I think the withholding of Queen's Consent is fairly clearly the correct path for Boris, but it may be worth remarking that the (quite distinct) issue of Royal Assent being refused shld not be ruled out either. It's perhaps worth exploring why.+
+Royal Assent was last formally withheld in Great Britain in 1708. It's worth observing that it was withheld on govt advice. It wasn't Anne defying her govt. It was Anne doing what her govt told her. As far we're aware that was the last time a govt recommended no Royal Assent.+
+Through the 18th & early 19th centuries, British Kings routinely declared they wld not grant Assent to things - even govt policies - & so those measures lapsed without forcing Assent to be formally refused. eg Catholic Emancipation was blocked for decades by no Royal Assent.+
+In the time of Victoria the monarch switch from declaring publicly that Assent wld be withheld to declaring it privately. The last time serious consideration was given to refusal of Assent in the UK was 1914.+
+However, in other Crown Realms Royal Assent was withheld several times during the 20th century. A particularly well-known case was in Alberta in the 1930s. The principle that that power still exists was sufficiently important that it was re-stated in the Royal Assent Act 1967.+
+Obviously Royal Assent shld not be expected to be withheld all the time, so it is no argument against its still existing that the power has not been exercised for some decades.+
+If a PM recommended the withholding of Royal Assent from some bill, presumably that PM wld face a no-confidence vote. That wld be Parliament's right. But that doesn't mean the PM lacks the power to advise Assent be refused. I know of no precedent for such advice being rejected.
As well as Assent being actually refused in Crown Realms during the 20th Century, it was pre-announced that Assent *would* be refused as recently as 1980 (in New South Wales).
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Imagine public spending were as efficient as possible & also were arranged in a stack from the most growth-promoting/least growth-destroying to the least growth-promoting/most growth-destroying, over the long-term. There would be three basic zones. 🧵 1/
In the first zone extra public spending would boost growth. This would be spending on things like courts, police, competition authorities, maybe some spending on roads, & potentially some on welfare such as unemployment benefits. 2/
In the 2nd zone we'd have spending that, although it damaged growth, we got things in exchange that were sufficiently valuable it was worth the growth damage to get them, such as helping the poor, old or sick or boosting art & culture. 3/
Recently I've been hearing a certain argument in favour of nationalising utilities. It goes as follows. The govt can secure investment capital at a lower cost than the private sector - eg govt debt is cheaper than private sector debt. 🧵 1/
Therefore, the argument goes, by funding investment in infrastructure-heavy sectors through the govt balance sheet the required returns on the sector will be less (since one won't be funding the higher capital returns the private sector would require), so prices can be lower. 2/
This argument is wrong. And it's important to grasp that it is wrong as a matter of fundamental finance theory, not because of some area of potential debate such as the relative efficiency of the management of privately- vs publicly-owned assets. 3/
Remember 2014, when George Osborne was planning to get public spending down to 35% of GDP? In 2022/23 total public spending is expected to be 47.3% of GDP. That is more than 1/3 larger, relative to the size of the economy, than was scheduled only a few years ago!
*Why*? Public spending was only 39% of GDP before Covid. Perhaps it needed to be higher during Covid, but why is it justified for it to be so much higher, so many years later (still over 43% by 2027/28)?
The only conceivable reason is ideological. Someone has decided that Covid has changed the game, so that the state must in future must be much larger than before, relative to GDP. I don't subscribe to this point of view.
Just for once, here goes. Some of the benefits of Brexit.
- Not being subject to EU regs designed for the Eurozone not for us, or more generally dominated by the Eurozone
- More flexible UK regs (quicker action; more u-turns)
- More targeted UK regs (no one size fits all)+
- EU itself works better without us so grows faster so we can export more to it (albeit not more than as EU members)
- Quicker non-EU FTAs (not slowed down by the interests of other EU members - interests irrelevant to us), & FTAs better-targeted at our needs
- End of the CAP+
- Less risk of Scotland leaving the Union (enhanced value of Britishness as an identity plus increased costs to Scotland of leaving)
- End of safety value effect on immigration (€ misfunction leading to €zone recessions triggering migration to UK via freedom of movement)+
A policy question for you to ponder. Apparently there is a growing trend of pornographic artists using age-reducing apps to make themselves look younger. So, perhaps that handsome young man you admire is actually 45 not 23 as he appears.+
+The policy question is whether pornographic material that is paid for that uses age-adjusting apps should be required to disclose that age-adjustment has been deployed?+
+There are a few dimensions to this. Some are obvious - presumably most consumers of pornography would be disturbed to discover that the artists involved were actually under-age but made to appear older using technology.+
I see that lots of folk have decided that the downfall of Truss demonstrates that what they term "libertarian" economics should never be attempted again. But which bit of Truss' "libertarian" agenda do they think was so bad?+
Was it the reform of planning? Or more generally the idea of attempting regulatory & infrastructure reforms to boost the long-term growth of the economy?+
Was it the concept of tax simplification - removing unnecessary complexity from the tax system - that they consider such a terrible idea?+