How to transform the Islandinto a ‘Default Yes’ economy - Jersey Evening Post
by Voices · Jersey Evening PostPosted inVoices
How to transform the Islandinto a ‘Default Yes’ economy
by Voices 22 May 202622 May 2026
Share this:
By Douglas Kruger
GOVERNMENT permissions are a Bolshevik nonsense. They have no place in a free society.They make everything slower, stupider, more expensive. We have an opportunity now to do away with them. Let’s discuss how.
Two weeks ago, Kemi Badenoch excoriated a beleaguered UK government for its role in destroying British prosperity. The gist of it: “Stop crushing them with thousands of pages of laws.”
Nobody wants an entirely lawless society. But “permissions” are a different creature. They are intrusive erosions of freedom, state power over liberty, posing as public welfare.
We see it here too.
At the busiest time of the year over Liberation Day, the Central Market was closed, as were most of the service businesses.
I was stunned by this silly forfeit of profit, as well as how it made central St Helier look dead and bereft on such an important day, but a local hairdresser told me what happens should any business attempt to operate on a public holiday, despite it being potentially their most prosperous calendar date.
“First, my neighbours will snitch on me to someone in the government. Then, someone in government will call the police. Then, the police will knock on my door and ask what I’m doing and whether I’m making a profit on a public holiday. After that, I’ll be in all sorts of trouble. Fines, maybe even get closed down.”
Not only is this staggeringly old-fashioned. But does anyone see the irony? “We are celebrating our liberation from tyranny and if you don’t comply, your neighbours will rat on you and the government will send the police to shut you down.”
It’s shameful. Tin-pot-dictator stuff. It must end.
Now let’s imagine what would happen if that business stayed open. Are you ready for this?
People could get haircuts. Markets could sell fruit. The horror!
A recent Bailiwick Express headline said, “Gym seeks permission for extended opening hours…”
Why do they need permission? That’s a commercial decision. If you want to stay open, hire people and do it. What does it have to do with government, other than that it will generate more revenue for them? “Permission?” How primitive.
As Jersey elects new leadership, our goal should be “new life”, spurred by a free society in which agility, innovation, creativity and growth are the norm, not the enemy.
Indeed, the dynamic must be reversed. If anyone should be vilified, let it be those who impede honest work and restrict people’s freedom to earn. Shame on them. And here’s how you do it.
Implement a policy called: “Default Yes”.
Default Yes is often used by businesses eager to shed deadwood and shake up an uncompetitive culture. It’s one of several innovation principles that I speak about at leadership retreats.
The next Chief Minister and Minister for Economic Development could get the ball rolling by jointly announcing that permission to act, so long as no crime is entailed, is now automatically granted. The default setting is “yes”. Permissions can only be revoked by special application.
In other words: Assume that you may, because you are free. So long as you don’t break a law (like stealing or murdering), you have permission because this is a free society. And also because our police have better things to do than harass people for productivity.
Your initiative may thus proceed unhindered, unless permission is actively revoked.
In this manner, the entire orientation of the system is reversed. To revoke a permission, the hideous little bureaucrat who previously had all the power must now make a specific application to impede upon your life. And he must then explain his case, justifying his intrusion into your life and liberty – not the other way around.
This entails a switch from a narrative of “the lowly individual who begs the system for permission”, to “the silly bureaucrat who must out himself as an apocalyptic dingleberry by publicly stating his desire to halt an activity and then explain his reasoning to the Island”.
That’s real power to the people.
But wouldn’t that be anarchy, you ask?
To anyone who has long lived under a lulling, dulling bureaucracy, yes, it will probably feel very much that way. Suddenly, many new things will happen, in a great surge of energy, budding businesses, novel new developments.
But here’s the safety net. Nothing illegal is permitted. It never was, it never will be. So, you’re safe. You continue to live in a nation premised on rule of law. Just a free one.
But as for entrepreneurs who dream of trying out wonderful and creative new things? Well, prepare for an explosion. And if other people hate it? Simple. Free market dynamics determine that such offerings won’t prosper.
The mechanism for shutting down the undesirable is the natural attrition of commercial failure. That’s how it works in successful economies like the US. It’s how it should work here.
But what about protecting our heritage, you ask?
That’s a good goal, and I strongly endorse it.
Firstly, this proposal is actually a return to the most traditional of British values, by which all acts should be deemed free, unless expressly forbidden, rather than forbidden, except with special permission. That conceptualisation is precisely why Brits have long regarded themselves as free people, in contrast to Europe. It is an ancient idea, not something new and radical. It’s the encroachment of bureaucrats that is new, and unwelcome.
And pragmatically, we return to the simple truth that no one is permitted to break the law.
You can’t steal.
You can’t break anything.
You can’t destroy.
That’s illegal and the law remains unchanged.
But you absolutely can set up a hotdog stand and that’s OK. That is not a shocking or revolutionary idea, and nothing gets broken that way.
Allow it. Allow it by default.
While we’re at it, let’s explode another sacred cow. There is a strong assumption that Jersey will be uglified if strong institutions don’t put a stop to the whims of people.
I propose that the opposite is true.
All that is breathtakingly beautiful about Jersey was built by free Jersey residents long before there were ever such things as planning permission.
Indeed, I think the ugliest buildings in Jersey today are the Soviet-style ones permitted by such oversight. Witness our public bathrooms. Is beauty the solve preserve of a government? Of a committee? Of bureaucrats? Or has that never been the case?
With increased freedom, I believe you will have a more beautiful Jersey, not an uglier one. Certainly, you’ll have a more prosperous one.
Of most importance, it will finally be free. Truly free. Wasn’t that the point of liberation?
Douglas Kruger is a bestselling business author and speaker living in St Helier. Meet him at douglaskruger.com. His books are all available via Amazon and Audible.
Related
Read the latest free supplements
Read the Homelife, Connect and a whole host of other subjects like ranging from cycling to travel.
View all our latest supplements now >