The age of the outsider | thearticle

Each month about 5,000 people in the UK are interviewed for the Labour  Force Survey.  The Office for National Statistics adds this to the  preceding couple of months to obtain a “rolling”

sample of 15,000,  which it then extrapolates to the country as whole to estimate, with a  reasonably high level of accuracy, the changing employment patterns in  the whole country. This

month, for the first time, it estimated that  over five million of us are self-employed. That is up from four  million a decade ago. That is a significant trend — and a welcome one. Those

who opt for self-employment tend to be those temperamentally suited to enterprise,  independence and risk-taking. They don’t want to turn up in an office  when there might be nothing to do,

or where there was something to do  but it might be futile. As a result , we have the swelling ranks of those who are making their  own way. Thus we have ever more consultants sitting in

cafés with their  laptops pitching their ideas. But not just them: the self-employed  come in all shapes and sizes — young and old, rich and poor, men and  women. From tutors to taxi

drivers, mechanics to magicians, interior  decorators to IT specialists… to an array of other occupations so  obscure that we didn’t know they existed. Often they are creative  types who

work in the media. Perhaps they might be science nerds. Or the  sort of people Dominic Cummings described as “weirdos and misfits”. (About 35,000 of them apparently asked to be considered to

work in Downing Street.  They don’t want the regimentation of being told how to do their work. These are people who work hard, but also have the flexibility to go to  the school sports day.

Often they would be out and about quite a lot,  but not have the drudgery and expense of the daily commute. It doesn’t suit all of us, of course. Some enjoy the camaraderie of  working in a

team and the security of a regular income and paid holidays. The self-employed forgo all that and much more besides. The division is not always straightforward. Some employees work from 

home and set their own schedule. Some who are self-employed might have  only one client. But, if anything, that complexity confirms how much the old job-for-life, Monday to Friday, nine to

five routine has changed. Such a change has political implications. How are the self-employed  supposed to fit in to the class war? The “them and us” rhetoric of  bosses versus workers loses

all relevance. In the 1970s trade union  membership reached 13 million. It is now down to 6.3 million. How  much longer before trade unionists are outnumbered by the self-employed? It

follows that this trend is problematic for the Labour Party — and  thus should be encouraged by the Conservatives. Yet instead, the  burdens have been growing. The IR35 tax rules are being

tightened.  This is to crack down on those self-employed who are deemed “really  employees” but wish to forgo all the advantages of that status in order  to make lower National Insurance

payments. As the tax authorities wish to bring in as much revenue as possible,  all sorts of checks are then made. But rather than demand that people  prove that they fulfil some arbitrary

criteria, the labour market should be  made more open  and flexible. All those contractors and freelancers should be able to get on with their work without being treated like criminals.

There should be a basic right to be self-employed. Anyone should be able to  agree with his or her employer that he or she is henceforth to be  treated as self-employed. HM Revenue and

Customs would cease to have  the power to disrupt such arrangements. It is understandable that the  taxman likes the PAYE system: under it, employers become unpaid tax  collectors. But the

messy arrangements which cause the self-employed to be  challenged about their status are also an administrative burden to the  tax authorities. All the reclassifications and special

exemptions are  a dreary waste of everyone’s time. Also, if the self-employed are able  to get on with earning money, they will end up paying more tax to HMRC. It is not just the tax rules

that discriminate against the self-employed. Big firms can cope with bureaucracy much more easily: they have compliance officers, accounts departments, in-house lawyers, an HR Department.

All the red tape even has advantages for them, as it strangles their smaller competitors. IPSE, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed,  laments: “While large

multinationals can bid for restrictive g overnment procurement contracts with ease, self-employed contractors  often struggle to jump through the hoops. Across all areas of  regulation,

there must be a level playing field to allow the  self-employed to compete.” Brexit will remove the excuse that some of these rules are required by  the EU. The growth in self-employment is

something a Conservative g overnment should be welcoming. That means getting out of the way.