Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

This blog has never been happy about this idea. It does not mean that it is a bad idea, but it is certainly a bad idea to introduce what amounts to an ideological opportunity to sharp elbowed parents, at a time when money is short even to keep mainstream schools in proper repair. It is also a concept at variance with the philosophy of the Tory Party and for that matter the Big Society. This is because, for reasons which defy rational explanation, these schools are to be set up with taxpayer’s money. Such a proposition is unsaleable as fair to those whose school budgets are cut while these schemes gain approval. 

All would be put right if, like in Sweden and America, the parent groups were required themselves to find and raise the money to buy, build and equip the schools. The state, if such schools passed the test of being up to standard, would then pay the standard per head, pupil fee. That may, so long as excessive over provision was refused, introduce better standards in education and allow specialisation where called for. It would allow the private sector to become involved in provision, which would help bridge the gap in outcomes between the two education sectors, still yawning.

Whether the state pays itself an annual fee to educate each pupil or pays some other organisation to do the same thing, perhaps better or maybe worse, is a practical not ideological question. For the state to take its own money away from its own provision and give it to third parties, while depriving itself of needed resources is just wrong and very wrong when funds are short.

Every time one tunes into a current affairs programme or the news, there is waiting a queue of interested parties complaining one after another about the cuts. Whether it is the police, the NHS or social services, the arguments are powerfully put by those who believe their patch is critical to national cohesion. The latest casualty is said to be the Big Society. All these champions are right in detail but wrong in principle. Cuts mean cuts for everyone. Ring fencing was foolish because it creates the illusion that some things can escape. It also spreads the burden unevenly. It was a bad idea.

What is revealed by the wave of protest is just how much the state is paying for that either should not be there in the first place, or should be nothing to do with the state. Having said that there are clearly sections of the community on whom the burden falls disproptionately and to whom a balance of opportunity must be offered.

This should take two forms. Removing the low paid from income tax, at least up to £12,000 p.a earnings. Removing, too, barriers to employment that the nanny state has created so that it is easy to get a part time job because employers find it easier to offer them. Whilst retaining basic protections to avoid exploitation, employers have got to be freed from ludicrous strictures of health and safety, human rights, unsuitable working hours and so on. This does not mean that these important protections should be abolished, simply made the subject of common sense, not detailed prescription.

Current re-examination of Reaganomics reveals their impact was not as hoped and indeed lie at the core of much of what is wrong with the American economy, as well as our own. The principle that that you give to the rich who in turn will create wealth to look after the poor, is right only if it is just one ingredient of a balanced approach.  A cake cannot be made with butter alone.

Tax cuts, especially, must be aimed at the poorest, because it is they for whom tax is the biggest proportionate burden. Additionally, especially and critically, asset inflation beyond true worth must be curbed by structural change, since this destroys the fabric of life for the mass, whilst shifting resourses to the few. Not only does this lead to a top heavy economy which, as we now know, will eventually fall, but when it does, it is found to be without foundation in the facts of  sound money, measurement and mathmatics. 

This is why we now face cuts. There is no way round it. They will hurt. Everybody.