Beating the budget blues
23 March 2010
This week’s budget will kick-off the election campaign proper in the UK. Will it benefit the electronics industry?
Of course it won’t. The Chancellor will stand up and try to persuade everyone that he is being responsible with the nation’s delicate finances, without being so responsible that people feel worse off and so not want to vote for his party. The opposition ‘chancellors in waiting’, will then stand up, ignore what has been said in the budget speech, and follow their own scripts with their accusations of both irresponsible election give-aways and cruelty to already hard-pressed tax payers. All concerned combatants in this charade will, however, be playing on the emotions of the individual taxpayer. The heady cocktail of election time and economic recession results in people looking even more than ever at their own circumstances. It is these circumstances that are more likely to sway voters' intentions than more general concerns about the state of the nation.
This is a pity because I strongly believe that the way to address this country’s economic woes in the future is to redress the trade deficit by making more of the things we need on our own doorsteps. Maybe my logic is too simplistic – invest in manufacturing and technology, more people are employed, less is paid for the welfare state, more money is generated, more spent etc. It is an upward spiral. The investment in the banks so that they could allow access to credit for all and so stimulate the economy that way, obviously failed when they just kept the money for themselves to compensate for their own dismal performance. If this money was invested in the manufacturing sector and particularly in high technology sectors with massive growth potential, then the government could effectively ‘earn money’ to pay back our debts. The current mentality is of course that we have to take the negative route and cut costs (and investment), like a shopkeeper trying to survive by continuously reducing stock, then realising there is nothing left to sell...
But such idealism will be ignored by this week’s budget. Instead it is electioneering all the way for another six weeks as politicians try and convince us that they are worth voting for. Sadly last years revelations of greed, the emerging ones this week about potentially corrupt lobbying practices, and the general self-absorbed incompetence of virtually every incumbent MP gives the public a real problem. If we want to complain about our politicians then we only have the right to if we play a part in the democratic process – but now there seems to be nobody worth voting for and I would be surprised if the turnout for this election was anything other than historically low.
Maybe there are steps that could be made to avoid this. Certainly an overhaul of the voting system (obviously too late for this year) would make a difference. If every vote had some significance under some sort of proportional representation system then many of us disillusioned voters might ensure that we made the effort. The other thing to do is to make voting much less effort. This is where the electronics industry comes in; surely we have the technology? If we can take part in game shows by pressing the red button, choose Britain’s most talented karaoke singer by sending a text, or perhaps most relevantly, do home banking with our own card reader, then surely we can find a secure way of voting. Equally, if we can find out who is the UK’s best celebrity skater within seconds of the phone lines closing, then it follows that our new electronic voting methodology could easily be used for doing cheap and instant referenda on the big issues.
If every household was to have such an electronic voting device that was designed and made in the UK, then it could even provide a boost to the electronics industry in this country. At last the politicians would be doing something positive for British industry!
Contact Details and Archive...
Most Viewed Articles...