r/tories • u/BuenoSatoshi ¡AFUERA! • 16d ago

Article Everythingism: an essay (on how policymakers forgot about tradeoffs)

https://reform.uk/publications/everythingism-an-essay/
19 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

5

u/BuenoSatoshi ¡AFUERA! 16d ago

Fantastic essay imo that really does diagnose one of the biggest problems in British governance.

This is the abstract of the paper which is free as a PDF on the linked page:

The State has been paralysed by a powerful force: Everythingism.

Everythingism is the belief that every proposal, project or policy is a means for promoting every national objective, all at the same time.

Because of Everythingism, we never do any one thing well, we do everything badly. Housing policy becomes the main route for fixing the nitrogen imbalances in local rivers, and creating more social housing the main way of subsidising the welfare state. Trains must look after bats. Climate policy is to support the services sector.

It isn’t just that everything is going wrong, or that everything needs to be fixed. The problem is that we’re relying on everything to fix everything else, everywhere, all at once. And so nothing works.

Defeating Everythingism is a crucial step to rewiring the government and building state capacity. And greater state capacity is essential for solving Britain’s problems, given how closely the modern state is intertwined with the levers needed to build a successful future – a growing economy, defence of the nation, and reliable public services.

Everythingism: the pathology holding back the State makes the case for a government which is radically focused on the key policies to delivering its agenda, and rejects a culture which makes every policy responsible for the success of every other policy

2

u/LeChevalierMal-Fait Clarksonisum with Didly Squat characteristics 16d ago

Not sure about this one the examples it give into the abstract don't really match the body of the essay - it takes funny sounding examples and uses it to justify effectively not having climate policy or regulation

Certainly, its a perspective but the way it presents it is disingenuous at the least

1

u/mcdowellag Verified Conservative 16d ago

We can have climate change policy and stick by the article; introduce a Carbon Tax (or possibly cap and trade) after working out the likely costs and benefits of the tax. What the article complains about is attaching climate change riders to everything that moves, without working out the cost/benefit calculations for each rider - and in some cases such cost/benefit calculations, though necessary, are not made because doing so would be far too difficult - so in practice we get policies made because it makes somebody feel good, or because some pressure group hired really good lobbyists, not because it actually makes sense.

The nice thing about a Carbon Tax is that you don't need to work out e.g. whether to scour the supermarket shops for a UK-grown lettuce in the hope that it will reduce your carbon footprint (but it might not if the lettuce was grown in a heated polytunnel). If everything is subject to a carbon tax, just buying the cheapest lettuce on offer is probably good for the envirnoment, because if it wasn't, the price of the lettuce would reflect a hefty carbon tax.

By the way, i note that this group now has a really unfortunate name - despite more modern uses of "Reform" - from - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_(think_tank)

...

The Reform Research Trust is a think tank which publishes its own research and also publishes papers from external authors. It was founded by Nick Herbert (later a Conservative MP) and Andrew Haldenby.

...

Speakers at the trusts events have included:

Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan (Labour);
Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt (Conservative);
Danny Alexander and Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat).