Madsen Pirie

I had to get up early to be in the studio by 6.40 in order to go on at 6.50 on the day of the Queen’s Speech setting out the government’s agenda for the year.  John Humphrys was the presenter on the BBC Radio4 ‘Today’ programme, and I was on with Tom Papworth of Centre Forum.  We each were asked to list 3 proposals that would not be in the speech, but we wish had been.  We knew by then, thanks to advance briefing, what the speech actually contained.  I was delighted that the snoopers’ charter allowing the authorities to spy on our private communication had gone, plus the crazy nannying idea for plain packaging of tobacco and minimum alcohol pricing.

For my three proposed reforms I chose (1) allowing employees of small businesses to be treated as self-employed, (2) raising the threshold at which income tax begins to be levied to the minimum wage level, and (3) medicalizing hard drugs and legalizing recreational drugs.  My arguments are listed here on the ASI site, and if anyone wants to listen to our 6 minutes of discussion, the link is here, and scroll to 49 minutes deep, where it starts.

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