One Bill after another is being introduced to interfere with people’s legitimate freedoms and try to paper over the cracks in their interventionist system.
I have recently written on the phenomenon that government intervention is doomed to fail and that in doing so it encourages further intervention as governments try to repair the unintended consequences of their own legislation. Clear examples of this are to be found in the Queen’s Speech.
There is too much in the speech, and there is too much as yet unclear, to make a comprehensive attack on the Labour agenda for 2008-9, but the following is an analysis of some of the problems raised.
Business Rate Supplements BillThe proposals to enable upper tier local authorities and the Greater London Authority to levy a supplement on their business rates, and use this to promote economic development, have a certain charm in that they restore a tiny modicum of tax-raising discretion to local authorities (though not, infuriatingly, to the 32 London Boroughs!).
Of course, any wise local authority would exercise the better part of discretion and not exercise the power. Increasing business rates by up to 2p in the pound will simply squeeze business profits, putting some out of business, driving others away and reducing the ability of the remainder to invest in capital goods (including training) that improve their productivity (and thus the wages of staff). The money raised will never achieve the level of “economic development” that would otherwise be achieved by individuals allocating resources based on their own priorities (a level of information detail that no government can hope to emulate) but will instead be wasted on schemes that appeal to legislators and those who are best able to influence them. It will replace the freedom, efficiency and effectiveness of the market with imperfect politicised outcomes.
Interestingly, the Bill makes provision for allowing businesses to vote on any proposals. It must be assumed that this vote will not be extended to those businesses (with rateable values of less than £50,000) that will not be taxed, as representation without taxation would just allow them to pillage the profits of their more-successful rivals.
It does raise an interesting question, however: why not allow Council Tax payers a similar freedom: a plebiscite enabling them to veto any council policy that would be funded primarily by local taxation. That would certainly put the wind up spendthrift officers and councillors.
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill
The devil is in the word “Construction”. Little detail is available on this one, but it does appear to include provisions for a more level playing field for construction businesses, particularly smaller local ones, in construction contracts. Whether this is more anti-success regulation is unclear, but considering the onerous costs that businesses and authorities already have to incur putting tenders through OJEU and other legal competitiveness tests, this can only be detrimental to business. Fairness is best achieved through a free market, where those that discriminate against providers for any reason other than efficiency will be forced to pay higher prices for poorer goods or services and so will see their businesses suffer.
Saving Gateway Accounts Bill
The government’s plan to establish a Saving Gateway scheme, administered and approved by HMRC, with the government “matching” every pound saved with 50p from government up to a maximum of £300 (not the “matching” that Anglophones will be familiar with!), is old-fashioned redistribution of wealth with an added paternalistic twist: the poor must “do the right thing” – by which Labour means save money in bank accounts – to earn their redistributed wealth.
Glossing over questions about the sense of or justification for transferring wealth, this is bad legislation for two reasons: firstly, because it creates a massive dead-weight cost in that the government will have to pay people who would have saved the money anyway; and secondly because it will encourage rent-seeking as people make arrangements to borrow-to-save, for example by borrowing on credit cards (at rates of, say, 25% or 30%) knowing that there is a guaranteed profit of 50% in the first year.
Children, Skills and Learning Bill
The Children, Skills and Learning Bill promises to enforce compliance with the Standard Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. The very existence of this document is a problem, as the setting of national standards across England ignores the different costs of living and levels of supply and demand, and further undermines educational independence. At worst, it could see pay and conditions set at too low a level to attract staff to some areas, while being unnecessarily generous (with the resources of local taxpayers) in others.
It also creates a statutory entitlement to apprenticeships for all those suitably qualified by 2013. Unless the meaning of “apprenticeship” has changed, this is idiotic. Apprenticeships involve qualified individuals working for established providers so as to learn on the job; the government cannot increase the number of apprenticeships beyond the demand among qualified workers for apprentices. The proposed duty on the Learning and Skills Council to provide apprenticeship places may easily morph into the provision of further course-based training, which would defeat the supposed purpose.
Policing and Crime Bill
A bill to protect vulnerable groups, particularly women and children, may seem welcome at first. But one has to wonder at a government that considers 51% of the population to be a “vulnerable group” simply because of their gender!
The main problem with this bill is the plans to tighten regulations on lap dancing clubs and the sale of alcohol. Lap dancing clubs are places where consenting adults go to watch other consenting adults perform erotic dances; it should have nothing to do with the government what these individuals (or groups) choose to do. Similarly, government has no business interfering with the right of businesses to sell, or adults to buy and consume, alcohol. As I have noted before, this kind of legislation is never directed at our claret-swilling elites, but at those whom they see as they look down their wine-flushed noses.
Where there are ancillary problems (for example, anti-social behaviour in the environs of the club or pub) they should be dealt with in their own right,
Marine and Coastal Access Bill
The Marine and Coastal Access Bill continues the assault on private property by forcing property owners to allow trespassers to walk over their land simply because they happy to have bought property adjacent to the sea. If the proposal was applied to all properties, so that ramblers may cross anyone’s land at will, it would be fair, but it would also be as welcome as the Poll Tax.
Constitutional Renewal Bill
Finally, something good in the government’s proposals. Thank heavens they are finally repealing their own, oppressive legislation. One law down, 10,000 more to go!
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