Last week I went to the launch of a new Demos publication, The Liberal Republic, by Philip Collins and Richard Reeves, which offers a great overview of the kinds of implications classical liberalism (ie. we're not talking about 'liberal' in the sense in which Americans use the word) for public policy – economic policies including taxation and redistribution, as well as social policy and civil liberties. Richard is the author of a very positively reviewed biography of J.S.Mill, a philosopher and economist highly relevant to our own times. Not surprisingly, Mill gets a starring role here. I particularly liked a line of his quoted with reference to welfare policies: “Assistance should be a tonic, not a sedative.” The Millian perspective leads to a mix of policies which does not map all that well onto current party politics: for example, inheritance taxes (but not income taxes) increased – combined with much stronger civil liberties.

The authors also more or less come out against the fashionable idea of using 'nudges' or 'choice architecture' to get people to make the 'right' choices. I wholly agree with their view that paternalism is still paternalism even dressed up in benign or light-touch form. The exceptions arise from individual decisions which have an impact on other people, a highly respectable liberal exception. So opt-out rather than opt-in choices for pension savings schemes are acceptable because the alternative is that the rest of us have to pay taxes to support in their old age those who have under-saved.

The pamphlet includes another quotation which spoke to me, from E.M. Forster: “One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.” If only more of our political and official leaders would work on that principle. But I fear the combination of eroding civil liberties (terror and technology combining to make this possible) and a swing towards regulation due to the financial crisis are going to make the powers that be more, not less, inclined to trust the people to get on with things.

I recently joined the advisory board of Demos, an excellent think tank which was previously seen as a New Labour organisation, but is now firmly non-partisan and indeed liberal in the classical sense described here. Those who're interested might want to browse the other publications on the website.