Britain | Bagehot

How to change the policy of the British government

First, write a blog post

A blogger writing with a pipe going into Sunaks ear
Illustration: Nate Kitch

To wangle £11bn ($14bn) out of the British government, it helps to write a blog post. “Full expensing”, which allows firms immediately to write off their spending on machinery, plant and computer equipment from their taxable profits, was the costliest part of Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement on November 22nd. A long-standing policy in America, the idea of full expensing first wormed its way into British politics in 2017 via blog posts from Sam Dumitriu and Sam Bowman, both then of the Adam Smith Institute, a small think-tank known for its staunch neoliberalism and deranged internet memes about its Scottish namesake.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The posting-to-policy pipeline”

From the December 2nd 2023 edition

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