In this Institute of Economic Affairs interview, our Director of Communications Callum Price interviews Sam Richards, CEO of Britain Remade and former special adviser at 10 Downing Street.
Callum, Sam, great interview. It shone a light, not only on Sam and his campaign for the need to reform but also highlighted, once again the need for proper growth. In Sam’s case it means cutting red tape on environmental objection in planning, removing legal aid to objectors and building more nuclear stations, big and small. I have written a lot about ‘growth’ and its meaning is different to different people. And here Sam’s view, is yet another example of this fact. ‘Growth’ is banded about as the ‘saviour’ but, it’s non specific. For that reason it’s unclear. Sam is clearly a thinker and we should hear more from him. You are right Callum, his type of voice needs to be at planning meetings for sure. I’d like to add in something about planning. It’s clear the gists of bureaucracy is astonishingly large. It’s unit if our successive governments not to have tackled this already. It’s criminal if the present lawyer in number 1p can’t get his head around this legal problem. He should be doing more, now. But what I see as a problem is acceptance that low cost driven infrastructure is the problem.,if we want the best outcome for our environment, it has to come at a cost more than minimum acceptable. A good example is the debate around pylons. Why are we again going through costly examination and upset of people who want the infrastructure but, in the ground! What are they doing spending and wasting money avoiding what they should be doing from the first place. Put it in the ground! It also brings me to consider planning. Instead of waiting until a full planning proposal is put forward only to be told it’s not acceptable, why don’t they get involved with the application from the beginning to tell them as they go what will be acceptable! And thirdly, let us remember. We are a democracy. Where the 49% have to accept the will of the 51%. By all means try snd protect interests of the few. But we can’t let those dominate the will of the majority. We can all vote from our phones. We do it regularly anyway. use it to overcome the blockages. And as for Sam’s point on zonal costs, it all sounds plausible. But let us never forget, thus while debacle on underfunding of our infrastructure came because Thatcher decided to sell off our family silver. The utilities which were once ours, are now private entities. Overcharging for doing less! That’s the result of that decision. And why did she do it? Because again the government was short of money. And she decided she did not want the worry of it all on her plate! When what we really needed was a leader who could manage the complete portfolio! But do you know what makes my blood boil? She gave us her outlook on our economy…. Yes, it was to be treated like a household budget! What a complete disaster that was for all of us. You can’t treat a nations economy like that, a two sided bookkeeping exercise. Money in money out. No! What about money back around? And then in what time? She showed us then how narrow minded and blinkered they had turned out to be. Stupid in my opinion. Our economy is not two dimensional. We all have to have a way to know in advance of SPENDING that it will come back again!! Look lads, unless you get our funding correct nothing you propose will ever work. We have apparently, approximately £18-19 trillion pounds out in the aether. (Why the BOE doesn’t know exactly is beyond me). But if that’s true then look at the total tax take that all that money generates. It’s only about £1 trillion pounds. One nineteenth of the total money. Only 1/19th, that’s about 5% of tax income. Now, most people don’t seem to realise, money is supposed to revolve each year! So it’s the same £19 trillion pounds that each year can go out and return revolve and rotate around all 70 million of us. It’s the same money going around and around each year. ( yes, it’s basic economics) . But with all that money we only generate 5% in taxes? How can that be? Income tax is 25-40%, Nic is 15% Vat and duty is another 40% blimey!…. We’re nearly at 100% with Council taxes. Surely we should be paying £19 trillion pounds on those rates in tax revenue, not just £1 trillion pounds!!! So what is wrong, where is the money and why is it not generating more taxes take?…. Well it’s so bloody simple I don’t understand why you are not shouting it from the rooftops at the IEA. …. Not all the £19 trillion is being SPENT. No, we allow the rich and mega rich to hold onto our money for years and years without paying any tax at all. The rich pay no income tax as they avoid it. Besides they don’t pay it, their employers pay it from profits made from you and me. They don’t pay as the money is hidden abroad. By Banks overseas and here. As NO TAX is triggered on unused or unspent money either they pay no vat or duty. And when we are short of money we borrow our own money back and have to it not just the interest in it but the whole amount too! Why? Why do we borrow our own money back when if they were made to SPEND it back it’s free! No debts no interest? …. Well because the dimwits like Thatcher pretend our economy is only a household bloody budget! Money in money out. When our framework must incorporate the notion to return it, freely via SPENDING! For Gods sake, if we allow most of our money to be outside our tax paying economy, not funding our economy and more so lumbering us with debt and interest for having to borrow it back then can’t you see that, that underfunding is holding us back? It’s the reason we can’t afford infrastructure Sam. We allow those with too much of it to hold it out of our grasp! Because our leaders don’t see the need to endure money comes back around again in three dimensions? And if we have to meet our bills monthly then don’t you think we should make that cycle of return the same?? Every month??? Of course we should! Our one need for any economy is MONEY and SPENDING. MS=R. Money multiplied by Spending equals Revenue. If you have revenue you then can have tax revenue as all tax is triggered by SPENDING. Even income tax and NIC is triggered not by receiving, but, by the SPENDING of the employer not the employee. They never get the tax money to pay it! No. It’s paid by employers and only calculated on employee wages paid by profits taken from consumers, all of us. It’s an illusion tax like Duty. So lads, it’s all about the money that’s not in the economy, sitting for years outside our grasp from which we are supposed to rotate it to pay sufficient tax for all our needs. Dam, like infrastructure. But instead of using digital banking to facilitate that need to SPEND back our money FREELY without debt snd interest. No those idiots who are in charge of the rules, do nothing and continue borrowing it back putting us all in jeopardy. What a clusterf**k of biblical proportions. Snd I blame Thatcher for her dim-witted view of economics. Money should be a fair exchange of work. But, it’s not either fair nor is it being exchanged. It’s being held in exchanged and unfairly earned and unfairly charged. Start thinking in four dimensions not two you idiots!
…. Not you Sam and Callum. Starmer and Reeves.
Callum, Sam, great interview. It shone a light, not only on Sam and his campaign for the need to reform but also highlighted, once again the need for proper growth. In Sam’s case it means cutting red tape on environmental objection in planning, removing legal aid to objectors and building more nuclear stations, big and small. I have written a lot about ‘growth’ and its meaning is different to different people. And here Sam’s view, is yet another example of this fact. ‘Growth’ is banded about as the ‘saviour’ but, it’s non specific. For that reason it’s unclear. Sam is clearly a thinker and we should hear more from him. You are right Callum, his type of voice needs to be at planning meetings for sure. I’d like to add in something about planning. It’s clear the gists of bureaucracy is astonishingly large. It’s unit if our successive governments not to have tackled this already. It’s criminal if the present lawyer in number 1p can’t get his head around this legal problem. He should be doing more, now. But what I see as a problem is acceptance that low cost driven infrastructure is the problem.,if we want the best outcome for our environment, it has to come at a cost more than minimum acceptable. A good example is the debate around pylons. Why are we again going through costly examination and upset of people who want the infrastructure but, in the ground! What are they doing spending and wasting money avoiding what they should be doing from the first place. Put it in the ground! It also brings me to consider planning. Instead of waiting until a full planning proposal is put forward only to be told it’s not acceptable, why don’t they get involved with the application from the beginning to tell them as they go what will be acceptable! And thirdly, let us remember. We are a democracy. Where the 49% have to accept the will of the 51%. By all means try snd protect interests of the few. But we can’t let those dominate the will of the majority. We can all vote from our phones. We do it regularly anyway. use it to overcome the blockages. And as for Sam’s point on zonal costs, it all sounds plausible. But let us never forget, thus while debacle on underfunding of our infrastructure came because Thatcher decided to sell off our family silver. The utilities which were once ours, are now private entities. Overcharging for doing less! That’s the result of that decision. And why did she do it? Because again the government was short of money. And she decided she did not want the worry of it all on her plate! When what we really needed was a leader who could manage the complete portfolio! But do you know what makes my blood boil? She gave us her outlook on our economy…. Yes, it was to be treated like a household budget! What a complete disaster that was for all of us. You can’t treat a nations economy like that, a two sided bookkeeping exercise. Money in money out. No! What about money back around? And then in what time? She showed us then how narrow minded and blinkered they had turned out to be. Stupid in my opinion. Our economy is not two dimensional. We all have to have a way to know in advance of SPENDING that it will come back again!! Look lads, unless you get our funding correct nothing you propose will ever work. We have apparently, approximately £18-19 trillion pounds out in the aether. (Why the BOE doesn’t know exactly is beyond me). But if that’s true then look at the total tax take that all that money generates. It’s only about £1 trillion pounds. One nineteenth of the total money. Only 1/19th, that’s about 5% of tax income. Now, most people don’t seem to realise, money is supposed to revolve each year! So it’s the same £19 trillion pounds that each year can go out and return revolve and rotate around all 70 million of us. It’s the same money going around and around each year. ( yes, it’s basic economics) . But with all that money we only generate 5% in taxes? How can that be? Income tax is 25-40%, Nic is 15% Vat and duty is another 40% blimey!…. We’re nearly at 100% with Council taxes. Surely we should be paying £19 trillion pounds on those rates in tax revenue, not just £1 trillion pounds!!! So what is wrong, where is the money and why is it not generating more taxes take?…. Well it’s so bloody simple I don’t understand why you are not shouting it from the rooftops at the IEA. …. Not all the £19 trillion is being SPENT. No, we allow the rich and mega rich to hold onto our money for years and years without paying any tax at all. The rich pay no income tax as they avoid it. Besides they don’t pay it, their employers pay it from profits made from you and me. They don’t pay as the money is hidden abroad. By Banks overseas and here. As NO TAX is triggered on unused or unspent money either they pay no vat or duty. And when we are short of money we borrow our own money back and have to it not just the interest in it but the whole amount too! Why? Why do we borrow our own money back when if they were made to SPEND it back it’s free! No debts no interest? …. Well because the dimwits like Thatcher pretend our economy is only a household bloody budget! Money in money out. When our framework must incorporate the notion to return it, freely via SPENDING! For Gods sake, if we allow most of our money to be outside our tax paying economy, not funding our economy and more so lumbering us with debt and interest for having to borrow it back then can’t you see that, that underfunding is holding us back? It’s the reason we can’t afford infrastructure Sam. We allow those with too much of it to hold it out of our grasp! Because our leaders don’t see the need to endure money comes back around again in three dimensions? And if we have to meet our bills monthly then don’t you think we should make that cycle of return the same?? Every month??? Of course we should! Our one need for any economy is MONEY and SPENDING. MS=R. Money multiplied by Spending equals Revenue. If you have revenue you then can have tax revenue as all tax is triggered by SPENDING. Even income tax and NIC is triggered not by receiving, but, by the SPENDING of the employer not the employee. They never get the tax money to pay it! No. It’s paid by employers and only calculated on employee wages paid by profits taken from consumers, all of us. It’s an illusion tax like Duty. So lads, it’s all about the money that’s not in the economy, sitting for years outside our grasp from which we are supposed to rotate it to pay sufficient tax for all our needs. Dam, like infrastructure. But instead of using digital banking to facilitate that need to SPEND back our money FREELY without debt snd interest. No those idiots who are in charge of the rules, do nothing and continue borrowing it back putting us all in jeopardy. What a clusterf**k of biblical proportions. Snd I blame Thatcher for her dim-witted view of economics. Money should be a fair exchange of work. But, it’s not either fair nor is it being exchanged. It’s being held in exchanged and unfairly earned and unfairly charged. Start thinking in four dimensions not two you idiots!