{"id":58147,"date":"2015-06-19T08:47:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T08:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=2de28fd2b66457f421e839b5765a95e9"},"modified":"2015-06-19T08:47:56","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T08:47:56","slug":"speech-celebrating-60-years-of-the-institute-of-economic-affairs-iea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=58147","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Celebrating 60 years of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Let me start by congratulating the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA<\/abbr>) on its 60th birthday.<\/p>\n

We all know how hard it is to get economists to agree on anything.<\/p>\n

As President Reagan said, if Trivial Pursuit was designed by economists it would have 100 questions\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026and 3,000 answers. <\/p>\n

But I\u2019m sure everyone here tonight agrees that it\u2019s an amazing achievement for a think-tank to reach its diamond jubilee.<\/p>\n

For 60 years now you\u2019ve been thinking the unthinkable\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026winning hearts and minds and influencing governments from Westminster to Washington to Warsaw and everywhere in between.<\/p>\n

Of course, it could have all been very different. <\/p>\n

After leaving the RAF a young Sir Antony Fisher was set on a career in politics. <\/p>\n

But Friedrich Hayek told him that if he really wanted to change the world he should forget about becoming an MP\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026and start a think-tank instead.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if that means I\u2019m in the wrong job! <\/p>\n

But I do know that we should all be very grateful for Hayek\u2019s intervention.<\/p>\n

Because the think-tank Sir Antony established, would go on to play a huge and important role in political and economic history. <\/p>\n

When I was born, the IEA<\/abbr> was already a teenager.<\/p>\n

By the time I joined, as a student down in Exeter, it was well into middle age\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026and was probably one of the most influential think-tanks anywhere in the Western World.<\/p>\n

The Institute\u2019s work really resonated with me, taking the theories of the economists I admired\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026Hayek, Friedman, and Minford\u2026 <\/p>\n

\u2026and showing how easily and practically they could be applied in the real world. <\/p>\n

It both reflected and deeply influenced my views, helping to develop the economic and political philosophy that guides me to this day. <\/p>\n

And its back story spoke to me too, showing that you don\u2019t have to be fabulously wealthy to think capitalism is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Like Ralph Harris I\u2019m a working class kid who grew up on an inner-city estate. <\/p>\n

Like Ralph Harris I saw first-hand the realities of poverty. <\/p>\n

And, like Ralph Harris, I have never been in any doubt that free enterprise is the best way to bring prosperity to as many people as possible. <\/p>\n

That the free market can solve not just economic problems, but social ones too. <\/p>\n

That was true back when I was a student and it\u2019s true today.<\/p>\n

Our economy is growing faster than any of our G7 rivals, and more people are in work than ever before. <\/p>\n

But if that success is going to be maintained and built on, we cannot afford to stand still. <\/p>\n

We need to increase productivity, drive investment in industry, grow our exports. <\/p>\n

Not just to make individuals better off, although that is a noble aim in itself.<\/p>\n

But also because a strong economy allows us to protect our most vulnerable citizens. <\/p>\n

To pay for the NHS, for our schools and armed forces and police.<\/p>\n

To build roads and railways, and to give our young people the skills they need to get on in the modern world.<\/p>\n

None of this can be achieved without a strong economy.<\/p>\n

And a strong economy will never be delivered by attacking big business, or by endlessly raising taxes, or wrapping innovators up in red tape. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why my Enterprise Bill will free businesses from another \u00a310 billion of needless regulation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019ll keep on cutting taxes. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why I want Britain to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business. <\/p>\n

During the Cold War, the physical bulwark against Communism was provided by the formidable military might of the NATO alliance.<\/p>\n

But throughout that time the ideological bulwark, the theoretical and philosophical defence, was brigaded by the likes of the Institute of Economic Affairs.<\/p>\n

While our troops and bombs and planes protected the West from the Red Army, in the battle for ideas our generals were Sir Antony, Lord Harris and Arthur Seldon.<\/p>\n

Today the Cold War is rapidly becoming a distant memory, consigned to the textbooks of political history. <\/p>\n

Most economics students arriving at university this autumn will have been born 8 years after the Berlin Wall fell.<\/p>\n

But the work of the IEA<\/abbr> is just as important as ever. <\/p>\n

Because the free market is the most efficient, most enduring, most effective system ever devised by mankind. <\/p>\n

Since the 1970s the number of people in the world living on $1 a day, adjusted for inflation, has fallen by 80%.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the biggest increase in prosperity the world has ever experienced. <\/p>\n

And it didn\u2019t happen because of international aid, or thanks to the IMF or World Bank.<\/p>\n

It was brought about by the spread of capitalism. <\/p>\n

The free market is the greatest force every created for lifting people out of poverty.<\/p>\n

But we must not lose sight of the fact that it\u2019s an artificial creation.<\/p>\n

It is not the natural order of things.<\/p>\n

We have to consciously choose to embrace it, choose to continue its legacy.<\/p>\n

President Reagan was talking about democracy when he said that that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. <\/p>\n

But his idea \u2013 that freedom is not passed on but must be fought for, protected and defended \u2013 applies equally to free market. <\/p>\n

We neglect it at our peril and if we fail to support it, it could still crumble in the face of countless tiny attacks. <\/p>\n

Or, as George W Bush put it in slightly more succinct terms during the global financial crisis: \u201cthis sucker could go down\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, then we will always need the likes of the IEA<\/abbr> to be the watchmen for capitalism.<\/p>\n

We will always need the heirs of Fisher, Harris and Seldon to make the case for free enterprise, to be its last line of defence and first line of attack.<\/p>\n

That is the role the IEA<\/abbr> has played for the past 60 years, and you have much to celebrate tonight.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve always believed that the best birthdays are those that have yet to arrive. <\/p>\n

And I know that, in spite of everything it has achieved since 1955, the Institute of Economic Affairs\u2019 best years are still to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Business Secretary pays tribute to leading British think-tank the IEA, and discusses the importance of defending the free market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}