Today a musing at length that goes into some of my current focus on potential transformative ideas for national governments, and today looking at the UK.
“The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next elections, while the statesman thinks about the next generation.” ~ Winston Churchill
It feels to me that, as information has become almost instantly available to anyone around the globe, we, whether in business or politics, have practically lost the ability to have the big and truly transformative ideas that we need now and for the future. Instead, we are constantly responding to the 24-hour news cycle, or, in business, the latest event or moment (and are, in that space of business, trapped by the need for quarterly results rather than truly strategic visions that we then deliver upon).
I choose to only work with leaders who are focussed on transformative change. As it notes on my home page:
Massive Impact
You are already a visionary, successful and making a difference, yet you remain hungry to make an even bigger “dent in the universe” for yourself and your organisation.
I am fortunate enough to attract a number of such leaders from different fields and to be asked to support them with what it takes to go from idea to Vision, and then create a Strategy that they can then Execute.
Over the years, again and again I have found that companies and organisations that are brave enough to focus upon the bid ideas that can lead them to a transformative vision, those are the people who thrive over time.
Anyway, my mind is on some potential big ideas for the UK (and these could apply to other companies), so let me now dive into sharing some of these. I note, for business leaders, that you can take this as a contextual framework to consider your own transformative vision. Look to no more than three or four core themes that drive your business now and for the future, then look to history to what has worked for your company and others, then look at what it will take for you to truly thrive into the future.
So, to national politics and policies, I begin by giving four areas where governments must always focus in order to play their part in supporting society:
- Education
- Housing
- Healthcare
- Energy
Using the UK as an example, after Churchill led through WWII, he was a wartime leader who was then replaced by a government that did indeed focus on these issues.
From this, the jewel in the crown to this day is the NHS (National Health Service), a universal health care system that I personally have massively benefitted from in recent months (for cancer detection, surgery and treatment) and that is free at the point of service to all, funded through taxation (called National Insurance).
In addition, UK politicians after WWII recognised a massive need for housing, embarking on a massive housebuilding programme of state-owned housing that made a huge difference to millions. I note that by around 1980, a political shift led to a different leader with transformative ideas, Margaret Thatcher, who enacted various major policy shifts that are felt to this day (and yes, not always positive). One of those was to sell off much of the housing built post-war, to the point that now the UK has a massive housing crisis, including a huge shortfall in affordable and social housing.
Of late I’ve been musing on what transformative policies I might look to if I were in a position to do so, and look back to Keynesian-style societal investment such as FDR’s new deal and the UK post-war. A few musings for now specifically for the UK:
- Education.
- Abolish student fees and write off all student loans.
- Yes, this would involve a massive investment, but an investment in our young people that would remove a financial millstone around their necks for the rest of their lives.
- Historically, university students in the UK paid no academic fees and also received a grant to cover housing and living expenses. Effectively university education was free, so inclusive to all financially. This began to change with some fees charged from 1998, but from 2010 onwards students in England and Wales are charged high fees, now capped at £9,250 per year. They do not pay upfront, instead facing student loans (at high interest rates) that they have to pay back for many years afterwards.
- Removing this will both create a massively increased level of inclusion in society as well as financially and psychologically free up millions of people in their 20s and 30s to focus on their careers, futures and so contribute more to society
- Housing
- a) Embark on a massive programme of government-owned affordable and social housing.
- b) Create government guarantees for mortgages for younger people who cannot meet the “income multiple”.
- In the UK, culturally and financially a huge focus has always been given to “getting on the property ladder”. I was able to do so at age 22 in 1988 by buying a property at only 2.5x my salary and with a 100% mortgage. That same exact property would now cost over 9x salary to someone doing the exact same job at the same firm as I was doing in 1988.
- Ownership of property is no longer feasible for millions, even though it was easy for their parents. Aside from the challenge of raising a 5-10% deposit on property valued far higher than it was for their parents, they cannot come close to meeting the income multiple requirement of c4x earnings.
- Ever since Margaret Thatcher privatised public housing starting around 1980, the building of social and affordable housing has almost frozen in England, leading to a massive housing crunch for those who cannot afford to buy, and therefore driving up rents.
- We now see millions paying rent at levels far lower than they would pay in mortgages, with those people being told that they cannot afford a mortgage, even though they already pay more in rent.
- This can be addressed by building literally millions of new homes, as well as designing a government guarantee structure that allows people already renting to get on the property ownership ladder
- Healthcare
- a) Cease privatisation of core services
- b) Educate the public on the cost and value of the NHS
- The NHS has seen funding cut further and further over more than a decade, whilst at the same time being increasing privatised by stealth, allowing more and more profits to be taken from core operations (such as Private Equity houses buying GP practices across England).
- At the same time, people in the UK never received a bill for services, as everything is free at the point of service.
- One reason given for privatisation is that the private sector is more efficient, but at the same time, they also require a profit for shareholders. I feel that core services should be run without profit to outside shareholders but run for the people by the government. A good parallel is mandatory private sector run pension plans in Cayman. Their cost of administration is far less than non-mandated schemes as they do not have to market much to their clients, so simply focus on the cost of administration and investment, and also are required to report these openly and transparently to pension holders.
- Now. it is true that in many ways the NHS has not been efficient, but perhaps this can be addressed by well thought out education as well as public transparency. One simple idea that my friend Peter Lederer thought of and shared with me was the idea of giving people a bill anytime they receive service from the NHS. That bill would then be balanced to zero at the bottom of the page as indeed it is paid for from taxpayer contributions. Using myself as an example, in recent months I have had multiple CT scans, colonoscopies, ECGs, blood tests etc to detect colon cancer. I then had surgery followed by eight days in the hospital. I then was assessed for chemotherapy and begin that next week. I would imagine (and yes, I’m a qualified accountant who has experience of “absorption costing”) that a fully costed bill for all of that would be well in excess of £50,000 when all is said and done.
- Extending that, beyond the point of service, imagine if every NHS patient received an annual report from their GP practice, as well as their local NHS trust, as well as the NHS nationally, with charts showing the cost of delivery of all core services areas. I sense that type of transparency would also help drive behaviour to keep costs down at all levels of delivery.
- Energy
- Commit to a radical energy transition then commit massive government funding to encourage this
- We all know we are in a climate crisis, yet almost every developed world country is dragging their heels to act on moving more radically to an energy transition.
- Two examples of this.
- First, as a Caymanian, I am truly excited that the Cayman government very recently announced a major policy shift. Henceforth this bastion of free markets and libertarian policies will shift to all renewable energy production being majority-owned by the Cayman Islands Government. Cayman has a very strong national Balance Sheet and so can raise finance and provide investment that will create benefits in multiple ways. First, it will accelerate the move to renewables through that investment finance. Second, that investment will be in long term assets effectively owned by the people of Cayman, so helping secure the future of the economy for the people, by the people. Third, a strong level of local ownership will support a focus on National Resilience (eg in the event of damage to energy infrastructure from a Hurricane).
- Second, and my other nationality is a Scot, quite a number of years ago the Scottish government moved far more radically than the central UK government on energy transition. Scotland now has a far, far higher adoption of renewables. Largely wind turbines, this is literally visible as you cross the border from England, where many well-established wind turbines are now in place