Blame Democracy

The march towards a lean, mean state with a lean, mean leader goes on. My latest scheme is to get the public to take the blame for my next round of service cuts and tax hikes. My assistants and I have gathered up all the plans along with a couple of plausible red herrings for a “Public Consultation”. We are going to let them think they chose the package by popular demand. Of course, we shall carefully manage what they demand.

There has been one little problem, however. It turns out that some of the public can actually understand economics all by themselves, without any civil servants to explain it to them. Who would have believed it? As a result, I keep getting sensible-sounding suggestions. I suppose I shall have to dilute my plans with a few token examples. That should make the Consultation look more real and even democratic.