I think it's time we look to Argentina, and change our 'free sweets' attitude

MY current favourite world leader, Javier Milei, in a statement that I imagine gladdens every Argentinian heart, has just announced the closure of his country’s equivalent of HMRC.

Of course he has replaced it with a new body, but significantly has reduced the head count by about 34%. That hides a drop of 45% in the top salaried incumbents, but only around 30% in lower levels. That 45% are each currently earning more than Cabinet Ministers. In the process there will be a saving of around £250 million pa.

And I love this:

"The government very happily announces that as of today the AFIP will cease to exist," said Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni at a press conference.

"What belongs to each Argentine is theirs and no-one else's, no state bureaucrat should be delegated the power to tell an Argentine what to do with his or her property," he argued.

Isn’t that absolutely marvellous?

Milei continues to do what everyone says is impossible, mostly by sheer willpower. And of course that is exactly the point. Nothing gets done unless there is a guiding power and will to make it happen. 

Personally, I think that is something we have lost sight of in the UK. Unlike the Americans, we don’t applaud success, and the culture of “watch your backside” has reduced us to non–performing, losing sloths.

An excellent article by Ben Southwood, Samuel Hughes and Sam Bowman for UKFoundations.co makes the very relevant point that “Britain is falling behind the developed world in economic dynamism. It led the world in the nineteenth century, and then Europe during the first half of the twentieth, but it lost its leadership after the Second World War. Since 2008, it has been clearly underperforming most of the developed world, even some of its more heavily taxed and regulated continental neighbours.”

We all know the appalling results of our ridiculous planning laws. For instance, if I want to have a judicial review of something, I don’t have to pay for it. Oh no, the poor benighted body trying to build something has to pay.

So why wouldn’t a toad-fancying NIMBY object when it won’t cost him anything? And, before everyone screams, I personally like toads, and NIMBYs sometimes have a point.

If our pro-growth government could only do one thing (and at the present rate that might be true) it would be to stop that nonsense. You want to object? No problem – object away. But you will pay.

A case in point is the extremely crucial rail link from Felixstowe to Ely, via Ipswich. Ten years in the planning it is still awaiting approval and more importantly the sign off on the financial costs.

In the last seven years the tonnage through Felixstowe has doubled, with no actual increase in potential rail capacity. Result? More on the roads with all that that means. The area around Felixstowe is literally grinding to a halt and without improvements Felixstowe will no longer be able to grow. It is one of very few ports that has no restrictions on ship sizes in the UK.

I don’t know if anyone else has experience of this, but my granddaughter’s school holds class elections for various positions. She is nine, by the way. But she has produced a manifesto of such searing focus that I’m certain she will one day lead the country (I would say that, wouldn’t I?).

Gliding over “stickers with me on them” and “flyers about why you should vote for me” (political pamphlets by any other name) and past a couple of minor bribes we come to the killer punch - “FREE SWEETS!”. If that isn’t either a) reducing taxes or b) handing out free entitlements I don’t know what is.

What amused me most was that every child in the running had also promised free sweets. As a friend of mine said, she had him when he got to the free sweets.

Milei has effectively promised the opposite – as he needed to. Argentina had gone beyond what was fundable. We better hope we stop giving away free sweets in the UK.