Post-Lockdown Priorities

During the lockdown, which regulations should be suspended and why?

Now this answer may seem pedantic, but the regulation of a TV license seems to be more pedantic, in this day and age why do we still have a TV license, I can just go on youtube. Again you will see this theme with my other answers for this poll, the lack and poor utilisation of technology by the government. It is an outdated way of thinking, TV licenses.

After the end of the lockdown, which regulations should the Government cut and why?

I think the government shouldnt cut this regulation per se, but rather better enable accounting services onto their online portals for small businesses. I have a company and filing accounts is easy, I think it can be made even easier and “app-ified”, in the sense it can give you a better overview of the entire company that you own. There are accounting software which you can order online, I think in terms of accruing big data and making it easier for small business owners this is crucial. It is small business that is the backbone of this british economy and the ability for the common man to trade.

During the lockdown, which taxes should be suspended and why?

Value Added Tax, the vat is a tax on consumption. It essentially slows down the rate of which people buy goods and deters them from buying goods, increasing the prices of taxation is used by the government as a way of disincentivizing a certain behaviour or activity. So in order to keep the economy afloat, would it not be better to incentivise spending.

After the end of the lockdown, which taxes should be cut and why?

Aside from the above mentioned VAT, I do not think that taxes should be cut per se, but rather that we should have more of a say of where our taxes go. If anything the lockdown has shown that where there is a demand people will pay or rather contribute towards a good or service. While many may disagree with the notion of supporting a NHS, I think this lockdown has shown that people are willing to pay extra for healthcare and are willing to contribute more of their money towards it. The line between charity and tax in this case will be blurred, but some would argue social welfare is exactly that. So I believe there would be an increase in taxation if people were allowed to partially allocate their own taxes to a degree. I think this service like many others can be put online and would be an opt out service.

What measures should the Government take to help restart the economy after the lockdown?

I am not only an advocate of lower taxes, but government funds which reinvest into the economy much like a sovereign wealth fund. One for social welfare is vital, A starting of a sovereign wealth fund which accrues in value is a long term benefit for the entire nation and its citizens which will in time decrease the needs of taxes.

In due course, how should the Government phase down state interventions in the economy (i.e. Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, CBILs, etc.)?

I think this is dependent on the state of the economy more than anything else, from a practicality point of view, government intervention was designed to interfere with the market cycles. Once businesses have been incentivised to hire more people and the people more incentivised to buy from businesses, then we should start to see more demand, and then with lock step with the demand of the economy slow down incentives to not work, such as benefits, and make it more lucrative to work with maybe temporary tax breaks for employees and employers.

Are there any other practical suggestions you’d give to the Government at the present time?

The main suggestion I would present to the government is the growing need for networked services and more online government services. The BBC, is a hallmark of the television age, it provided in its heyday a great service as did the radio stations, of course this was symptomatic of government bloat over time, but they addressed a vital and critical need. So too we need something of the like for the internet age. One of the most crucial things from this lockdown will be the long lasting effect of technology on the workplace, and the ever increasing prevalent use of technology in our day to day lives. I would urge the government to increase funding or atleast to incorporate new technologies as force multipliers to their current services, we recently had a motion in parliament to have video conferencing in lieu of attending parliament, the consequences of this are drastic and I believe understated by most people. This decreases barriers to entry, I have always been of the mind that parliament and its location could be relocated to save vast amounts of cost, this will essentially, hopefully, reduce MP expenditures. By using technology we can cut down on taxation by cutting down on needless expenditure, video conferencing software is not new at all. Why did it take a crisis for the government to apply it in their operations ? By neglecting the use of technology they have become reactive, we are far too deep into the technological and networked age to be this slow to the utilisation of technology. To expand the example of video conferencing, now people who have difficulties or disabilities can now attend and video conference meetings. Again this is just one example, there are many avenues we can go down in terms of increasing technology and internet utilisation, I would advise the government to look at Estonia and how they have utilised an online citizenship service.

excerpt from a call asking for ideas on reform by the ASI, this was my response in essence. report has now been published to my knowledge.

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