If we could suggest an alternative to this Mazzonomics idea?

This thought that we should endow governance with the powers to do really useful cross-cutting strategic planning with strict conditionality. Well, OK, perhaps we should. But before we do so maybe we might just run a little test of the system’s competence to do just that:

Supermarkets are facing a shortage of British chicken after farming bosses said planning red tape was curtailing their ability to rear more birds.

A chicken in every pot is not one of those strategic goals limited to Southern populists so yes, this is bad thing. What is the cause of this bad thing?

The current UK shortages are understood to have followed a change across major supermarkets to adopt higher welfare standards.

Over the past 18 months, supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons have lowered their bird stocking densities so that chickens are given more space in sheds.

OK.

Poultry producers are demanding the Government speed up a planning overhaul to allow farmers to build bigger poultry sheds and produce more chickens to stave off a supply crisis.

Yes, this seems obvious enough to us. If each chicken is to have more space then more space will be required for chickens in order to maintain that chickenness in every pot.

This is also not a sudden surprise, it’s something that’s been happening by degree over some time. The government response is:

A government spokesman said: “Food security is national security, and for too long existing planning rules have got in the way of increasing food production.

“That’s why we will consult on national planning reforms to make it quicker for farmers to build infrastructure they need to boost their food production.”

Now that a newspaper is asking us about this we’ll think about maybe doing something. Start thinking about having a plan to have a plan, that sort of thing.

A wholesale inability to even recognise, let alone think through, second order effects is not a good introduction to the idea of really useful cross-cutting strategic planning with strict conditionality. Nor is taking 18 months to note them and then however long again to do something.

So, a little suggestion here. Nothing too radical. Governance gains more power over us when they’ve demonstrated competence at their current level of power. You know, like kids going through Key Stage this and that before being allowed to tackle the intellectual mountains of GCSEs. Those who would rule us only gain access to those expanded superpowers once they’ve shown they can handle the basics.

So, one simple and basic task needs to be set then when competence at that is shown then they can graduate to the next level. Seem fair? Once they’re drawing with the crayons not eating them then they gain access to a pencil? So, that simple task. Something that governments have been doing for thousands of years maybe, something that some places and times have been able to show competence at, others not.

Making sure the bins are emptied?

Ah, so that chat around the tables of governance is over whether green tastes better than rose then. These are the people to plan more of our lives?

Tim Worstall