Previous Amigos

What is David Cameron for? He downplays tax cuts, is socially liberal and believes in a muscular foreign policy (and voted for the Iraq war). He would like to reform public services to give consumers more choice, and to involve private companies and charities in providing them. Sound familiar? If so, is that a bad thing? After all, policies like these have just won three elections in a row. Will the new Cameron era be a break with the past or a return to true-blue values? Is Mr Cameron just a softer, pre-Thatcher Tory with a dollop of belief in the possibility of progress added? Can he create a vision for the future which his entire party can support, or will he only serve to divide the party further? And would Britain governed by a Cameron-led Conservative Party feel very different to Britain today?

As businesses and consumers struggle to adjust to high energy prices and threats to supply, the European Commission and many EU member states are drawing up new national strategies for energy. The European Commission considers the liberalisation of EU electricity and gas markets to be a key part of its Lisbon agenda to improve the performance of the European economy. Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, hope that reforms favouring free markets and liberal institutions will provide the right framework for investment and trade.

Citizens travel more and more inside the European Union, sometimes taking up residence outside of their country of origin for work, leisure or retirement. They are increasingly used to crossing frontiers, buying goods and services wherever they are. Mobile Europeans are also consumers of health care. As this mobility puts pressure on public systems, cross-border agreements have become necessary, often offering innovative ideas for improving services.These include the "euregios" (cross-border healthcare cooperation eg between Germany and the Netherlands), public/private contracting in tourist areas and hospital cooperation.
Is this nascent “shopping around” a sign of increased competition? How do public systems respond to health tourism? Is it a trend or a marginal phenomenon?

Time: 12:30 - 2:30 pm Sandwich lunch included
A Stockholm Network and Ludwig Von Mises Institute Event

At this provocative Amigo Society debate, tough questions will be asked: Are IPRs superior to competition rules or vice versa? Do IPRs allow the abuse of market position in Europe? Has the European Commission departed from the Magill Principle, and if so why? Should Article 82 be revised? And most importantly, is there a golden path for reconciling the tension between IPRs and competition rules?

Dr. Duncan Curley will address the policy tension between IPRs and competition rules in the information technology sector, and Manuel Campolini will talk about the policy tension between IPRs and competition rules in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors.

Polly Toynbee, Columnist and commentator, The Guardian
Anthony Seldon, Author, Blair
John McFall MP, Chair, Treasury Select Committee
Nick Herbert MP, Shadow Minister for police reform
John Prideaux, Economist (chair)

Tony Blair has transformed British politics, changing the Labour Party from a perennial loser into a formidable general election-winning machine. But what will his legacy in government be? Were the hopes of 1997 - economic stability, higher levels of spending on public services and cleaner politics - fulfilled? The economy has grown steadily since 1997 and spending on public services has shot up. But has New Labour paid too much for too little? Is British politics now cleaner than it was nine years ago? And will Tony Blair be remembered for a huge redistribution of wealth shifting Britain decisively to the left? Or as the prime minister who invaded Iraq and pushed through "Tory" reforms?