How to change the policy of the British government

To wangle £11bn ($14bn) out of the British government, it helps to write a blog post. “Full expensing”, which allows firms immediately to write off their spending on machinery, plant and computer equipment from their taxable profits, was the costliest part of Jeremy Hunt’s on November 22nd. A long-standing policy in America, the idea of full expensing first wormed its way into British politics in 2017 via blog posts from Sam Dumitriu and Sam Bowman, both then of the Adam Smith Institute, a small think-tank known for its staunch neoliberalism and deranged internet memes about its Scottish namesake.A post can easily become policy. In a crisis, wrote Milton Friedman, “the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” Thanks to the tweets and blog posts of a few centre-right types, full expensing was lying around when the government propped up the economy during the pandemic. A souped-up version of full expensing was first introduced on a temporary basis by Rishi Sunak, the then-chancellor; Mr Hunt has made the policy permanent. A few blog posts helped overhaul the tax regime.