Your Freedom, the new website from the Government, was launched today, and it's already come in for stick.

The idea of the site is that British citizens nominate laws they wish to be repealed or altered because they're unnecessary, restrict civil liberties or hinder development of business.

It's an exercise in crowdsourcing that doesn't work. As the blog Qwghlm.co.uk points out, the set-up is 'vague and generalised', allowing anonymous authors (one isn't asked to confirm one's true identity) to make ill-informed, sometimes barely literate, demands for 'the Government to enforce their own petty prejudices'.

There's no requirement to cite existing laws, no screening process and no retrospective moderation.

That's why, for instance, one charmer has been able to insist that illegal immigrants be denied their human rights to ‘make clear the British way of life’. (Elsewhere on the site, some wag wants the law of gravity to be withdrawn.)

At best, Your Freedom is a waste of time and resources; at worst it’s dangerous: what if Cameron and co. take the crackpots seriously under the assumption they represent the majority?

That’s exactly why tax professionals should contribute their informed views. The tax section of the site has some fairly sensible suggestions – make the system simpler, reform gift aid, abolish IR35 – but they’re vague, to say the least.

A slack handful of specifics would greatly improve the debate on UK taxation, arguably the most complex, perplexing and essential areas of national legislation.

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