Ms. Kate Hoey, Labour MP for the London district of Vauxhall, gave a talk at a well-attended meeting of Icewise on the “Dangers of Joining the EU” Monday 19 November. She said that the British people were fed-up with EU membership. A small elite in Brussels, out of touch with ordinary Europeans, was steadily increasing its power. It was for her incomprehensible that the Icelanders wanted to join, at the same time as opinion polls showed that almost 65% of the British wanted to leave the union. If the Icelanders joined the EU, they would have to be very concerned about their fisheries. The British felt powerless with their 67 delegates to the European Parliament, and as a member state Iceland could expect to get one delegate. Ms. Hoey also said that in the United Kingdom there was widespread support for a referendum on EU admission. “Let us no longer be Little Europeans. Let us instead be real internationalists,” she added. The leading daily Morgunbladid published 20 November an account of her talk, and published a taped interview with her on its website.

Here, Kate Hoey’s talk can be accessed on Youtube, as well as the introduction (in Icelandic) by Skafti Hardarson and concluding remarks by Hallur Hallsson and Jon Kristinn Snaeholm (also in Icelandic). While RNH did not organise this event, it fully supports it as a part of the joint project with AECR on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.

Hannes H. Gissurarson gives his talk on Churchill. Photo: Arni Sigurdsson.

Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson gave a talk about “Winston Churchill the Statesman” at a luncheon meeting of the Icelandic Churchill Club Saturday 17 November. He pointed out that Churchill was firmly planted in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of liberty under the law, whose noblest achievements were the 1688 Bloodless Revolution in England and the 1776 American Revolution: their aim had been to circumscribe power and to ensure individual rights. Professor Gissurarson discussed some of the most famous quotations attributed to Churchill and traced them to other sources. A legend in his own lifetime, Churchill was often misquoted.

According to Professor Gissurarson, the rise of Hitler, opposed by Churchill, was certainly resistible. Machiavelli had said that in the fight against the wolves, the statesman had to possess the strength of the lion and the cunning of the fox, and these two qualities Churchill had combined: he had also recognised the wolves, Hitler and Stalin, for what they were. Another topic discussed by Professor Gissurarson was the British Empire. While it could be criticized for much, it should not be forgotten that it brought the rule of law to many countries. Often it was vastly better than the alternatives, either cruel domestic despots, or the Japanese and German Empires which competed with it in the 20th Century. When the British left India, it was partitioned in a bloody way, with tens of millions of people losing their homes. Did the Indian elite then rule the country better than the Raj? It was interesting that the inhabitants of Hong Kong did not want to part with British rule in 1997. Finally, Professor Gissurarson discussed the episode in the election campaign of 1945 when Churchill, under the influence of F. A. von Hayek, warned against central planning: But the British electorate was not ready for that message.

Churchill: Slides

Dr. Daniel Mitchell, senior tax policy analyst at Cato Institute in Washington DC, gave a talk about progressive taxes at the University of Iceland 16 November 2012, invited by RNH and the newly-f0unded Icelandic Union of Taxpayers. Mitchell pointed out that the main role of taxes is to obtain the revenue necessary to pay for government services. By double taxation, such as taxes on dividends and capital gains, the accumulation of capital, necessary in a growing economy, is made more difficult. Tax authorities should not discriminate between future consumption (or investment) and present consumption. Mitchell argued that a high progressive incomes tax as has recently been imposed in Iceland, and a special wealth tax were both very inefficient kinds of taxes.

Mitchell’s visit to Iceland provoked much discussion. The daily Morgunbladid published an interview with Mitchell 20 November 2012. Vidskiptabladid, a weekly business magazine, gave an account of his lecture 1 December. Oli Bjorn Karason, economist and alternate Member of Parliament for the Independence Party, published an article about Mitchell’s message in Morgunbladid 21 November. Lawyer Finnur Thor Vilhjalmsson criticized Mitchell in an article in left-wing newspaper DV 8 December 2012.

Mitchell Slides 2012