#138 – Steve Baker – The Structural Failure of Government

What It Covers

Former UK government minister Steve Baker diagnoses Britain's structural failures, arguing decades of managerialism, currency debasement since 1971, and unconstrained state power have created economic injustice, making homeownership impossible for young professionals despite historic high taxation.

Key Questions Answered

• •Monetary debasement impact: An aircraft engineer and nurse couple could afford a four-bedroom detached house, private school for two children, and annual holidays in the 1980s. Today, the same professions earning £120,000 combined cannot cover a £3,000 monthly mortgage plus £3,000 school fees, demonstrating how fiat currency expansion since 1971 destroyed middle-class prosperity through asset price inflation.
• •Political accountability mechanism: Unrestricted recall with a 10% electorate threshold would allow citizens to trigger by-elections for underperforming MPs, potentially bringing down governments through multiple recalls. Current UK recall requires criminal offenses or sanctions, not policy failures or broken manifesto promises, leaving voters powerless between elections despite governments governing on 33% council turnouts.
• •Candidate selection power: Only 12 people attended Baker's reselection meeting to determine if he could stand as MP for Wycombe. Three were opponents who nearly removed him. Joining political parties and attending Saturday morning selection meetings gives disproportionate power to shape candidate quality, yet membership has collapsed since the Cold War era.
• •Government spending constraint: Politicians follow public opinion demanding higher spending and lower taxes, driving chronic borrowing and currency debasement. Constitutional constraints preventing money creation without explicit referendum consent would force governments to balance budgets or seek voter approval for debt, eliminating backdoor tax increases and special interest allocation that divides society into competing factions.
• •State discrimination problem: Public choice literature demonstrates absolute nondiscrimination by the state would constrain power effectively. Current preference allocation creates factionalism where each governing party favors specific groups, driving political extremes. MI5 discriminating against white British boys in recruitment represents the subversion their organization was established to prevent, exemplifying how identity-based preferences undermine equal treatment principles.