Before I bag him, I guess I should admit that Peter Hendy is a one-time colleague of mine with whom I have enjoyed the odd convivial beer. Funny how two politically-minded types around an office can have more in common than they have with the non-politically minded, despite being on opposite sides of the ideological fence. Anyway, that said, Hendy is off the planet with this comment on AM this morning:
… if you really have a purpose to reduce red tape in this country, you’ve got to look at reducing the size of government.
On the contrary, it’s actually the longstanding and generally failed bids to reduce the size of government that have mounted today’s red tape. This arises because of the way these bids necessarily intensify the application of policy. The multiplication of red tape is automatic, for - as Eric Hobsbawm once noted - “the state must henceforth — in the interests of withering away — give ever more precise directions about what its funds should and should not be spent on”.
Or, to put it another way: one of the beauties of small-statism is that ‘the goal’ is never achieved and the struggle provides ongoing theologico-salvific meaning to its Chicagoan proponents.
I do like the Hob, having been keen on his histories years ago. Where on the tattered spectrum does he belong these days?
I think he describes himself as a revolutionary in a non-revolutionary situation. I still haven’t read his latest, on politics and jazz and his love of both.
I like that Currency, and I feel sure I’ll like it more after it comes back from the Translation Dept.
Robert, you gotta get that one: some real gems.
Couldn’t agree more, btw, Chris. Must be something about the name Hendo and public commentary. Mad desires to legislate, regulate and control everything characterise Planet Howard. Interesting to read in the Fin today the PC report on how records in terms of acts passed, volume of regulation and so on are being broken yearly. And Treasury the biggest offender (Cos, come in spinner!). Out of control.
Chris - what was Evatt’s attitude to regulation