Page 89 - Phonebox Magazine September 2012

Large Society, Small State
things we are asked to suppose are the fruits of democracy. Let us look at that state which served so well, and at the cost of that state. I am about to draw your attention to the real cause of our troubles.
have any hope of satisfaction until that is fetched down to 35%.
The Cameron-Clegg circus from time to time trot out pious words about building a large society and a small state. I cannot for a moment believe they know what theyʼre talking about.
In 1912 the Civil Service comprised 470,000 people in all grades serving England Scotland and Wales, just 59,000 of those were described as ʻnon industrialʼ, in other words pen pushers. Considering what was achieved those were clearly sound hard working servants of the society around them.
The coming of the welfare state was without argument a fine and worthy development but sadly its administration has remained with the public sector where financial accountability has been given little or no consideration. The intentions were wonderful but weʼve moved into the fantasy that all things must at all times be available to all. There have been no significant checks on whose needs are real and whose are less so. Resolving this is sure to make for heated quarrels and especially with the public service unions whose hold on our affairs is even now showing itself to be downright mischievous. Those unions are not alone in the exercise of greed; The Law Society, a closed shop union if ever there was one, are arguably even more grasping than the bankers. At every turn in our affairs we are assailed by the consequences of greed.
The British were once a very large society indeed and held a key position in a world
The budget which had to meet the cost of the public sector set income tax at just one shilling in the pound. If youʼve forgotten shillings that was just 5%. Sure enough people were required to
where the most obvious
colour on the map was
pink. When we look at
this tiny speck on the
globe we are almost
awe struck to realise
that so little might command so much. This was a society of free enterprise where men took their chances, exercised their own initiatives, accepted their own responsibilities and strove might and main to progress and seek further openings. Those were not a people ham strung by senseless rules and regulations. Theirs was a government of assent and encouragement, a parliament full sure that the only right and proper people to run an industrial or commercial enterprise must be the self sufficient individuals who worked at things they actually understood. The state was clearly large enough to meet the needs of the time. Such was the freedom of the Land of Hope and Glory.
Those people are long gone; the land they knew is now an island crushed by a thousand
We were successful years ago because the private sector could comfortably afford to pay for the public sector. Today we are frankly bankrupt because we have for quite some time been living far beyond our means and especially during the Blair/Brown spending spree. There is no more money. Our comical government are trying to pretend the wall ahead is only a mist, it is not sirs, itʼs as solid as granite. To-day the state is taking close to 60% of G.D.P. a far cry from yesteryears 10%. Do the likes of Cameron, Osborn and co realise that we ordinary mortals will not
Whatever solutions are eventually found there is no escape from the fact that the greatest burden will fall on the shoulders of people who right now are under thirty years of age. This is a horrid truth, they are precisely the people who have not caused any part of the problem, they will surely come to curse their forbears.
“Today we are frankly bankrupt ...”
meet other state charges, customs duty and certain licences along with local borough rates. In whatever manner we add up those costs it is clear that operation of the public sector only required 10% of GDP.
Big society and small state appeals to us all but getting there looks to be a rocky road and frankly I donʼt think our leaders have the competence or the courage to meet the need.
GB
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Phonebox Magazine 89