To be fair, Andy Burnham never promised quick fixes.
When he walked into Downing Street in July, he promised a decade: a 10 year mission to raise living standards, “good growth in every postcode”, and the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall in modern times.
The document that’s supposed to turn all that into a plan is now on its way. No.10 is billing it as a blueprint for running the country until 2037 and the Prime Minister says people are underestimating how significant it will be. This is a man who pledged to end “40 years of neoliberalism” – no easy task.
But of course, not everyone is convinced. Some are worried it could end up as another can to be kicked down the road, while others fear that even the best laid domestic plans may end up side-lined in the face of larger, global challenges.
The plan, admittedly, has already not gotten off to the best start. It may not arrive before Christmas as previously mooted. Burnham has admitted it could slip into the new year.
But here at The Lead we like to see every cloud through its silver lining. While the government gathers its thoughts, we want to canvas the opinion of our esteemed readers, and hear exactly what you think the plan should look like.
This week’s newsletter is a little different. Instead of us telling you what to think, we’re asking you. Your answers will form the backbone of our submission to the government that we’ll publish here before the plan lands. We’ll set what Lead readers want against what the government actually delivers.
It takes about five minutes, and every answer gets read. You can tap below or click here to take part.
Thank you for taking part. We’ll close the survey at 10am on Monday 23 November and publish the results alongside our thoughts by the end of the month. Then we’ll see how close the government gets to what we asked for.
And if you’ve got more to say than a survey box allows, just hit reply or leave a comment. Have a lovely weekend.
Zoe and The Lead team
p.s. remember there’s currently 50% off an annual subscription to The Lead, it helps us tell the stories that matter right now on the policies, people and places affecting the UK
I’m not sure he knows what to do! It would take me 10 minutes to implement change so ten years to me sounds like he’s got no bloody idea!
Yet, I happen to like Andy Burnham. I’m a social side of centre person so I immediately orientate towards him and Labour.
Politicians just don’t get taxation! They fail to see that it’s SPENDING of MONEY that TRIGGERS TAX REVENUE!
They can’t see that even Income Tax, yes INCOME TAX, is triggered by SPENDING NOT EARNING.
They go into a fit when presented with the truth. Because it means they have to admit being wrong!!
But it’s true. No amount of work can ever get paid unless FIRST someone has to SPEND by choice or by need or by demand from government.
Yes it’s a little known or appreciated fact that it’s the act of SPENDING that triggers tax and not working per se!
You can’t earn until you get paid by someone else SPENDING their money including the government. They are the de facto person who SPENDS.
And unless you get paid no tax is triggered. So no amount of work will ever trigger tax. It’s only when money moves via the act of SPENDING does tax get triggered!!
So put this together.
We ALL rely on the act of SOMEONE or SOMEBODY to SPEND their money before we get our MONEY so the point word is SPENDING.
Just like when employers SPEND on the wages of their employees. The trigger point for passing on MONEY to the worker and triggering tax take is the same at the same point and is at the point of SPENDING MONEY.
So if that is the case (and it very much is) then the answer to his and our prayers is to encourage or enforce the SPENDING of more MONEY and crucially in as faster time as possible but I suggest monthly.
But this points to the real problem with our monetary system and why it gets bogged down by stagnation and recessions.
And that is not the money that is SPENT and rotated around our pockets. No, it’s the MONEY that each month is NOT SPENT because it’s the MONEY sitting in Bank accounts here and abroad UNSPENT and idle. Unused and withheld from us and the flow around us and the tax triggering moment that I have described above.
It’s that hiving off our much needed money that reduces SPENDING and so reduces tax revenues which lead to constant deficits when what we need is higher earning from higher SPENDING and higher turnover and exponentially more tax taken in revenues.
Whereas we could easily replace our present position from stagnant money in vast sums withheld in bank accounts to pushing that money through our economy and trigger so much more tax take that we get more income and that triggers more tax revenue from that tsunami of SPENDING to give our government so much more tax take that they can vastly reduce our overall tax take!
Yes, vast sums being SPENT instead of NOT SPENT each month will have such a dramatic effect in a month that we won’t need taxes! We will just need one tax. And that will be Vat.
Yes Vat alone will be do large that we won’t need any other tax.
So more spending of more money that’s already in our economy will quickly turn around our economy to give us all more income but crucially the government gets so much more money to SPEND on us, for us.
More homes, schools and hospitals. From constant surpluses.
No more debt and no more deficits.
That’s what he must do immediately! Not in ten years. Now.