There is a crisis, a crisis in the way politicians spend our taxes. A crisis made from making the super-rich richer and waging war for US interests.
Our government misleads us, Mr Blair over Iraq, Mr Cameron over the NHS.
One simple reform could address this, participatory budgeting, the involvement of citizens in spending decisions. We all pay tax, and if we pay tax we should have a say in spending.
We have the means to restrain our government from Trojan horse policies and using legislation and subsidies to pay back political donations - a democratisation of taxation.
We already have the tools to enact this reform. The internet.
For each to be sure their taxes are spent in line with their values and the views of all voters count; election manifestos should contain budgets and voters should have the right to adjust their share of the budget that goes to each policy.
We can mandate individual policies through participatory budgeting. We can democratically fund policies and end the incitement to profligacy in the civil service that stems from having to spend or hand back a budget within the year.
We can make public services more responsive and efficienct by using information from the consumers of those services, from voters.
Consent for taxation is the most ancient cornerstone of British Democracy. It is a right signed into the Magna Carta in 1215.
It is time to replace our spluttering, steam driven democracy with a more responsive, finely tuned, digital democracy.
We now have inexpensive ways to get consent from taxpayers directly. We do not have to be “represented” by politicians, or accept their manifestoes a la carte, or tolerate their broken promises. We should call out “no taxation without allocation”
We should write a modern Magna Carta, for 800th anniversary of the original, use particpatory budgeting to make our government more true to the title ‘Democracy’.
And stop politicians squandering our taxes on wars and bankers.
Friday, January 20, 2012
A democratisation of taxation
EXTRACTS
In 1215 the British Crown signed the Magna Carta and committed that taxes would not be raised for war without the consent of those who pay. In the last ten years the nation has been led into war on a fictional pretence and there is a crisis in the direction of our collective resources.
800 years on we need to reapply the principles of democracy in the context of a profound change in information processing and distribution so that we can refocus our politicians on the interests of citizens, rather than the demands of the global elite.
We can do this through participatory budgeting, through involving citizens in the spending decisions of government, and with this reap the benefits of incorporating the local knowledge, expertise and values of citizens to make government more responsive and efficient.
We can remake the Magna Carta for the wider group of citizens in modern, digital society and unleash a new age of progress.
..................................
With all the possibilities to inform, include and interact with citizens, is it right the government enforces compulsory taxation in exchange for the this pallid pretence at representation. Are we not being sold short. If there is some social contract with the people, is it not about time we revisited the wording; examined whether the state was making good its obligations given the possibilities of today.
When tax was collected in metal and Hansard a work of arcane glyphs the government could be forgiven not consulting every voice, not making plain its business across the whole nation. But today, is publishing Hansard on the internet a sufficient response to the opportunities presented by the digital age. Could we not do more to use these now ubiquitous technologies to reshape government of and for the people.
Just as the Barons of the realm understood the natural belligerence of power hungry and with the Magna Carta forced King John to consult when raising taxes for war, and just as the Americans called no taxation without representation, asking whether they should pay for English sons to drink blood on foreign soil, we are faced again with a Crown that misleads the nation into war and coddles vested interests. We are again forced to question whether the state is abusing it’s tax raising powers. Whether some are whispering seductions in the ears of our leaders and causing them to exploit their subjects.
But thanks to the efforts of our forefathers we are citizens not subjects. And when we as citizens ask these questions and faced with the evidence, look for remedies; we can see decisive new tools unavailable to the Barons of King John. The people of those times understood that the way to rein in a state galloping towards despotism is through control of resources and now in our time we can refashion the bit and bridle not with paper and steel, but with copper, coltan and silicon.
.........
~Illegal wars on fictional pretences require our taxes to wage, the orangeries of moral hazard in which we house finance require that trillions are burnt to maintain their climate. And I ask, would our governments have behaved differently if we had a say in the spending. Would the war in Iraq have been fought if, rather than shifting around pots of cash in the black box of the Treasury, Mr Blair actually had to ask those who pay taxes to fund it? Quite possibly not. This is what the Barons knew when they forced King John to sit at the table with quill and ink and sign the Magna Carta.
Now almost eight hundred years on we need a modern Magna Carta. For wars are fought without the consent of those who pay for them and this is a violation of the most ancient element of British Democracy. A right signed onto paper in 1215. The time has come to free these rights from paper, from their prison in the archives, find them again where they have been mislaid in the corners of our mind. Each of us should call upon this right again, so that we can remake our government. Replace the rusting mechanics of our spluttering steam driven democracy with a more responsive, digitally controlled, budgetary democracy. Make a Magna Carta fit for the digital age, for mass society and economy. That states, just as the original, that if government seeks to wage war it must first have the consent of those who pay.
........
VII.
And all this can be bought about with some simple changes. Just by publishing the government’s budget on the HMRC website and adding an interface with a way to toggle allocations up and down. But while the technical changes are straightforward, the political changes are complex. For those who lust for power are seldom motivated to give away their prize once they have consummated their lust. Rather they would, if left alone seek an ever greater grip on power. And this of course, is why we periodically refresh our leadership before they become absolutely corrupted.
But now we are faced with the task of rebalancing the distribution of power, a task in which we must be successful or our children’s children will walk bent backed under the enduring weight of the greed of the current elite. Thankfully, participatory budgeting is a transparent reform. An obvious measure to anyone who appreciates the possibilities of the web. A change in step with the zeitgeist. But it is likely that those in power will be horrified, see the change as a threat and do their best to remain as blind to the possibilities; talk as turkeys do in November.
But we should shine the spotlight on participatory budgeting. Give it centre stage in the twenty first century enlightenment. Emblazon it’s successes across all areas of public debate. Make obvious its affinity with the ancient principles of our democracy, with the Magna Carta, with universal suffrage and with the efficiency of consumer led resource allocation.
We should demand participatory budgeting as an obvious natural right. We should appeal to the straightforward common sense of every man and woman that they pay tax, so they should have a say in spending. Make the obvious point that consent for taxation has been the cornerstone our democracy since its foundation and that we now have straightforward and inexpensive ways to get this consent directly. We should demand that we are not forced to live with nineteenth century governance in twenty-first century society. Demand the spirit of the Magna Carta is applied and our democratic rights recognized in a modern context. And make good these demands in the reorganisation of our government.
And the prize would be a step change in the deployment of our collective resources comparable to the original restraint of monarchies. The prize would be a government for the people, a government where our leaders must show competence and integrity in their endeavors, and are restrained from showering their courtiers with favours. A government in which all voices are heard and weighed equally. And we have the tools to make such a government at hand, and it is necessary that we use them.
For there is an enormous crisis in the direction of our collective resources, in the imperial agrandisement of foreign powers and the enrichment of the super-rich. And the current means we have of controlling our collective resources have quite clearly been inadequate. There are few alternatives within our democracy, and it is structured in a way that makes our representatives more accessible to lobbyists than the people who vote for them. So while we need to make changes in response to our new economy and society, the changes that are made favour the few, the precious few. And rather than the great majority benefiting from the huge increases in productivity and accessibility brought about by the information revolution, the gains are falling to a global elite that have captured the minds and levers of power.
But we have some ancient principles to guide us forward. We have principles that the state should be beholden unto its citizens and that there should be consent for taxation. We have an understanding of the effect of power upon those who wield it. And we have new means with which to apply these principles and understandings.
We have the means to gather local knowledge, distributed expertise, individual preference and use these in combination to more efficiently direct our collective resources. The means to re-enfranchise all those whose loosing votes are cast away. The means to curtail misrepresentation, Trojan horse policies and use to the state to pay back political donors; to make state spending a better reflection of our individual wills in combination, to make our government more true to its title of Democracy.
This could be done through participatory budgeting, through a recognition of the natural rights of citizens in a modern context. It could be done on the HMRC website, in time for the next general election, in 2015, on the eight-hundredth anniversary of the Magna Carta. Let us make a such a modern Magna Carta, fit for a new millennium, so that our children’s children, rather than cursing our greed, will laud our wisdom, just as we today laud the Barons of King John, the course that their actions set in motion and all that it has done for us. Let us not leave as our legacy the decaying relics of once great nations, buried empires, a derelict democracy, sclerotic and spluttering, fit only for enrichment of private and foreign powers.
Let us instead reawaken the principles led us first to enable the capabilities of all our citizens and seize our taxes from the greed of monarchies and mercantilists. Let us reawaken the genius of western governance that is our inheritance, let us apply this genius afresh with modern tools, with computer, the internet, with video and data-warehousing. Evolve our governance so that it is fit for our times, for the pace of change, for the integrated world.
And I can see no better measure. No change so simple and accessible and yet so profound. Nothing so straightforward that would make the state more efficient and responsive. No measure that reflects the principles of democratic government in a digital age better than a democratisation of taxation, better than online participatory budgeting. And if you agree, then let us take our voices to the halls of power and make them ring with a remade cry, no taxation without allocation, those that pay should have a say, and make a modern Magna Carta fit for our age.
In 1215 the British Crown signed the Magna Carta and committed that taxes would not be raised for war without the consent of those who pay. In the last ten years the nation has been led into war on a fictional pretence and there is a crisis in the direction of our collective resources.
800 years on we need to reapply the principles of democracy in the context of a profound change in information processing and distribution so that we can refocus our politicians on the interests of citizens, rather than the demands of the global elite.
We can do this through participatory budgeting, through involving citizens in the spending decisions of government, and with this reap the benefits of incorporating the local knowledge, expertise and values of citizens to make government more responsive and efficient.
We can remake the Magna Carta for the wider group of citizens in modern, digital society and unleash a new age of progress.
..................................
With all the possibilities to inform, include and interact with citizens, is it right the government enforces compulsory taxation in exchange for the this pallid pretence at representation. Are we not being sold short. If there is some social contract with the people, is it not about time we revisited the wording; examined whether the state was making good its obligations given the possibilities of today.
When tax was collected in metal and Hansard a work of arcane glyphs the government could be forgiven not consulting every voice, not making plain its business across the whole nation. But today, is publishing Hansard on the internet a sufficient response to the opportunities presented by the digital age. Could we not do more to use these now ubiquitous technologies to reshape government of and for the people.
Just as the Barons of the realm understood the natural belligerence of power hungry and with the Magna Carta forced King John to consult when raising taxes for war, and just as the Americans called no taxation without representation, asking whether they should pay for English sons to drink blood on foreign soil, we are faced again with a Crown that misleads the nation into war and coddles vested interests. We are again forced to question whether the state is abusing it’s tax raising powers. Whether some are whispering seductions in the ears of our leaders and causing them to exploit their subjects.
But thanks to the efforts of our forefathers we are citizens not subjects. And when we as citizens ask these questions and faced with the evidence, look for remedies; we can see decisive new tools unavailable to the Barons of King John. The people of those times understood that the way to rein in a state galloping towards despotism is through control of resources and now in our time we can refashion the bit and bridle not with paper and steel, but with copper, coltan and silicon.
.........
~Illegal wars on fictional pretences require our taxes to wage, the orangeries of moral hazard in which we house finance require that trillions are burnt to maintain their climate. And I ask, would our governments have behaved differently if we had a say in the spending. Would the war in Iraq have been fought if, rather than shifting around pots of cash in the black box of the Treasury, Mr Blair actually had to ask those who pay taxes to fund it? Quite possibly not. This is what the Barons knew when they forced King John to sit at the table with quill and ink and sign the Magna Carta.
Now almost eight hundred years on we need a modern Magna Carta. For wars are fought without the consent of those who pay for them and this is a violation of the most ancient element of British Democracy. A right signed onto paper in 1215. The time has come to free these rights from paper, from their prison in the archives, find them again where they have been mislaid in the corners of our mind. Each of us should call upon this right again, so that we can remake our government. Replace the rusting mechanics of our spluttering steam driven democracy with a more responsive, digitally controlled, budgetary democracy. Make a Magna Carta fit for the digital age, for mass society and economy. That states, just as the original, that if government seeks to wage war it must first have the consent of those who pay.
........
VII.
And all this can be bought about with some simple changes. Just by publishing the government’s budget on the HMRC website and adding an interface with a way to toggle allocations up and down. But while the technical changes are straightforward, the political changes are complex. For those who lust for power are seldom motivated to give away their prize once they have consummated their lust. Rather they would, if left alone seek an ever greater grip on power. And this of course, is why we periodically refresh our leadership before they become absolutely corrupted.
But now we are faced with the task of rebalancing the distribution of power, a task in which we must be successful or our children’s children will walk bent backed under the enduring weight of the greed of the current elite. Thankfully, participatory budgeting is a transparent reform. An obvious measure to anyone who appreciates the possibilities of the web. A change in step with the zeitgeist. But it is likely that those in power will be horrified, see the change as a threat and do their best to remain as blind to the possibilities; talk as turkeys do in November.
But we should shine the spotlight on participatory budgeting. Give it centre stage in the twenty first century enlightenment. Emblazon it’s successes across all areas of public debate. Make obvious its affinity with the ancient principles of our democracy, with the Magna Carta, with universal suffrage and with the efficiency of consumer led resource allocation.
We should demand participatory budgeting as an obvious natural right. We should appeal to the straightforward common sense of every man and woman that they pay tax, so they should have a say in spending. Make the obvious point that consent for taxation has been the cornerstone our democracy since its foundation and that we now have straightforward and inexpensive ways to get this consent directly. We should demand that we are not forced to live with nineteenth century governance in twenty-first century society. Demand the spirit of the Magna Carta is applied and our democratic rights recognized in a modern context. And make good these demands in the reorganisation of our government.
And the prize would be a step change in the deployment of our collective resources comparable to the original restraint of monarchies. The prize would be a government for the people, a government where our leaders must show competence and integrity in their endeavors, and are restrained from showering their courtiers with favours. A government in which all voices are heard and weighed equally. And we have the tools to make such a government at hand, and it is necessary that we use them.
For there is an enormous crisis in the direction of our collective resources, in the imperial agrandisement of foreign powers and the enrichment of the super-rich. And the current means we have of controlling our collective resources have quite clearly been inadequate. There are few alternatives within our democracy, and it is structured in a way that makes our representatives more accessible to lobbyists than the people who vote for them. So while we need to make changes in response to our new economy and society, the changes that are made favour the few, the precious few. And rather than the great majority benefiting from the huge increases in productivity and accessibility brought about by the information revolution, the gains are falling to a global elite that have captured the minds and levers of power.
But we have some ancient principles to guide us forward. We have principles that the state should be beholden unto its citizens and that there should be consent for taxation. We have an understanding of the effect of power upon those who wield it. And we have new means with which to apply these principles and understandings.
We have the means to gather local knowledge, distributed expertise, individual preference and use these in combination to more efficiently direct our collective resources. The means to re-enfranchise all those whose loosing votes are cast away. The means to curtail misrepresentation, Trojan horse policies and use to the state to pay back political donors; to make state spending a better reflection of our individual wills in combination, to make our government more true to its title of Democracy.
This could be done through participatory budgeting, through a recognition of the natural rights of citizens in a modern context. It could be done on the HMRC website, in time for the next general election, in 2015, on the eight-hundredth anniversary of the Magna Carta. Let us make a such a modern Magna Carta, fit for a new millennium, so that our children’s children, rather than cursing our greed, will laud our wisdom, just as we today laud the Barons of King John, the course that their actions set in motion and all that it has done for us. Let us not leave as our legacy the decaying relics of once great nations, buried empires, a derelict democracy, sclerotic and spluttering, fit only for enrichment of private and foreign powers.
Let us instead reawaken the principles led us first to enable the capabilities of all our citizens and seize our taxes from the greed of monarchies and mercantilists. Let us reawaken the genius of western governance that is our inheritance, let us apply this genius afresh with modern tools, with computer, the internet, with video and data-warehousing. Evolve our governance so that it is fit for our times, for the pace of change, for the integrated world.
And I can see no better measure. No change so simple and accessible and yet so profound. Nothing so straightforward that would make the state more efficient and responsive. No measure that reflects the principles of democratic government in a digital age better than a democratisation of taxation, better than online participatory budgeting. And if you agree, then let us take our voices to the halls of power and make them ring with a remade cry, no taxation without allocation, those that pay should have a say, and make a modern Magna Carta fit for our age.
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