Reaction Students offers free annual subscriptions to students, paid for by our supporters. Later this year our student programme will also offer journalism internships and put on events around the country to prompt debate and help make the case anew for markets and economic freedom.
First, some context. To say that the election result in the UK and the surge in support for a far left Labour leader has caused disquiet among those who do not want to live in a Socialist command and control economy, with all of the implications for freedom and wealth creation, would be an understatement.
Jeremy Corbyn outperformed expectations in terms of the election. For those of us who regard him and his cabal that have invaded the Labour party as a national danger, the threat is much greater than it was a month ago. The joke is no longer funny.
Some of the blame for this attaches itself to the Tory party for its inept election campaign, and for putting up a leader not suited to scrutiny by the voters.
But the truth is that this is only part of the story and the blame goes much wider and deeper. Corbyn’s policies and outlook have resonated with large numbers of voters ‎below the age of 45 because they have justified grievances. How can they be persuaded to be capitalists without sufficient capital? The response to the financial crisis of 2008 – QE and low rates – has rocketed prices and rigged the housing market against the next generation, who must also borrow from a completely broken student loans system. It stinks, and too many of us oldsters were complacent about what turns out – in the case of student loans with high rates of interest – to be the youthful equivalent of the Poll Tax in terms of electoral appeal and fairness. No wonder the young are rebelling. Meanwhile, those of us in the pro-market camp put the case for profit and enterprise with far too little ingenuity.
This is not a new problem. ‎Since before the financial crisis it has been apparent that the case for markets – as the drivers of innovation, improvement and prosperity – has not been well made. I’ve been involved in various initiatives aimed at helping make the case, with varying degrees of extremely limited success.
Last year a small group of us decided to practice what we believe. We struck out, creating Reaction, an artisan small business that has grown with the help of our writers. We aim to provide interesting commentary and analysis that is pro-market in outlook but not narrowly so. We now charge for subscription. The cult of “free” has been a disaster for the news business, as is recognised by some of the larger publishers. If you want to fight fake news, you must pay for news and commentary. If you want something irreverent and – we hope – also high quality to go alongside subscriptions to big news outlets, perhaps you will try Reaction.
You won’t agree with everything you read on the site – I don’t, and I’m the editor.
So, what’s next? We are launching the Reaction Students programme, funded by donors‎ and events we host.
What is Reaction Students?
It has three components.
1) ‎Free subscriptions for registered students. Sign-up here to join. We are giving away the first 250 starting today. Another 500 follows next month. There will be many more.
2) This summer I am designing a journalism paid internship for Reaction students, to launch this autumn.
3) It is no use this all being one way traffic, with the elders writing pompous pieces from their expensive houses explaining how tip top capitalism is. We want to discover and develop the writers of the future. We are a broad church within reason. All that we ask is that you recognise Marxism and socialism is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people, and that markets when well-run and properly regulated are preferable by far to John McDonnell smashing the place up.
If you are non-Marxist student, or a Marxist student who doesn’t want to live in an echo chamber, please sign up. Parents – especially those worried by the rise of Corbyn – please pass this on or let me know what you think.
You can email me here.
And sign-up here.
Thank you for reading.
Iain Martin,
Editor and publisher, Reaction
