Morning Call: The self-serve state
Also: Armando Iannucci explains British politics’ Willy Wonka effect.
Good morning. Will here. Today I discuss HMRC’s aborted “efficiency saving” plans. It’s all part of a much wider political direction – the self-serve nation.
Also, Armando Iannucci writes on the way realpolitik in Westminster has given way to feelpolitik, or Wishful Verbiage – when someone says something because it sounds better than what’s true. Here’s a snippet:
This retreat from the real is now spreading exponentially. People call themselves influencers even if they influence no more than 20 family members and a couple of old school friends, and they expect to get sponsorship deals as a result. Others call themselves entrepreneurs when the most risk they’ve taken is writing to junior ministers informing them of their title and expecting lucrative contracts by the end of the working day. Blagging and bigging up is now a respected industry. It used to be called bullshitting, but now it’s rebadged as Putting Yourself Out There and recognised as a professional skill set.
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Like a fat-handed man attempting to free a crumpet from a hot toaster, HMRC was this week forced into an abrupt and painful retraction. On Tuesday, the Revenue announced a bold new plan to close its self-assessment phone lines (which were already the subject of considerable public anger over waiting times) for six months of the year. The idea was that this would push large numbers of people to “self-serve”, as the Revenue puts it, using online alternatives that are “quicker and easier”.
On Wednesday, U-turning faster than Dominic Cummings in the car park of an English Heritage attraction during lockdown, the Revenue announced that this initiative had been cancelled in favour of a bold new plan to be shouted at less on Twitter.
In recent months I’ve spoken to a lot of people who are strongly critical of HMRC’s practices, and with good reason. But the helpline fiasco is in my opinion something different: it is not just an isolated example of a government department having a bad idea.
This is a symptom of a wider trend towards a “self-serve” state – a trend that could create significant problems for the government, whichever party forms it. It shows that one of the biggest promises being made by both Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves could be very difficult to fulfil.
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