Dilettante at the Adam Smith Institute: The shape of a regulated press

 My latest piece for the ASI blog is a response to last week's Question Time, and warns that a 'regulated' free press would be shaped by the more sanctimonious readers of unpopular newspapers in line with their own prejudices.

Do Students Need a 'Union'? Dilettante on The Student Journals

 In my latest TSJ contribution I posit that the framing of student issues in labour rather than consumer terms damages students interests for the sake of playing up to the left-wing fantasy of 'solidarity'.

 An abridged version of this article also appeared on the Adam Smith Institute blog.

Dilettante at the Adam Smith Institute: Could industrial 'Patriarchy' ever survive the market?

In my latest article for the ASI, I posit that the economically groundless and nakedly sexist employment practises Cameron hopes to counter with boardroom quotas could not - and probably have not - survive the rigorous competition of the free market.

Dilettante on The Commentator: Why mandates matter in the fight for the Union

In my latest Commentator article, I point out that even devolutionary unionists have to start defending the legitimacy of Westminster and the British parliament before they find themselves unable to justify the continued existence of the British state.

As expected, a cybernat immediately starts getting nasty in the comments.

Dilettante at the Adam Smith Institute: Would Salmond make a colony of Scotland?

I'm on a two week internship with the ASI as a prize for winning the Young Writer on Liberty award. The placement involves writing blog pieces for them and my first is on Scotland: I look at the SNP's proposals for post-Union Scotland and ponder whether it will end up a very large Overseas Territory.

They decided to change my original title on this one.

The Tyranny of the 'Anonymous': Dilettante on The Student Journals

In my latest TSJ article I attack the so-called 'Anonymous' hackers after their attack on Stratfor, and make the case that these people represent the rise of a new and totally unaccountable form of censorious internet dictatorship.

Help me pick my Orwell Prize submissions

The start of a new year means that it is Orwell Prize nomination time. It's a nice opportunity to look back over the writing I did in the last year and try to pick out the ten I'm most proud of.

However, given that being long-listed is relatively unlikely I thought it might be useful if I used the opportunity to see how other people rate my pieces. So instead of narrowing down to ten pieces I've narrowed down to twenty.

Some of these I'm definitely submitting, some I'm probably not, but anybody interested in letting me know which they'd send is welcome to either leave a comment or email me at henrychhill[at]btinternet.com.

Update: Bold indicates articles finally selected. Thank you to all who offered their suggestions.

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1) Initiation or Incubation: Left Wing Leaders and Student Politics

2) The Soft Bigotry of Lowered Expectations

3) Oppose Lecturer Strikes

4) How do People Simply 'Decide' to Overthrow a Regime?

5) Republicans Killing Catholics? Four Lions Called It

6) Were the Liberal Democrats Ever Viable as a Concept?

7) Jonathan Freedland in Denial

8) Rumours of Lords Reform: Three Criticisms

9) Why on Earth are Greens Nationalist?

10) A Safety Net or a Padded Cell? Universal Healthcare and Freedom

11) We're Not a Family: Why the Right Doesn't do Marches

12) So... what is a Conservative?

13) Simon Hughes is Wrong

14) Yes to the UK

15) Asking the Wrong Question on Riot Control

16) Long Lived Messiahs Always Disappoint 

17) First Flickers of a Unionist Fightback

18) The 'One Per Cent' Do Not Have a Monopoly on Greed

19) Death and Freedom

20) White Poppy? White Flag


21) Long Live the Kings*


*Added afterwards.