Only Nixon can go to China

Nixon to China is not an iron rule it’s just an observation about politics. It’s those who have their rightward flank protected who can make a move towards communists. Equally, it’s only those who have their leftward - or planning - flank protected who can do this:

Rachel Reeves has raised the prospect of scrapping some of Britain’s regulatory bodies as the Labour government prioritises its mission to grow the economy.

The chancellor said that the UK’s regulators impose “overlapping burdens” on business, leaving the system too focused on managing risk and not focused enough on promoting growth.

Now, of course, we would argue in favour of scrapping all the regulators. We’d most certainly start with the presumption that all should go and allow ourselves, very reluctantly, to be persuaded that perhaps one or two might be allowed to persist.

But the Nixon to China idea does have weight to it. No one at all - absolutely no one - believes that the current Labour Party is against detailed regulation of everything. Therefore it is possible for them to muse over whether this specific set of regulation is worthwhile or not. In a way that those generally known to be against that detailed regulation would have political problems with.

Around here we support - propose, oppose - specific policies, not any particular group of people. So, kill a few regulators today. Yep, sounds good to us. Of course we’d prefer the radical option of all - leaving none remaining - but fewer is still better.

Tim Worstall