Was there ever a government that did not promise to 'slash red tape'? - ThreadSky

t0nyyates.bsky.social • 143 days ago

Was there ever a government that did not promise to 'slash red tape'?

Main problem with this message is how tired it sounds, deregulation as a path to inward investment, again? Is that the best a new government can do? Not least when you could be promising openness compared to others... www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Comments

chrisdillow.bsky.social•143 days ago

Quite. Also, the quoted section promises to "look at regulation where it is needlessly holding back the investment" without actually specifying what precise regulations these are. This suggests the antipathy to "regulation" is founded on something other than empirical evidence.

nikvenkatesh.bsky.social•143 days ago

You would hope that the Grenfell inquiry would have made this a less fashionable line

msalliance.me•143 days ago

This. We need red tape. It’s often there for a purpose.

commoner.bsky.social•143 days ago

In a capitalist society, yes.

msalliance.me•143 days ago

I’ve lived in PR China. Huge amount of red tape there too, years ago.

commoner.bsky.social•140 days ago

China is a state capitalist economy

msalliance.me•140 days ago

Yes. But it wasn’t when I was there.

jrlclarke.bsky.social•143 days ago

What’s frustrating is that this is the only lever that has been consistently pulled on planning over the last 15 years and has consistently made little difference. Actual reform and investment in the system is needed.

pcsoblahdeehell.bsky.social•143 days ago

And Rule 2:

Those who shout the loudest about abolishing "bureaucracy" tend to install worse bureaucracy.

The most classic example is Stalin - but it's a common place.

petermiles.bsky.social•143 days ago

Perhaps they should just change the colour

freedomforall.net•143 days ago

They did.

catanonim.me•143 days ago

It's such a tired, threadbare old prescription. One had hoped for better.

catanonim.me•143 days ago

Will KS's promise to "rip out red tape" include the Everest of 'red tape' that is Brexit and its evil works?

[rhetorical question: I think we know the answer to that!]

sharonhawth.bsky.social•143 days ago

Also, red tape could be another word for due diligence and checks and balances, so is it even desirable to cut it?

jonporter.bsky.social•143 days ago

Not sure last weeks Employment Rights Bill and the Next Steps to Make Work Pay would be seen as ‘slashing red tape’

casmilus.bsky.social•143 days ago

FUN FACT: during Stalin's Five Year Plans, there was a Soviet poster with the caption "War on red-tape merchants and enemies of worker's initiative" which showed a giant proletarian picking up and putting a desk jockey in his place.

casmilus.bsky.social•143 days ago

Of course a ruling class that idenitifies itself as the "dictatorship of the proletariat" will regard itself in its propaganda as a populist force against the negative timewasters. Anyone in the way of the Plan were "wreckers" and "saboteurs". The original Blob was Trotskyist.

casmilus.bsky.social•143 days ago

Contemporary UK Conservative discourse features an extremely diluted version of Stalinist formulae. It's the only place you can find that stuff now - "the Left" (in particular the on-line Left) have no connection anymore to that old CPGB universe pre-1956, it passed generations ago.

jhannen.bsky.social•143 days ago

I think the actual commitment is to have a review

There may even be recommendations... eventually

kentindell.bsky.social•143 days ago

It’s like an LLM trained on Hansard.

jonathanhopkin.bsky.social•143 days ago

Isn’t it basically true that planning law is why nothing get built though?

dianecoyle1859.bsky.social•143 days ago

Unfortunately the Government seems to think competition policy is red tape, the briefing has focused on the CMA

jonathanhopkin.bsky.social•143 days ago

Yes I don’t get what they’re talking about there. But we do have a red tape problem, and it’s obviously not employment law

stsikel.bsky.social•143 days ago

"review the remit of large regulators such as the Competition and Markets Authority to focus on growth as their main priority" - depressing if true.

dianecoyle1859.bsky.social•143 days ago

Yes - and bizarre as growth is the remit in any case. Indeed, it’s often seen as in conflict with other aims like environmental or employment regulation. Hard to understand the thinking or why it was specifically briefed to the FT

stsikel.bsky.social•143 days ago

If you're looking at CMA then I guess the question is growth for whom?

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