Ludwig Erhard’s plan for massive deregulation &
Brexit The Movie
James Delingpole blogs at Breitbart
London, and he is one of my favorite commentators. He specializes in climate
issues, solar power, wind power, and the like, but his weekend blog was about Brexit, that is, the campaign in favor of the UK leaving the European Union
(EU). He makes several points about the UK that could apply as well to America:
Against
the odds, campaigners for Brexit are winning the argument on leaving the European Union
(EU).
At
the London premiere of Martin Durkin’s Brexit
The Movie – which you can now watch in full here or here – we
got an inkling why.
. . .
Immigration
isn’t mentioned once. Not because Durkin has copped out but because he
understands that even without drawing attention to the elephant in the room,
it’s more than possible to construct a coherent and compelling argument
for Brexit.
What it boils
down to is this: does Britain want to go on being shackled to the sclerotic,
anti-democratic, moribund trading bloc that is the European Union or would it
rather be liberated to set its own laws, regain its sovereignty and trade
freely and profitably with the burgeoning rest-of-the-World economy?
Put like that,
it’s a no-brainer. To prove his point, Durkin comes up with three paradigmatic
models – one of them involving the very country small-minded, xenophobic,
racist Brexit types are supposed to loathe: Germany.
Specifically,
he refers to the Germany of just after the war: the place which, though bombed
to rubble emerged from the ashes with extraordinary alacrity to become the
world’s third largest economy.
What was the
cause of this economic miracle, known as the Wirtschaftswunder?
Largely, the
genius of a man whose name really ought to be better known: Ludwig Erhard, the
long-serving Minister of Economics, who understood that the surest way to
guarantee economic growth is through a massive programme of deregulation. The
easier it is for entrepreneurs to do business, the faster an economy grows and
the richer its people grow. (John Cowperthwaite, the last British Financial
Secretary to run Hong Kong, worked on similar classical liberal principles).
Erhard’s
economic liberalism – which many of his colleagues opposed – was in marked
contrast to the British post-war policy of state ownership, rationing,
regulation, labour restrictions, exchange controls and propping up hidebound,
outmoded industries. That’s why Germany’s economy grew even as Britain’s
declined.
. . .
Durkin nails
the absurdity of a line you often hear from the Remain camp: that without EU
membership Britain just couldn’t compete on the international stage. Yet we
could – of course we could, as indeed we once did. Sure if you were unaware of
history, you might find it implausible to conceive that a small, rainy island
could be one of the world’s economic powerhouses. But that is what Britain
demonstrably was – and could be again. We just need to regain our optimism, our
self-confidence and get over all that self-loathing in which the English
intellectual class has so long specialised.
I urge you to
see this film. (And not just because I’m the first talking head you see in it).
It’s brilliant, inspiring and uplifting. Also it’s free.
You can watch the film at the two links above or at the blog here.
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