Samizdata’s favourite Member of Parliament, Steve Baker, has been elected an Executive Member of the 1922 Committee. What this shows is that he is the kind of Member of Parliament whom other Members of Parliament rate highly, and pay respectful attention to. It means that Baker has a Parliamentary following. He is not a loan (!!!) lone voice in the wilderness. Good.
In other words, ideas like this (written by Baker in response to some recent remarks by William Hague to the effect that we should all work harder) are now getting around:
Senior politicians must realise that hard work cannot produce prosperity without the right institutions. In addition to Adam Smith’s “peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice”, hard work must be rewarded with honest money which holds its value, not money which the commercial banks and the Bank of England can produce at the touch of a button.
Money loaned into existence in ever greater quantities caused the present crisis. It has given us a society based on crushing burdens of work in exchange for rewards which quickly disintegrate. That is the problem which must be solved if hard work is to have proper meaning and if we are to have a moral and just society which delivers prosperity for all.
Imagine a world in which the most powerful people in it started seriously to understand and to act upon notions like that. Thanks to people like Steve Baker we may eventually find our way towards such a world, and maybe (although one should never assume such a thing) quite soon.
I have admired Steve Baker MP ever since I first heard about him from my friend Tim Evans, and have liked him ever since I met him, at a Cobden Centre dinner a while back.
If you also admire Baker and what he is trying to accomplish, then please take the small amount of time needed to add a comment here saying so, even if you are not normally inclined to comment, here or anywhere else. Baker has several times told me, and I have no reason to doubt him, that encouragement of this sort makes a definite difference to his happiness, and to his willingness and ability to keep on keeping on.
Yes Mr Baker. We need you. Thank you for what you’re doing and please keep it up.
From half-way around the globe, here in Hawai’i, we thank you Mr. Baker for setting an example our own politicians (especially the Hawaiian ones!) should emulate. Good show, and please keep up the good work.
I had the pleasure of a cup of tea on the House of Commons porch with Steve Baker a little over a year ago. He is very much the type of MP the Conservative Party needs to get them sorted out. He is certainly a more “libertarian” minded Conservative rather than a patrician Tory.
When I read his comments, the first thing that popped into my mind was “how long before certain people start to look hard for some way to screw up his career?”
What Brian and Horace said. Thanks Mr Baker. And to this site for supporting him and the debate of such ideas.
Bravo, Mr. Baker! I wish we had more like you here in the U.S.
My cynical sentiments exactly Perry.
I wonder if Mr. Baker woundn’t mind coming over here to speak to our Congress and maybe to the Republican National Convention. Dr. Paul hasn’t had much impact on them as a whole; perhaps a British accent, which we all love, you know, might help.
No, I suppose it would not.
Good luck to the man. There is a vast swathe of opinion in England of similar outlook but whose views are excluded from the debate and from the media.
How refreshing it would be to live in a Steve Baker’s constituency and actually have someone to vote for.
Good luck to the chap.
Excellent work, Mr. Baker. I hope we will see more Conservative MPs promoting quintessentially Conservative ideas, such as sound money.
@Brian: Should this sort of comment be posted here, on SB’s site, or elsewhere?
@Allan Ripley: Isn’t there a danger that a Brit espousing the joys of free markets and the dangers of socialism to Americans might prompt thoughts of beams and motes?
He is banging the correct gong. I hope people will start to listen.
keep keeping on Mr Baker!
Outstanding, a politician who knows what he is talking about. More, more
It is so rare to read the words of a politician and see not just common sense or a re-production of other peoples ideas but a thoughtful and profoundly important addition to that subject summed up in a simple and understandable way.
Steven Baker is a great man.
I respect him too.
Would that Mr Baker was my MP. I have urged my MP to attend his meetings and learn from him. All I got back was self serving claptrap. I cannot understand how two people of such hugely differing abilities can be in the same party
As an American expat living in the UK, I just WISH that the so-called special relationship extended to a Steve Baker clone appearing in the White House – soon please.
Second thought – is Steve by any chance a dual citizen? In that case, Steve Baker for President – now!
Was this intentional or not? Amusing either way. More MPs like Mr Baker please.
We need more like Steve Baker. I’m glad we have him.
Kick Cameron out and get Baker in!
Steve Baker MP possibly the best thing to ever come out of High Wycombe
Steve Baker MP is a great man who stands head and shoulders above the vast mass of Parliamentary sheep. He is almost enough to make me want to move to (nearby) High Wycombe (which is otherwise a dump) in order to have him as my MP and be able to campaign for him.
Makes sense…as earlier peeps said, it would be nice to vote for someone who talks sense rather than the drivel we hear from the usual suspects. Whats your views on CAGW Mr Baker?
And…watch your back chum. There are a lot of people living very nicely off self serving drivel in parliament, they are not going to like someone lifting the curtain.
Makes sense…as earlier peeps said, it would be nice to vote for someone who talks sense rather than the drivel we hear from the usual suspects. Whats your views on CAGW Mr Baker?
And…watch your back chum. There are a lot of people living very nicely off self serving drivel in parliament, they are not going to like someone lifting the curtain.
I completely agree with what Brian has written. It never ceases to amaze me that so few of the politicians who are notionally making the decisions that are supposed to be in our best interests have so little idea of the causes of, and solutions to, our plight. From reading his blog it is clear that Steve understands the situation perfectly. I truly hope that he advances to a position of real influence as, God knows, we need someone with some common sense pulling the strings.
Good luck and best wishes.
I have great respect for Mr Baker, though I was somewhat dissappointed by his explicitly disclaiming the non-aggression principle (actually Rand’s re-formulation thereof) in a speech to a room full of students and activists at a Liberty League event. I believe those moral underpinnings are what ultimately drive behaviour, including votes, so I think his victory will be limited by that decision.
My dissappointment does not not mean I don’t rate the man, but I think I did forget for a moment all the good things that might come of his hard work. Must have been the Vodka.
I have immense respect for Steve Baker and wish I had an MP with his intellectual confidence. It isn’t easy for an individual, let alone a politician, to stand up and nail their colours to the mast on a highly complex subject such as economics. There are always “experts” able & willing to snipe from the wings, despite the now rather obvious failings of the current dominant ideology.
I’m at a loss to understand how he was ever elected.
I have seen a few pieces by Steve Baker and heard him make his arguments well on the radio – he is one of the few MPs I rate as understanding how things work in the real world. I wish him well in what will be a long struggle.
One more voice to say “Thank you Mr Baker, please keep it up”.
I’ve written to Mr Baker on local and national issue’s a few times, and on all but one issue received nice short but personal replies. And on that one issue I received a longer personal reply.
So I can say he’s pretty decent as my MP.
I have been following Mr Baker’s blog for over a year now, and have commented on it, so he knows I’m a fan. But I’d like to add my support here on Samizdata too. Steve is an MP to watch.
I’ll add my voice to that. My M p is a conservative and has pleased and appalled me in equal measure. I hope she can learn from Mr. Baker.
I applaud and thank Mr Baker in equal (large) measures. I deeply regret that my (Conservative) MP is not of a like mind
Steve Baker is one of the few truly inspirational MPs in Parliament at the moment. The only other one that springs to mind is Douglas Carswell. Without them I would feel unrepresented. I would like to add my thanks to Mr Baker – please keep up the good work.
After a long hiatus from posting anywhere in the web, I return for the specific purpose of lauding the leadership the Anglosphere needs, not to mention the rest of the world.
Hear, Hear, Mr. Baker, from Ohio.
Dear Mr Baker, this country as a whole desperately needs more sane and sensible people like you to speak up and tell it how it really is. I wish, however, that you could come to Scotland specifically and sort out Wee Eck and his cohorts of socialism. The Conservative & Unionist party up here is as weak, ineffectual and pale pink as the one in Westminster, to which you are a most honourable exception. Thank you from the Scottish Borders.
I met Steve Baker a while back and told him then that I was astonished to find there was an MP who could actually represent me – unfortunately I’m not in his constituency so can’t vote for him.
His motto ‘be nice to people’, which he repeated several times that evening, is one that many libertarians should remember.
Do keep up the good work Steve.
Well done Steve!
I am delighted to see these rave reviews about Steve.
As a personal friend of Steve’s, I can assure you all that all this generous praise is very well merited. He is THE outstanding UK Parliamentarian and it is very encouraging to see that his talents and commitment to free market principles are being recognised, especially overseas.
We just need to figure out now how to clone him …
Mr. Steve Baker, thank you for what you do. It is sad that free speech needs to be protected from supposedly enlightened pols, but we are glad that there are leaders such as you that are willing to do so.
Now there are two Brit pols I admire – Nigel Farage and Steve Baker!
Mr Baker please keep up the good work. As Continental Europe appears hell-bent on electing precisely the sort of slack-jawed, fatuous cretins who got us into this mess in the first place, your views comprise a genuine ray of sunshine. Don’t stop.
Parliament needs more MPs like Steve Baker, he is doing a stand-up job.
Keep up the good work!
Although all these comments were not aimed at me, I was the one who asked for them, so: thanks to one and all, and please keep them coming. Each bit of encouragement for Steve Baker helps.
Thanks so much everyone and especially Brian. I am humbled and encouraged.
Two points:
– Of course, High Wycombe is the best place to be in the UK.
– I did not disclaim the non aggression principle; I embrace it as a central idea. I criticised Rand’s utter lack of magnanimity, which I understand Aristotle called man’s “crowning virtue”. IIRC, Rand only acknowledged a debt to Aristotle, so I find it an ironic flaw which makes hers a disappointing, unattractive and incomplete philosophy.
Thanks again!
Steve Baker even manages to succinctly sum up one of my big beefs with Objectivism too… I would buy the man a beer for that 😀
By the old adage, “By his works shall ye know him”, I certainly admire the man. Would that he were my MP, rather than the dim-witted, gibbering throwback I have.
Thanks, mate. How about a trip to Oz to talk commonsense to the drongos along the Molongolo (the river that runs through Canberra)?
Another voice of support for Steve Baker MP. I’m glad you’re humble and encouraged. Stay that way and stay bold.
It does my heart good to hear that some MPs at least grasp the terror of the situation we are in. Keep fighting the good fight!
Money loaned into existence in ever greater quantities caused the present crisis.
Oh right, so it was too much freedom that caused the crisis, not government interference/incompetence, then.
It has given us a society based on crushing burdens of work in exchange for rewards which quickly disintegrate.
What the fuck does this even mean? Every fucking phrase in this sentence is meaningless. Oh, and I hope he’s not ignorant enough to suggest that fractional reserve banking is an unlimited source of inflation, though his reference to commercial banks in the previous paragraph would indicate that he is.
That is the problem which must be solved if hard work is to have proper meaning and if we are to have a moral and just society which delivers prosperity for all.
And this sounds like it was lifted straight out of the commie manifesto or something.
So on the basis of the two paragraphs quoted, Steve Baker sounds to me like a complete idiot, unfortunately.
It occurred to me after writing the above that he may have been talking about government debt in the context of the quoted paragraphs, which would make a bit more sense, so I went and read the article. He wasn’t; the rest is even worse.
Baker’s pursuit of a career in politics should surprise no-one.
Jake, the fact that you can’t understand the meaning of those sentences says everything about you and nothing at all about Steve Baker. And FRB is not an unlimited source of inflation, but it is a source; the “unlimited” part comes from the Federal Reserve.
The victory of Steve Baker was a good part of a generally poor set of 1922 Committee elections.
As for the government people (such as Mr Cameron and Mr Osbourne) talking about yet more “monetary stimulus” (the hair-of-the-dog idea that yet more funny money from the Bank of England, via the banking system, is the cure to the vast bubble of credit money already satuating the “financial system”) – such talk makes my skin crawl.