#deanehistory 66.
Today’s instalment is a reflection on a trio of temporary measures.

Value Added Tax, which was introduced in 1973 when we joined the EEC, was the direct replacement of the Purchase Tax, brought to us during the Second World War to reduce the wastage of materials during those challenging days.

Brought to us in 1940 as a temporary measure, it’s still adding 20% to the price of goods you buy in 2021 and is government’s third largest source of revenue today.

Income Tax has a yet more venerable temporary status. Pitt the Younger introduced it in 1799 to pay for arms in the French Revolutionary War. To me it doesn’t feel like we’re funding French hostilities when it comes out of one’s pay today. And yet, here it still is.

UK pub licensing hours were restricted during the First World War to ensure that fighting men & factory workers weren’t too belted to defend the realm. Only slightly liberalised after the war, they pretty much remained with us until the Licensing Act 2003 came into force in 2005.

Two lessons, both better put by others than by me.

First, Milton Friedman: nothing is so permanent as a temporary government programme.

Second, Benjamin Franklin: those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

(He might have added: "and will soon lose both.")