No more consensus: this time there is a choice

24 June 2009

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The next election will present voters with two distinct futures, says Irwin Stelzer: Labour’s rising taxes and love of the EU, or the Tories’ spending cuts and plans for the ‘broken society’

They will also have an opportunity to decide just which lot they trust to inflict the least pain while bringing the nation’s finances under control. It is a good bet that Labour will rely more on tax increases, and less on spending cuts, more on reductions in military spending and on prison construction and less on cuts in benefit payments to the mounting number of ‘disabled’, more on borrowing that will drive interest rates up and the pound down than on reducing welfare entitlements.

The Tories are more likely to tip the balance away from the ‘rights’ of criminals and towards the rights of their victims; away from class-warfare and its accompanying counter-productive income and wealth redistribution, and towards a recognition that Britain is in many ways indeed ‘broken’ and in need of fixing; away from the tyranny of tin-pot dictators who run many town councils and towards a more reasonable balance of community needs and individual freedom.

And, Ken Clarke notwithstanding, to arrest the transfer of sovereignty to the EU, a project near and dear to the heart of Peter Mandelson, twice-risen from the political grave. If you believe that Britain is better served by having its own Parliament, rather than eurocrats, determine such matters as how long medical interns are allowed to work and the nature of the much-needed reforms of the financial system, David Cameron & Co. are probably for you.

So the echo-politics of the boom years are no more. Now voters can choose on which of the shores separated by clear water they wish to land.

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john problem

June 25th, 2009 7:48pm Report this comment

Britain does have its own parliament and it doesn't seem to be functioning efficiently, obsessed as it is with its remuneration and fending off public opprobium. Not to mention a complete lack of competence. A very strong case could be made for saying 'No!' to all politicians and calling in the UN - or better yet, the Citizens' Advice Bureau who have the supreme qualification of knowing the public up close. You know, the 'hard-working British family' that our leader rabbits on about, never having met a single one.

Simon Stephenson

June 26th, 2009 11:27am Report this comment

Choice! I don't think you know the meaning of the word.

Who is offering us the opportunity to roll back the state, to re-establish the entitlements and responsibilities of individuals as part of society, to structure our existence around JFK's advice not to ask what their country can do for us, but to ask what we can do for our country?

Answer, no one. Every political party is a signed up member of the big-state society, and every political party is an advocate of the George W Bush method of intellectual debate - if you're not with us you must be a terrorist.

Some of us believe that the modern consensus, which brooks no argument, is to prohibit much of what makes humans wonderfully unique in the animal world. We are allowed no voice. There is no choice.

Ben

June 26th, 2009 2:41pm Report this comment

It is truly shocking that our 'modern' Tory party hasn't got the guts to reform the NHS and instead is simply committed to chucking even more hard-earned money into it. For the NHS today read British Leyland 30 years ago.

Dave, it won't work. Now get a radical skin on your back and start to overhaul our welfare state, root and branch.

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