I’ve always wondered what it feels like to wake up and find that overnight there has been a revolution. Britain doesn’t really do coups d’etat. I’ve always wondered what it was like for the “average” East German family in the weeks after the Wall came down, for Argentines or Chileans who found that their long-standing dictator had vanished. And now I know.
Britain has just enjoyed a revolution. This country has just moved from an era where everything the State did was good and public spending would increase year-on-year until Judgement Day, to one where there all the main parties are promising widespread reductions in the size of the State. Hallelujah.
If Newsnight had said even a month ago that a political party was considering selling off the trunk road network, most of us would guess that the Libertarian Party had wangled some coverage. But apparently now such a sale is quite likely, whoever wins the next election. David Cameron and Alistair Darling both made speeches promising spending cuts. If that isn’t a major change in the political centre of mass then I don’t know what is.
We are about to see a massive shift away from what I call “wouldn’t it be nice” socialism to practical fiscal conservatism. The Left are realising that money isn’t some abstract concept and the government has to get what it spends from somewhere. It’s 1976 all over again. The State is about to retreat to its core services. Good.
The core services to me are: defence, criminal justice, education and health. The rest is icing.
Here are my revolutionary thoughts:
- Cut “defence” spending by bringing our troops home tomorrow.
- Keep education and health spending the same, but devolve spending decisions to local authorities with a medium term view of also devolving the fund-raising to them too.
- Impose a cap on the annual amount of money any one person or family can receive in benefits and make it above the bread line but not much more. There is no reason why a non-working person should have a higher standard of living than someone who earns minimum wage.
- Tear up all the spending obligations placed by central government on local government. Let the voters decide what their council’s priorities are. Let the councils raise what they spend and start reducing the central government grants.
- Announce that there will be no state pension for people who have not yet started making National Insurance contributions. People who have already started paying the tax will get no more than the amount they would do if they stopped paying NI this year. Merge NI into income tax so as to abolish the lie that the “contributions” go to some mythical retirement fund.
- Sell off any government-owned asset which isn’t nailed down.
- Raise VAT to 20% and remove many of the exemptions.
We’ll be back in the black in no time. Over to you, Dave.
ps When I switched my Ippod to “shuffle songs” as I strode out of the front door, the first two that came up were The Clash’s Revolution Rock followed swiftly by The Cure’s Just Say Yes…
Nice one Blue – `K I S S` personified. Do you think Dave will dust off an old chart of Maslow’s Triangle as well?
We don’t need psycho babble. A bit of common sense around the place would be revolution enough!
“There is no reason why a non-working person should have a higher standard of living than someone who earns minimum wage.”
Never mind minimum wage. I earn a healthy middle-class wage. If it weren’t for access to credit (which I’ve finally succumbed to) my standard of living would be significantly lower than the people who live on benefits immediately next door to me.
My standard of living would be about that of my brother who is on sickness benefit… and I’m often out fifty hours a week taking on huge responsibilities.
EK: Ditto ouch – and my ex wife has more disposable income than I do – don’t get me started
Britain really needs to buck up on this issue. It’s getting to the point where I really don’t care if I lose my job. But then if I lost it I’d be elligible for only about a hundred quid a week. I could have bought far better insurance against job loss than that if they hadn’t taxed me so much. (Some earnings at 40% and then NI on top)
Err, EK, if benefits were capped you wouldn’t be in that situation. Stop arguing against policies with which you agree!
Devolve education spending decisions to Local Authorities?
BE, have you gone out of your mind? What we have to do is get Local Authorities OUT of education, completely, no ifs, no buts, no exceptions. The dead hand of Local Authorities (read: time-serving leftwing bureaucratic meddlers) is what’s done all the damage to our state schools. Devolve the spending decisions to the SCHOOLS is what I hope you meant. LEA’s need to be abolished, lock stock and barrel.
Also you missed one thing – stop taxing the poor. The income tax threshold should be above the minimum wage.
Oh, and another thing…
“Merge NI into income tax”
Good luck telling all the country’s pensioners that their income tax is going to increase by 11%.
You do realise that practically everyone over the age of 60 votes, unlike their younger compatriots?
Ooh, do I detect someone who disagrees?!?!
I want to see different local authorities trying different things. Its called localism. If Barnet wants to introduce a voucher scheme they good on them. If Lambeth wants to dumb everyone down then let them take the fall.
Fair point about the income tax for already retired people, hadn’t thought of that. Perhaps exempt people who have already started drawing their pension. BUT! Labour has massively increased income tax on pensioners without so much as a sniff of an outcry. Did you not notice in the last or last-but-one budget the allowances system has been dramatically changed to punish pensioners who carry on working? Oh, you didn’t notice!
20% vat is death. Its on the agenda for all parties anyway but its still a very bad idea.
1. Remove targets and measures and those whose jobs do just that
2. Health Tourism – show you are eligible before treatment (exception for emergency) + schooling + housing
3. Pains me to say it but public service pensions … there i said it
4. Criminal Justice – prison building and run them cheaper .. paid for from less crime
“Be careful how you slide Clyde, all you did was glide, and you poured your beer in me hat!”
Sorry, Blue, it doesn’t add to the argument, but it’s just such a great line from Revolution Rock.
Great post.
Excellent ideas, but for: “Cut “defence” spending by bringing our troops home tomorrow.”
Pakistan has The Bomb. A resurgent Taliban government in Afghanistan will go after it, just as they invaded Pakistan this year.
It’s not about sewers and schools in Afghanistan, it’s about the Thames Valley Crater.
And “…but devolve spending decisions to local authorities with a medium term view of also devolving the fund-raising to them too.”
You have to abolish the Local Education authorities because they, every bit as much as central government, are leading the assault on formal education and pretty much any teaching of our culture.
You’ve GOT to take the power of spending away from the educrats and give it to the parents or else it’ll never work.
You don’t remember any estate agents forcing you to buy a bungalow when you wanted a flat, do you, or the County Council assigning you a garage for your MOT? I mean, if they kept failing it and it worked, or they kept passing it and it kept breaking down, you’d take your business elsewhere toot-sweet, yeah? Kids are WAY more important than houses or cars.
BQ – it might take the edge off some of the retailers, but as an economy we probably need to re-balance away from imported crap.
SOC – ooh yes, will you run for parliament?
Mark –
NNW – hmm not sure I buy into all that scary terrorism stuff, but then perhaps you are right. The problem is that unless we are prepared to stay in Afghanistan forever, the Taliban will most likely come back at some point. I am quite persuaded by your schools argument. I was thinking of devolution and localism, but you have gone further to removing the state from provision altogether which I like the sound of a lot
nnw said what I said about education – sorry if my point got lost in the foam-flecked ranting
On Afghanistan, it’s true about the Taliban. But otoh Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires – including ours. It’s a large, mountainous country of impossible communications, with no strong central authority, populated by a race of ferocious warriors who laugh at setbacks and casualties, and bide their time until the invader gets bored or runs out of money, then they resurrect themselves and chuck him out.
We really should have learned last time. We should not be in there, Taliban or no. It’s unwinnable. It’s like fighting an octopus.
Andrew – foam-flecked ranting is most welcome! Especially when you get me thinking about stuff in ways I hadn’t thought about properly.