If Cameron and Osborne achieve their goal to emulate the Canadian public finances rescue operation of 1994 – 1997, their reputation could rise as high as Lady T's. Slashing public spending by, say, 20 % would indeed be a good start. In about three years tax cuts might be possible again, this time to slash our taxes which are now among the highest in Europe (and therefore the world). Tax cuts to encourage work, saving, and our competitiveness – to encourage the private sector to create prosperity again.
But what to cut? Expect a public sector scrum. Apparently George Osborne (“The Slashing Chancellor”?) would like to see a massive public consultation exercise to decide what should be cut.
Public consultations are a mistake for two reasons. First of all they have a reputation for being window-dressing. People are consulted, a report is drafted, the minister listens, and then he goes ahead and does what he planned to do all along anyway. It has been used for a long time by politicians who want to give an impression of listening, but who are not. New Labour especially used it to great misguided acclaim. Livingstone's consultation on the Western Congestion Charge Extension is an infamous example – the majority didn't want it, but got it anyway.
Let us make the not unreasonable assumption that the new government will not “do a Livingstone”. The problem then is "bussing". All sorts of special interest groups and public sector workers and state handout dependants will mobilise their members, family and sympathisers. I, for example, will write, blog, email and call everybody I know to urge them to write in to support a return to the minimum state. The state of safety net, not safety hammock. The state of wealth creation for the many, instead of redistribution for the few. The state of the 5% growth instead of the 1%. But I somehow think that Diane Abbott MP's constituents alone, a majority of who live off the public purse, will outnumber the friends of liberty and the free market.
It is always the same sort of people who write in to public consultations. They are the people with a lot of time. They are the people with a lot to lose or a lot to gain. They are the people who are part of well-organised collectives to make them aware. It is rarely the mother of three who works, picks up the kids, and does the cooking. It is rarely the middle manager who has an eighty-minute commute every day, in both directions. It is rarely the shopkeeper who works sixty hours a week.
Public consultations are self-selecting. Why would a centre-right government use a method which will largely bypass its own electorate? I guess the public consultation could take the form of an individualised letter to every person on the electoral register. Or that other not-often-enough tried method of the referendum. To save costs, it could even be done online.
