Save Britain from pinheads with potty policies
As we’ve noted before economic growth is people doing new things - or old things in new ways. Thus the speed of economic growth is the speed at which people do new things - or old things in new ways. If we have a system which specifically and deliberately slows people from doing new things - or old etc - or even bans it then we shall have less and slower economic growth. All of that is simply fact.
This is just the list from yesterday’s newspapers and isn’t a complete one we are sure.
Baby food manufacturers have been given 18 months to improve the quality of their products in England, amid mounting concerns that leading brands are nutritionally poor.
The new voluntary guidance from the government calls for a reduction in sugar and salt levels in food for infants and toddlers.
That’s the one that classifies human breast milk as not allowable for babies because of its sugar content.
Elon Musk’s company, Tesla, should have its application to supply energy to UK homes blocked on national security grounds, Ed Davey has told ministers.
The Liberal Democrat leader argued that giving the electric car manufacturer a foothold in the British energy market would be “a gravely concerning move considering Elon Musk’s repeated interference in UK politics”.
Elon is a very bad man and his electrons would carry cooties seems to be about the level of this argument. Or this:
Angela Rayner is facing a legal battle with green activists over plans for a £1bn data centre on the edge of the M25.
Campaigners have challenged a decision by the Deputy Prime Minister to wave through a twice-rejected data centre project in Iver, Buckinghamshire, arguing that there had been no proper environmental impact assessment.
Activists from the non-profit group Foxglove and environmental group Global Action Plan claimed Ms Rayner’s decision would imperil climate goals. They also argued that the process was unlawful and broke planning regulations.
That planning regulations - even, the law - would even entertain such a complaint is evidence of why we’re that sluggish to non-existent economic growth. Or this:
Ed Miliband has been urged to block an Israeli-controlled company from drilling two of the largest remaining North Sea oil fields.
Campaigners claim that Ithaca Energy’s profits will fuel “genocide” in Gaza.
Well, there had to be someone complaining about The Joos - it’s not tin foil hat time if we’ve not. No doubt the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati will be blamed for something soon enough.
This is not a grand truth nor a revelation. It’s simply an obvious obviousness. If every pinhead with an imaginary grievance can stick their oar in then nothing will ever get done. So, in order to gain economic growth - which we do in fact need, yes, because we’ve already promised ourselves the pensions, old age health care and all the rest that we need growth to pay for - we’ve got to change that system of oar-sticking. We’ve a certain preference for a good cuff around the ear accompanied by a “Don’t be silly, Child” but we do grasp that a system of governance needs to be a little more specific than that. So, what about that old English and British legal settlement? You can do anything you want, without permission, licence or permit, as long as what you’re doing is not already in law as specifically illegal? For do note what our actual problem is. It’s not that building an abbatoir in Hyde Park is illegal. It’s the building an abbatoir anywhere faces 5 years of permission gathering and the uncertainty of final success.
Return the law to a mere “You may not” and marvel in wonder as economic growth returns.
Tim Worstall