Edmund Burke wins again
Of course, of course, government is simply the things we do together:
It is a grey morning in Tunstall when a group of men in bright blue jackets stride out across the high street, armed with ropes, brooms and plastic bin bags. They are volunteers from TS Domestics, the local hardware store, and they are heading off on their latest mission: cleaning up their town.
The “Big Tunstall Clean Up” began in October 2024, born out of a growing belief that Tunstall was slipping into a state of disrepair. The council, the volunteers thought, was taking insufficient action to tackle the issues, and so the volunteers decided not to wait; instead, they rolled up their sleeves and, as they put it, sought to “Make Tunstall Great Again”.
Or, apparently, government isn’t simply the things we do together. Even, it’s possible to do things together without it being government - at which point Edmund Burke and the Little Platoons win once again.
We agree, wholly, that there is going to be the need for some government - we are not anarchists, not even anarcho-capitalists, around here. But perhaps rather less government than we get might be the necessary amount. For:
She believes that “red tape” often frustrates volunteers. “There was talk about not being insured… safety, falling in… whereas in the Seventies and Eighties we’d have been wading in there, pulling it out by hand,” she says. “[People] want to help, but there are so many obstacles for them to be able to help… it’s making it more difficult for people.”
Peters acknowledges the same problem: “If we ask permission for these things, then we probably would have hit a lot of red tape,” he says. “But we just have the attitude of just go and do it. Otherwise, a job that should take two hours takes 10 days.”
The effect of government appears to be making it more difficult for us to do things together. Which should not be a surprise of course. Any system that arrogates to itself the power to do things is going to make damn sure that no one else is able to do those things. That would call into question the existence of that power system with the ability to do those things, right? Can’t be having with that given how hard people have had to strive to get a council job in the first place.
A perfect answer is impossible of course, we are dealing with human beings here. But a useful suggestion would be that we only use that government thing when we absolutely have to in order to do things together. Those things that can - and will - be done by the Little Platoons should be left to them to do. This thus disposes of 50% at least of government and that solves Rachel’s sums - glad we could help out in this manner.
Tim Worstall