This room for Guest Thinkers is a facility that I am providing for those who do not have a web site of their own for their ideas to reach a wider audience.
Many interesting lines of thought do not develop for lack of an outlet to provide the author with the motivation to press on. There is a dynamic of publication whereby one thought leads to another. There is also a non-dynamic of non-publication which stunts the development of potentially important ideas. Draft material will be welcome because a very long time can elapse between the first draft of an idea and the final thesis, though the main lines of the idea may be clearly apparent in the early draft.
The recent appearance of John Stone in the Rathouse has been the trigger for two further developments. One is an impending essay on the World War I cartoonist, Bruce Bairnsfather. The second, of rather greater importance, will be a room (the kitchen? the workshop?) devoted to the rise of classical liberalism and economic rationalism in the last two or three decades. It is difficult to attach dates to this phenomenon, but among the people to be presented will be Alf Rattigan of the Tariff Board and Bert Kelly, "the modest member" of Parliament who fought the good fight before there was any identifiable movement to back him up.
Rafe Champion
to the rathouse
athouse
the
