Podcast Summary: The Peter McCormack Show #076

"Freddie New – From Caesar to Starmer: The Death of a Nation"

Date: May 21, 2025
Host: Peter McCormack
Guest: Freddie New

Episode Overview

This episode dives deeply into the systemic challenges currently facing the UK—spanning government inefficiency, public sector bloat, economic decline, and the parallels between the fall of the Roman Empire and the state of modern Britain. Host Peter McCormack and guest Freddie New (lawyer, fintech/bitcoin advocate, classics scholar) weave together contemporary economic woes, the problems of unaccountable government and civil service, the risks/opportunities of Bitcoin, and historical analogies drawn from ancient Rome. The discussion oscillates between critique, dark humour, philosophical reflection, and the exploration of solutions—most notably the hope found in localism over national reform.

Main Themes & Key Discussion Points

1. Government Inefficiency & Public Sector Bloat

• Guardian Article Breakdown ([01:16]–[07:50])

  • Peter introduces a Guardian article stating the UK may need 92,000 more public sector workers due to falling productivity.
    • Peter: “Because people are so shit at their jobs in government, they need more shit people to deliver their services. Is that a fair summary?” ([01:55])
  • Freddie agrees but unpacks the loaded assumptions; such an increase is driven by low productivity, leading to more hiring instead of fixing efficiency.
  • Osborne's austerity led to a million fewer public sector jobs between 2010–2015; COVID reversed this trend ([03:47]).
  • Peter: “If your team isn’t productive enough, you don’t get more people in to fill the gap... It’s a startling and obvious point.” ([04:52])

• Incentive Problems in Government vs. Business ([05:12]–[07:50])

  • Freddie argues government has no market discipline—if funds aren’t sufficient, it debases money; businesses can’t do this ([05:21]).
  • Peter outlines how government red tape and mandated costs (minimum wage, pensions, insurance) create market distortions and make business harder ([06:27]).
  • National Insurance discussed as a misunderstood tax, not a personal savings pot ([09:41]).

2. The Tax Burden & Regulatory Overreach

• Complexity and Hidden Costs

  • Freddie highlights the spiraling accountancy costs caused by government complexity. He refers to “lubrication industries” (accountants, compliance officers) emerging just to navigate red tape ([12:43]).
    • Freddie: “Knut calls these lubrication industries... to ensure that the government dildo is sufficiently lubricated for when it goes in.” ([13:20])
  • Regulatory burden in financial/bitcoin sectors is causing companies to avoid the UK altogether ([15:18]).
    • Freddie: “The UK market is no longer big enough for it to be worth the cost of entering the market.” ([15:30])

• New Crypto Regulatory Regimes

  • Discussion of CAF (Crypto Asset Reporting Framework) and the Travel Rule, which require detailed records and extensive data-sharing for all crypto transactions. Danger cited: this forms a massive honeypot of personal data vulnerable to hacks ([16:18]–[19:37]).
  • Freddie: “If we can’t rely on...the UK Ministry of Defence...to keep our data safe, it’s a fair assumption that all these exchanges will be honeypots of data.” ([18:14])
  • Real-world consequences: personal danger for asset-holders, referencing kidnappings and violence in France ([19:00]).

3. Systemic Rot: Bureaucracy, Civil Service, and Political Parties

• Civil Service as Deep State ([27:31]–[30:22])

  • Freddie: The more insidious issue is not elected government but civil service bureaucracy—“the unelected, behind-the-scenes decision-makers who formulate a lot of the policies the government are the front people for.” ([27:31])
  • Both discuss the persistence of the ‘Byzantine’ bureaucracy, referencing the Byzantine Empire as a metaphor for complex, unaccountable systems.
  • Peter: “Government isn’t just failing at a macro level, it’s failing at a micro level.” ([31:22]) Local councils constrained by central government mandates.

• Democracy, Representation, and the Party Whip ([21:00]–[26:00])

  • Peter compares modern British civic frustrations to those of American colonies under King George (“taxation without representation”).
  • The existence of the party whip makes true representation impossible.
    • Peter: “If you have the whip, where’s the representation?” ([23:01])
    • Freddie: “MPs are not representing the views of their constituents if they’re being told to vote a particular way by their party leader.” ([23:33])

• Parliament vs. Business Experience

  • Critique that too many politicians lack real-world experience, having followed a career path from elite university straight into politics ([46:45]).
    • Freddie: “We’ve got children in charge of the country, inexperienced idiots... very, very intelligent, but in the way that you’re good at passing exams.” ([48:50], [48:57])

4. Demographics and Economic Decline

• Welfare Dependency and Birth Rates ([38:05]–[45:41])

  • Freddie provides numbers: 500k civil servants, 6m public sector workers, and 20m on welfare/benefits ([38:05]).
  • Only 17 million pay more in tax than they take out—a shrinking base supports an aging, growing dependent cohort ([39:39]).
    • Peter: “If you are someone who holds bitcoin, actually some of this is great for you... But for the country, it’s a disaster.” ([44:47])
  • Comparison to Japan’s demographic collapse and the UK’s low fertility rate ([41:16]–[43:38]).

• Failure to Diagnose and Act

  • Peter bemoans the lack of clear, honest government communication and planning.
    • Peter: “If they know it and they don’t make a change, they’re evil. And if they don’t know it, they’re stupid.” ([45:41])

5. Historical Analogies: Rome and Revolution

• Parallels to the Fall of Rome ([51:36]–[62:33])
  • Entertaining but substantive discussion about the expansion/decline of Rome, coin debasement, and how empires rot from within.
  • Freddie: “Certain elements of the way that humans behave haven’t changed that much... People always tend to act in their own self-interest, above the interests of others.” ([61:23])
  • Using Classics background, Freddie explains coinage, governance and the slow degradation of stable systems ([59:18], [59:36]).

6. Reforms, Bitcoin, and Localism as Solutions

• Bitcoin as Treasury Solution

  • Discussion about British government’s bitcoin holdings, and their ignorance of its value ([78:41]).
    • Freddie: “They own enough bitcoin to pay the winter fuel allowance for two and a half years...” ([78:22])
    • UK is third-biggest national bitcoin holder; yet, there’s no strategy, even as government faces a budget crisis ([80:21]).
  • Hopes and risks around strategic bitcoin purchasing or mining as potential national economic strategy ([80:55]).

• Localism

  • Endorsing the idea of localism—change initiated at the community level rather than waiting for top-down reform ([72:42]–[84:41]).
    • Freddie: “Focusing on localism and what you can do in your town, in your local community, is a good place to start. And it may take 30 or 40 years, but everything has to start somewhere.” ([84:16], [84:41])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On public sector bloat

  • Peter: “Because people are so shit at their jobs in government, they need more shit people to deliver their services. Is that a fair summary?” ([01:55])

• On red tape and business burden

  • Freddie: “Knut calls these lubrication industries... or to ensure that the government dildo is sufficiently lubricated for when it goes in.” ([13:20])

• On civil service

  • Freddie: “An unbelievably complex and difficult to unseat bureaucracy of different officials... impossible to get rid of because they were unelected. I think that’s actually more problematic than the government.” ([28:45])

• On MPs’ experience

  • Freddie: “We’ve got children in charge of the country, inexperienced idiots... very, very intelligent, but in the way that you’re good at passing exams.” ([48:50], [48:57])

• On the ‘deep state’

  • Peter: “Government isn’t just failing at a macro level, it’s failing at a micro level. The whole thing’s ready.” ([31:22])

• On historical failure

  • Peter: “We’re essentially experiencing what they [America’s Founders] feared. We’re living through what they feared.” ([68:37])

• On seeking solutions

  • Freddie: “Focusing on localism and what you can do in your town... That’s probably the positive outcome... you can make a difference in your town, in your county, and then once enough differences have been made at that level, then that trickles upwards.” ([74:49]–[75:18])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:16] – Guardian article and public sector jobs debate.
• [04:00] – Austerity, public sector employment, COVID impact.
• [06:27] – Business burden from regulatory and payroll pressures.
• [12:43] – Accountancy costs, “lubrication industries” analogy.
• [16:18] – Crypto regulation, CAF, data privacy concerns.
• [21:00] – Party whip, representation, “taxation without representation” parallel.
• [27:31] – Civil service, deep state, and bureaucratic rot.
• [31:22] – Failures at local government level.
• [38:05] – Demographics: welfare, civil service, dependency ratios.
• [41:16] – Japan as cautionary tale; UK’s aging demographics.
• [46:45] – Politicians’ lack of real-world/business experience.
• [51:36] – Rome, coin clipping, analogies to UK decline.
• [78:22] – Government bitcoin holdings and strategic potential.
• [74:49], [84:16] – Localism as hope for bottom-up change.

Tone and Language

• Blunt, irreverent, and at times darkly humorous.
• Candid, with frequent self-deprecating asides and mutual teasing.
• Deeply critical of government, bureaucracy, and the status quo—but not nihilistic; focus turns to pragmatic, local action.
• Historical analogies and philosophical references provide depth (Classics, American Founders, Hayek, Friedman).

Final Thoughts

The episode paints a bleak picture of the UK’s national trajectory—mired by government ineptitude, demographic decline, and systemic rot. Yet, it holds out localism and community-driven reform as a possible route to renewal, echoing ancient lessons about the dangers of unchecked bureaucracy and debased currency. The ultimate call is for realism, honesty, and action—preferably bottom-up—rather than naive faith in centralized salvation.

“I don’t fully know what the answer is, but I’m hoping that we will steer clear from the unpleasant kinetic and violent collapse. I think focusing on localism and what you can do in your town, in your local community, that’s a good place to start. And it may take 30 or 40 years, but everything has to start somewhere.”
—Freddie New ([84:16])