a rock to think. The Right of Public Access is a unique institution. It gives us all the freedom to roam the countryside. But we must also take care of nature and wildlife, and we must show consideration for...

In April 1649 Winstanley, William Everard, a former soldier in the New Model Army and about thirty followers took over some common land on St George’s Hill in Surrey and “sowed the ground with parsnips, carrots and beans.” Digger groups also took over land in Kent (Cox Hill), Surrey (Cobham), Buckinghamshire (Iver) and Northamptonshire (Wellingborough). Local landowners were very...

Before the Khadi of an Eastern city there came from the desert two torn and bruised travellers.