There is certainly plenty of Government in the UK, different levels going right up to the EU and ECHR.
In our daily lives we are all affected by it, one truism of life too is that increasingly there is more Government than before.
Back say 100 years the Government share of GDP was well below 20%, now is pushes nearer 50%. The rise of Government, periods of austerity only being mere pinpricks, is inexorable.
So, given that the Country is not necessarily improved by constant tinkering, a welcome space of few new laws being put in place is probably quite a good thing. In fact, simple things like no fiddling with the tax code give certainty to business decisions for example and make planning easier.
So a minority Government's Queen's speech is in many ways something to be celebrated - because not much will happen, people will be freer of political interference. Perhaps, with the great repeal bill in the works as well, the lawmakers will be so obsessed with their craft for a few years that the rest of us are left alone to a greater extent than usual.
All things being equal, that should be a big plus for economic growth in the UK.
What was the share of GDP under Attlee was he more or less socialist than Thatcher?
ReplyDeleteToo difficult to measure, my Lord.
ReplyDeleteAttlee cut defence expenditure from 52% to 6.5%.
But his problem was the 200% balance of payments. Hence the continued rationing and strict import controls and foreign exchange controls.
Anything not homegrown or manufactured faced being banned.
Fairfax, not really a left or right this - Bill Clinton did nearly nothing at President and presided over a huge growth in the economy, he was certainly more lefty than righty. He was hamstrung by a Lewinsky!
ReplyDeleteNow he is regarded as the best President of the last 30 years - yet he did nothing or because he did nothing!
Was Clinton really a lefty? I thought he cut welfare benefits in some ways? Michael Moore called him the most republican president ever.
ReplyDeleteDefo as per will government improve with less work - wholeheartedly agree. I've mentioned it before but DK calls it 'government by cock fish' which I think is an excellent analogy - they incrementally increase government's auspices into every part of our lives and, once there, are incredibly difficult to remove. A period of indolence, hot air and bluster is to be most welcomed.
ReplyDeleteMy recollection of living under the Attlee government was the ferocious austerity.
ReplyDeleteAs for Clinton, governments that do nothing are the best kind. All we need for the next twenty years is a steady programme of repeal of every possible law. No new laws or regulations.
Don Cox
It's a shame that the Queen's empty speech could possibly be her last - what with next year's cancellation.
ReplyDeleteClinton was a Blairist. He believed in credit and perpetual motion machines.
ReplyDelete(Credit= the worst thing to ever happen to the environment and waistlines.)
One can but hope for a couple of years inertia other than Brexit.
ReplyDeleteI don't wish to crow (OK - I do) but I am the only one on record here saying that Corbyn was a threat.
ReplyDeleteThe reason is simple. (I don't wish to upset Thud here.)
A landlord with a portfolio offers one Tory vote and a portfolio of Labour votes.
A town with holiday homes offers no Tory votes and a town of angry labour votes.
Young people - indoctrinated in college and by the BBC - who are denied a stake in home-owning turn to confiscators.
Corbyn is a confiscator.
Another point I must reiterate - on Grenfell Tower.
This is being used to demonise Tories. "Neglectful of minorities !" The counter to this is complex but no less true for it.
The most neglected are, in fact, conservative commuters priced out of homes in London. Those killed on the roads into London in their thousands over the years.
In fact in Grenfell Tower (a local technical mistake) we British have been sacrificially generous.
This is precisely the opposite of neglect of minority groups. The stats prove it is still safer to be a council block tenent rather than a London commuter by road. I'd wager even by rail too if we expand the timescale of any survey.
Further: the failure of the youth to see that importing competitors for jobs and housing is making them poorer, not any Tory conspiracy against them.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThere is not much of a link between government and economic growth.
i.e. we think they are in control, but they aren't really.
They do have power in some cases (war/80% tax/banning secondary picketing/brexit) but even then brexit was something the country did to the govt - not the reverse.
Modern life is bound by rules - and modern life is increasingly complex. 100 yeas ago there were fewer rules - indeed in 1880 the tallest high-rise in the world was 42m tall - and grenfell was 67m tall.
So there are more rules.
This is not always a bad thing.
@ hamstrung by a Lewinsky
ReplyDeleteShe did something for him but I don't think it was his leg
Andrew - whereart the happy medium? more rules where needed, but not so much gold plating. Those rules on bendy bananas or heated pasties etc.
ReplyDeleteThe EU makes up rules galore, fat lot of good it does the people of Europe. It certainly helps the elites - rules need lawyers and administrators - much nice than being a dirty coal-miner or railway repairman.
In rules there is esotericism.
ReplyDeleteIn esotericism there is power.
(E-K 21/6/17)
This is about more than mere money.
The EU makes up rules galore, fat lot of good it does the people of Europe
ReplyDeletePerhaps new laws suffer from the law of diminishing returns? Or are not measured against it.
And since we need less laws, we need less politicians but I did not see that in the speech.
EK
ReplyDeleteWhere has all this wisdom come from?
I must be channeling E-K Snr's ghost. He was very individualistic.
ReplyDeleteThe way this government's going it has to be careful not to incentivise some opportunist to start another tower block fire.
ReplyDeleteCompo and relocation - there are nasty people who'd be tempted, you know.
Anon, I thought hamstrung was an Americanism involving the presidential sausage. Banger!you bet he did...sorry everybody.
ReplyDeleteThe EU makes up rules galore, fat lot of good it does the people of Europe
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is, they seem to think the fact they haven't reduced the continent to rubble again and gone about slaughtering each other on an industrial scale is a success in itself and all down to the EU and its rules.
Bendy bananas?
ReplyDeleteThey are a global commodity now no? Presume we will need to persist with the regulatory definition otherwise how will UK traders and buyers know what they are dealing in?
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/en/media/euromyths/bendybananas.html
Anon - you miss the point, I did not say disobey the rules, I said the rules were gold plated.
ReplyDelete