Time for government to treat taxpayers better.
President Trump is struggling with an Iran war that will not end as he wants it to. He came out with a new offer to try to woo voters in the upcoming mid term elections. The state will give every adult $5000 if they choose a Republican House and Senate again. The Democrats and the left this side of the channel were outraged, and some immediately called it a bribe. Lawfare is now so often the left’s first resort, not their last. They turned to see if he could be prosecuted for a crime.
I am as strongly against bribery in politics as the left claim to be. Of course no candidate or funder of a party in an election should offer individual voters money in return for voting for them. It is rightly a crime to do so. It is also difficult to see how it would work. Presumably the money would only be paid after seeing a photo of the duly completed ballot paper. People who were going to vote for that candidate anyway might claim the money, whilst people reluctant to vote for them might see they would be committing a crime to take the cash.It would not guarantee winning.
The left, however, are guilty of their usual asymmetry when it comes to tax cuts versus spending. To them the offer of a tax cut for all or for certain categories of taxpayer in an election Manifesto is a “bribe” whilst the offer of more free services or grants and benefits for preferred voter groups is not. The truth is both left and right seek to win votes from large numbers of people by either offering them more public spending for their benefit, or less taxation. Indeed the left is more prone to this mercenary approach. Their electoral strategies are often based on trying to create coalitions of different groups of people dependent on the state for services and benefit incomes.
In the UK left wing parties all offer more money and the recruitment of a larger public sector workforce as they seek to expand what they think should be their very own voter base. Conservatives face less competition to represent the taxpayers, the private sector workers, the savers and the investors who have to pay for the ever growing state.Conservatives also appeal to public sector workers who want good management, quality and value for money in their offices.
It would be good to extend the Trump idea of a dividend or rebate if government has done well with the economy to the provision of public services. The UK public sector today is clumsy, bossy, and inattentive to good customer service in too many cases. Bad surgeries see patients as a nuisance and seek to make it very difficult to book an appointment. Bad hospitals cancel operations at short notice, keep people waiting in outpatients clinics, and try to cover up bad clinical errors. Nationalised Network Rail causes too many delays and train cancellations. The Post office imprisoned its staff on wrongful accusations and lacks a successful business plan to provide better services. Lib Dem and Labour highways authorities go out of their way to inconvenience the car and van drivers whose taxes pay for the roads. Many public bodies demand you communicate through poor websites under threat of imprisonment if you do not follow their contorted required path.
Wouldn’t it be good if alongside the productivity revolution we need in public service there was a customer service revolution? Indeed, the two can work together. Having fewer mistakes and cancellations will bring fewer customer complaints and frustrations. Look after people well and get things right first time and you will find things are easier to run.
The public sector should look at the model of the great supermarkets that sell us our food. They never run out. They stay open long hours so working people can also use them, where most public services shut down every evening and week end. They work away at keeping prices down, offer discounts, promotions and loyalty schemes to make shopping cheaper. The public sector is always claiming it does not spend enough on provision and is always demanding more tax revenue or higher fees and charges. The food shops are very careful to avoid contamination and food poisoning, with high standards of hygiene and refrigeration. The public sector has a poor record over contaminated blood, the death of babies in some hospitals, and delays and congestion owing to inadequate and often partially closed roads.
So how could this change? How could the public sector regain the trust of the users by doing a better job? Why not offer a discount on Council tax for prompt and reliable payment? Why not allow use of Post Office counters for dealing with government for those who find the websites too difficult or hostile? Why demand annual re registration for both Council tax single person discounts and electoral registration? Just require people to report changes.
The government says it wants more building and construction yet planning delays and excess bureaucracy get in the way. Why not offer half price planning permissions if an application does not attract any objections? This would make it cheaper and faster to agree many applications where the neighbours have agreed and where the wider community sees the point . For larger schemes it encourages developers to offer compensation and to consult in advance. Less contentious planning applications should be set faster timetables. Large and more contentious schemes should not require detailed studies of how local wildlife might need to adjust unless a rare species at risk of extinction is involved.
Highways authorities should review their often extreme and excessive rules and controls to reduce the number of ways drivers can get fined. Speed limits should be realistic . Low limits should only apply in places and at times when pedestrians especially children can be at risk. Double yellow line control to stop parked cars blocking roads needs to be combined with more free parking nearby. Pay parking needs to have clear rules and to accept cash, card or app payment. There should be more free parking days in state/council owned parks near shopping centres to promote High Streets.
It also requires new attitudes by the government and Councils as employers. Staff should have clear but fewer targets to hit, and should be paid bonuses for achieving them. There should also be bonus payments for staff coming up with good ideas on how to improve the quality and lower the costs of the service. There should be far fewer managers, with managers that have real powers to change the delivery of service and to mentor, monitor and promote good staff. Senior managers should be able to earn larger bonuses than at present, but should know poor performance will means at the least no bonus at all and in bad cases dismissal.
Where the state is levying a tax, imposing a monopoly charge or demanding a license fee its aim should be to make it as easy to pay and comply as it is to pay for another parcel from Amazon. It should not threaten you or treat you as potential criminal unless you fail to pay or behave badly. Ministers should control quangos better and not let them increase fees and charges unless there is a strong case and an offer of better service.
What a difference it would make if the state cared about taxpayers, license applicants and service users. It has much to learn from the customer focus of the best private sector companies.
September 20, 2026
Good morning.
Competition! Competition! Competition!
If Public Service providers were both charged for poor service and rewarded for good then that might help as this provided a good feed back mechanism. But also allowing people to pick and be charged for services they only use. Another is to offer what services can be outsourced to the Private Sector and make the Public Sector compete. I have suggested that making private healthcare and non-taxable benefit would encourage companies and employees to have plans and so grow the market in that area. Having a direct competitor to the NHS would allow us to compare the two services and encourage the NHS to improve.
We here, JR have on numerous occasions made suggestions on how to improve services without the need for massive reforms, restructuring and spending. Alas it seems, it is all for nought as no one seems able to grasp the nettle and understand the core problems, let alone form solutions and policies.
Reply Yes, competition and choice drive quality and vfm.,I am relaunching this as even some Labour Ministers are getting frustrated with the lack of delivery and high costs of the public sector.
September 20, 2026
Your very own vision of utopia which sadly the public sector shun
Many jobs are counter productive and add no value to the country or peoples lives
I’m afraid nothing will change until the legacy parties are swept away which will become ever more difficult as they expand and import their client state
Britain is in need of a revolution or probably a civil war to redress the balance of producers and consumers
September 20, 2026
To reply:- Remind me what of any positive value they do actually deliver? Nothing much to me other than taxes, fines, motorist muggings, road blocking… they did not even take the rubbish last month from a building I own and even a public loo I needed when in Cranbrook, Kent the other week (which has been there for at least 40 years has now been closed too (for lack of funds). It seems they prefer people just to piss round the back of it!
They do not even run decent defence forces, border controls, law and order or a half decent justice system.
September 20, 2026
You ask:- So how could this change? Well with the supermarket and private businesses they only get paid when customer pay them for something they wanted to buy. They thus get a meaningful vote every time they shop. With the state sector they take the money of you in taxes in advance they get it whether you wanted anything or received any service of value or not. Your only votes is every few years with a distorted FPTP voting system for only two or perhaps three candidate with any chance who anyway will rarely even try to do as promised ones elected.
Very often they take your taxes and spend it on thing that do vast net damage like HS2, excessive red tape enforcement, suppression of free speech, net harm Covid vaccines and lockdowns, absurdly convicting and imprisoning nurse Letby, gain of function lab experiments, net zero lunacy, rigging markets like transport, health care, education, banking, energy, housing, heating… paying healthy people to encourage them not to work and live off others’ labours…
It is often worse still as they pass laws to damage and rig much of the private sector activity too. Over restrictive planning, licensing and endless other red tape, OTT building controls, what cars you can sell, what boilers you can buy, what fuels you can extract…
Even now moronically forcing the unnatural drug “folic acid” into flour when it is clear over all it will do more harm than good.
September 20, 2026
Trump proposes his illegal and desperate $5000 voting bribe because his polling as the November mid-term elections approach is dire; Trump knows the GOP is going to lose in many previously “red” states. Badly.
Fiscal conservatives in Congress have expressed strong scepticism at Trump’s proposal
Direct cash distribution remains a documented issue in developing democracies or places with weak institutional oversight and has been broadly observed during election cycles in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, South Africa, Nicaragua and Mexico. And now America!
The issue bothering Americans is, as always, the economy (high food and gasoline/diesel inflation). Unlike typical midterm election cycles, where domestic policy completely dominates, foreign policy has emerged as a major factor. Trump’s failed, ongoing, war with Iran has drastically shifted public sentiment, as it’s effects impact daily life
American polling for Trump is so dire that there is every chance that the Democrats will flip both the House of Representatives and the Senate – N Carolina, Kansas, Alaska, Texas, Iowa, Maine and Florida are likeliest to change to the Democrats.
Trump will be a lame duck president for the rest of his term. He will be investigated for corruption and probably impeached for an unprecedented third time.
September 20, 2026
Any other foreign news you want to share with us, SG?
September 20, 2026
Trump’s escalating war against Iran has sent autumn fossil fuel prices skyrocketing, making renewable energy the UK’s ultimate shield against the coming global economic chaos.
By breaking the UK’s dependency on volatile foreign oil and gas, homegrown wind and solar power deliver immediate national energy security. British energy bills should not be decided by Middle Eastern conflicts.
Swapping hyper-inflated fossil fuels for low-cost, domestic green energy stops fuel poverty and stabilizes the economy
The UK’s massive investment in clean infrastructure has sparked thousands of high-skilled green jobs across the country. Wind and solar power provide a predictable, inflation-proof energy supply that completely bypasses global market shocks in fossil fuel prices.
Accelerating the clean transition transforms Trump’s geopolitical crisis into a massive victory for the global climate
Reply Renewable energy is dearer when you take into account the need to pay for back up gas power and adjust for green subsidies and carbon taxes
September 20, 2026
To replay. Also the vast grid investments needed in moving from a hub and spokes system to a mess of multiple remote and often at sea energy sources. Can be about 180 times more expensive and these we have the huge grid stability issues caused by renewables.
To Sakara:- “By breaking the UK’s dependency on volatile foreign oil and gas, homegrown wind and solar power deliver immediate national energy security. British energy bills should not be decided by Middle Eastern conflicts.
Swapping hyper-inflated fossil fuels for low-cost, domestic green energy stops fuel poverty and stabilizes the economy”
Nothing dirty about CO2 plant food and substitute “stabilizes” for “wrecks”. Where do you copy this green crap drivel from? Please get real.
September 20, 2026
A “mesh” rather not a “mess” though it is also a complex vastly costly mess too.
September 20, 2026
The myth that renewable energy is cheaper is just that, a myth. Every time a wind or solar farm is added the price to consumers goes up.
Repeating the mantra that it’s all the fault of gas is a downright lie. If renewable operators were paid what they bid at they would go bust.
Renewables are a recipe for endless subsidy. A total scam.
September 20, 2026
@Ian Wragg
The wholesale price of UK electricity shot up last week to £175.75/MWh. with the October 2026 futures contract at a humungous £181.40/MWh, thanks to the Ayatollah regime closing the Strait of Hormuz allowing the fossil fuel cartel to ramp up the price of crude. Again
Recently, Miliband secured an offshore wind AR7 strike price average of £91.20/MWh in England and Wales and £89.49/MWh in Scotland. Which means that almost as soon as the new capacity starts generating, large sums will be earned by the Treasury under the CfD scheme
“Tricky Dicky” Tice and his Reform ‘Leader’, the dreadful Nigel Farage, have been ranting on again about how it’s net zero that is going to bankrupt us. And definitely not Big Oil’s blatant price gouging at the pumps.
Do try and follow the geopolitical developments in the current global price gouging by Big Oil, before you post, there’s a good chap
September 20, 2026
“Renewable” energy is worth far less as it is not on demand. How much more would you pay for a replacement for your flat tyre or takeaway meal if it came immediately rather than at some random time in the next month of their choosing?
It is of course not “renewable” either and when analysed properly it is not even that low in CO2 should that bother you. Tend just to export the CO2 and even to bring it forwards to construct the wind farms, batteries, solar panels and all the extra grid needed.
Bio (wood young coal) burning at Drax is negative in CO2 and cost terms compared to coal.
September 20, 2026
The UK, like Germany, needs a plan to rebuild our medieval and old buildings in our towns and cities as well as design more aesthetically-pleasing brick and stone buildings to bring people back into the high street and also to rejuvenate our towns and cities and the economy in general.
So many people complain that their town or city is a dump. That can be changed. Of course, our great country is in financial woes at the moment. But something we need to seriously think about more and plan for more. Hardly ever gets discussed – if ever.
And having aesthetically-pleasing buildings, towns and cities is part of what makes a country great, part of patriotism and makes life a lot more enjoyable as well as a big boost to the economy (not just the construction of such buildings but also enticing people to spend more time in them and around them).
Reply Our old buildings including churches, halls, tudor and Georgian shops are often the highlights of a town centre.
September 20, 2026
Alas the current appalling CofE leadership like to deter much church attendance in the UK and close churches to safe money and then to pay £million in “reparations” for slavery etc. Then honour fans of the 9/11 terrorisms albeit this now withdrawn. Do we really want these appalling unelected Bishops in the Lords. They never say anything even half sensible just pathetic platitudes and hugely misguided climate alarmism and DEI lefty drivel.
The dire diversity appointment Arch. Bishop of Canterbury was unable to hand him the award as he would not accept it from a women so it was handed to his wife (we are told – you could not see her). So I assume it is OK for his wife to take them. Much no hand shaking with women at degree award ceremonies now too.
September 20, 2026
In terms of energy security, traditional N Sea oil and gas infrastructure is defined by concentrated, high-volume single points of failure. The UK relies on more than 200 high-visibility platforms and a handful of massive trunklines, such as the Langeled pipeline supplying the bulk of UK gas imports (90%) from Norway. A targeted kinetic attack or underwater explosive sabotage – as demonstrated by the Nord Stream bombings – instantly triggers a severe national energy crisis and catastrophic ecological fallout. Furthermore, these rigs carry highly volatile hydrocarbons, making them acutely vulnerable to airborne drones and explosive chain reactions.
Conversely, Britain’s onshore and offshore wind and solar networks benefit from massive structural redundancy. The thousands of individual turbines manufactured across Humberside and Lincolnshire are highly dispersed; destroying a handful of wind towers has negligible impact on the wider grid.
Ultimately, while an oil rig attack threatens immediate resource depletion and an environmental disaster, a wind farm attack presents a purely electrical disruption mitigated by massive system redundancies.
Reply When there is no wind and sun renewables all shut down. Shifting to electricity with too much unreliable UK generation makes us dependent on imported electricity via a handful of big cables!
September 20, 2026
Cash for votes? At least it’s transparent and transactional, even if distasteful.
Instead, how about delivering election promises in return for votes? We should try that some day.
September 20, 2026
I like what you are seeing John, but how do you get it implemented? Imaginative people who might do the things you say are few and far between. In reality it’s activists that put themselves forward for election, not sensible people who are busy running their successful businesses. Even if you do get someone into office who actually cares about making things better for ordinary people, they will soon discover major pushback from public sector departments that like the way they do things, the officiousness and the bureaucracy.