David Myddelton reaction to the Pre-Budget Reports - Cranfield School of Management

The day after last weeks Pre-Budget Statement, David Myddelton, Emeritus Professor of Finance and Accounting commented on the Governments plan to pump £60bn into the system to kick start the economy.
Professor David Myddelton is Emeritus Professor of Finance and Accounting at Cranfield University, Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Institute of Economic Affairs and Chairman of the National Council of the Society for Individual Freedom. In the late 1960s he was involved in the Young Libertarians along with the Libertarian Alliance's founder Dr. Chris R. Tame.
Quote: "My conclusion is that the extent of government in this country has grown enormously in the last 125 years or so; from about 7½% to about 45% of the economy. And there's no sign of any significant reduction any time soon. The Opposition is so 'responsible' - or so desperate for power! - that it won't promise any tax cuts, even from present levels.
If we want to reduce the heavy burden of taxation, which distorts the market, penalises enterprise and reduces freedom, there have to be significant cuts in government spending. And the main reductions must be on the welfare state, which now accounts for two thirds of government spending. To do that, we need the political will, which there's little sign of.
Even apart from taxes, government interference - and over-regulation and snooping and bossing us all about - infects nearly every area of everyday life. So if I'm asked whether we'd be better off with less government, with a slimmer government, instead of the grotesquely overweight monstrosity we've got at the moment. I can only answer yes. Of course we would!"

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