The public services always in our hands and therefore always under our control are vital for our existence. They should be our concern. It’s because it’s the way we look after ourselves. This is important to our legitimacy as a state.
The argument is never over the word ‘free’, but what we must do for ourselves. This is a question of our fundamental moral values. Otherwise, we’re a state that buys services from others in name only. This must never be the case.
Stephen Harper, a former Prime Minister of Canada, was famed for having things to say about fiscal management. He told reporters in 2005; “Government has money to waste; government has money to steal; government has money to spend on benefits for a few”.
It’s a truthful statement. It bears out in reality that public money goes into lots of different pots, and also ends up in surprising places. It could be an opera house that gets a funding boost, or local sports clubs that get more cash injections than a Russian athlete.
It’s the timing, motivation, and intended effect that has a bearing on the popularity of a budget, for example. The letters, posts, and messages given to MP’s should find their representation in its pages, yet a statement from a Chancellor is usually a defence of it.