Writing for Total Politics, The Voice’s Mark Pack welcomes public arguments over the Budget:
What would you do if you have a really important set of decisions to make? Decisions that will have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people, on the future of the country and – although of course you are too saintly to think of this – on your own future career prospects.
Locking yourself away in secret and deciding all the key decisions on your own before presenting them to the rest of the world as a fait accompli is not the route you will find any management textbook advising you to take. And with good reason, because it is a dreadful approach.
Dreadful, but also the traditional British way of drawing up the annual Budget, especially when Gordon Brown was still prowling Whitehall.
Mark goes on to point out that this didn’t start with Gordon Brown however, as you can read here.
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6 Comments
I am not sure that I agree entirely – one impact of the Govt leaking its proposed abolition of the 50% tax rate to the Guardian before the Budget is that many high rate payers and tax advisers are at this very moment working to push income and bonuses into the next tax year. The fact they are able to do so before the formal announcement is made will strengthen any argument they have with HMRC regarding the legitimacy of such measures. The way it has been handled has actually made tax avoidance easier I’m afraid.
I think this could be a good idea. In business terms the secretive norm reduces plannability and adds to risks, neither of which are helpful. Both also add to costs. My initial thought is that the proposed more open system would also allow for feedback that could reduce costly errors, such as imposing a tax which then destroys an industry.
Spreading budget measures out over the year might also help, giving a much improved responsiveness to conditions as they develop or are foreseen. Perhaps dramatic things like devaluation still need to be shock announcements, but the proposed open system might help to avoid such awful things!
Well said, Mark Pack.
I agre with this. However, we also saw Labour (and other governments) practise a variant to total secrecy, where the really bad options were leaked so as to make the secretly determined option appear to be quite reasonable in comparison.
Completely agree with Dr Pack.
It’s called open government.
@TBNGU
exactly, disagreement is healthy as it shines a light on differences which builds trust and creates movement towards agreement for a more robust system.
Ironic by name, ironic by nature.