Britain needs 'to do an Argentina' and this is why  - The Brazier Angle

Let’s call it - not the Militant Tendency - but the ‘Milei-tant Tendency’, in honour of the man who might just be the most significant right-wing politician in the world today. Javier Milei.

If you search for his name on the GB News website, pretty much the only results feature his views on the Falkland Islands. I’ve been to the Falklands and very much want them to stay British. But a territorial dispute in the South Atlantic shouldn’t overshadow what we can learn from Argentina’s anarcho-capitalist president.

Who is he? He’s been in office for a year, on a promise to restore Argentina’s economic sanity. And, boy, has he delivered. Inflation was running at 20 per cent - A MONTH - when he started. Now it’s 2.7 per cent. For the first time in decades the country is earning more than it’s borrowing. Foreign investment is flowing in.

How did he curb inflation? On the campaign trail he famously - if a little threateningly - wielded a chainsaw in front of the cameras. He said it was a metaphor for his approach to public spending.

And, sure enough, ‘Chainsaw Economics’ is proving as revolutionary as it is effective. HALF of all government departments have been abolished or merged. There are agonies. Poverty levels are rising, even as his approval ratings go sky high. No pain, no gain.

What drives him? Here’s a clue. Every month Milei raffles off his salary. He says he doesn’t want ‘dirty money’. In other words, cash which is extracted on pain of imprisonment (like all taxes) by the government. He speaks like a character from an Ayn Rand novel. Last month, for instance, The Economist published a front cover picturing Milei and a quote: “My contempt for the state is infinite”.

Let that sink in for a minute. Consider the opprobrium heaped on anyone who dares to suggest that, say, the NHS is an example of State over-reach and should be chainsawed. Because the idea of rolling back Big Government in Britain is in the deep freeze. Liz Truss did for that. Much of what she said was sensible. But she wanted to cut taxes before curbing inflation. Milei haș got his sequencing right. He has vanquished inflation. Next year, he says, it’ll be time for big tax cuts.

By many measures he deserves his nickname ‘El Loco’, or the Crazy One. A professor of economics who defies pigeon-holing, with his cloned dogs, mad hair and years spent playing Rolling Stone covers in a rock band.

Ben Shapiro, the American conservative commentator said recently that “I really believe that Milei is leading the world forward in a new golden age of liberty.” And it’s certainly true that the president from South America is taken seriously in North America. Milei, for instance, was the first foreign visitor to meet Donald Trump in person at Mar-a-Lago after last month’s election. Elon Musk cites him as an inspiration for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But in Britain, where the State has never been bigger and the tax burden ne’er so high, Milei’s public recognition is low. So, as a sort of Christmas parlour game, can I invite you to join me in a round of fantasy politics. Let’s try and imagine what a ‘Milei-tant Tendency’ could achieve in the UK.

President Milei haș axed half of Argentina’s federal departments, cutting 20 per cent of jobs on the government payroll, saving his country $20bn a year.

People would howl at the idea of doing the same here. But thinking the unthinkable is easier than you might think. If we cut half of our foreign aid budget, for instance, we could save the taxpayer £6bn a year.

Milei is aggressively going after Argentina’s shale deposits (the second largest in the world). He’s abolished rent controls (resulting in lower rents and more housing supply), while cutting support for useless university degrees. In the UK we are doing the opposite.

We prefer to tax wealth creators with new taxes, give unions more power over workplaces and tolerate a growing number of public servants who want shorter working weeks while working from home (Elon Musk, by comparison has said he’ll fire any federal employee who won’t come into the office).

Britain’s public services increasingly resemble those of the Third World. Our A&E departments are like something from an Hieronymous Bosch painting. Our family businesses face extinction. Too many recent graduates would earn more on the minimum wage and will never own a home or start a family.

By many measures, we are a failing nation, just like the banana republics which Argentina - an economic basket case for decades - exemplified.