Lefties have got away with feeling superior for too long — let the fightback begin

10 July 2010

James Delingpole says You Know It Makes Sense

Am I being unduly hard on White? Well, I’ll concede it was pretty brave of him to take part in a debate where he must have known his side had no arguments in its favour whatsoever. And he dealt with this handicap very professionally by indulging in lots of what actors call ‘business’ — making exaggerated play of his advanced years and supposed decrepitude, milking whatever laughs he could muster, jabbing here and there with his sneaky ad homs, not actually saying anything of import but doing so with a great deal of authority. I wonder if he has had thespian training? In another life I could see he would have made a plausible Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

But I do think it’s about time lefties like White realised that they no longer have a free pass to sneer at those of us on the right just because we’re on the right. They have been getting away with it for years, acting as though their moral position is so superior there’s really no need for them to engage in anything so sordid as a debate where they have to advance their argument using ideas and facts. But after 12 years of the New Labour disaster, it just won’t wash.

Liberal-lefties like White need to explain to us what’s good about a philosophy which favours bureaucrats and rent-seekers over strivers and risk-takers; which steals people’s hard-earned money and squanders it on ‘social justice’ projects; which despises human nature and seeks to remould it and force it to act against its own interests through social engineering; which stifles ambition, creativity, invention; which is the enemy of freedom and therefore the enemy of life. So far, they’re not doing a very convincing job.

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Paul T Horgan

July 9th, 2010 9:19pm Report this comment

James Delingpole should take a look at the New Statesman some time. There is an assumed air of moral superiority that is the subtext of everything written there. The people there also believe that they are undertaking a holy mission, leading the people to the broad sunlit uplands of pure egalitarianism. They do not view the past 13 years of Labour misrule as a catastrophic mistake.

This then is the challenge. No truly sane Labour supporter could possibly defend the party's record in government in 1974-1979, where they handed over the country to the Unions. They would be hard put to defend the party's performance in opposition up to 1983. They cannot defend the weakness of the party's structure that allowed it to be infested by Trotskyites. It was all these that contributed to the defeat in 1992 as the collective fear of Labour in key constituencies trumped the (misplaced) low regard for Major's premiership.

The Tories need to get the record straight about the last Labour government otherwise it will only be seen to have been laid low by adverse global economics. The facts are more sinister. Labour debased most of the important national institutions through wilful abuse, neglect or by placing their fellow travellers in unwarranted positions of superiority. When did a Tory last lead the (now amalgamated ) Commission for Racial Equality? When Harriet Harman ran the (now renamed) National Council for Civil Liberties was it truly impartial?

Labour's mismanagement of the economy to create a permanent voter client base has resulted in Britain having the worst prospects of the leading global economies.

But then the Tories are very bad at history as they have surrendered the popular perception of the miners' strike of 1984-5 to the left through such unchallenged efforts as Billy Elliot, Our friends in the North and the Hovis advert.

It is difficult to determine the foundations of this acquired moral superiority on the part of the Left, except that it is shared with people who regard themselves as politically correct. It is not grounded in hard reality. rather it is based on a kind of religious zeal that the ends justifies the means.

But that is also the rationality of the Gulag.

David Atherton

July 13th, 2010 9:49am Report this comment

James, I hope you are well. While on the one hand Michael White was quite brave to turn up when he does not have a case and the room full of salivating free market capitalists. I did think his content was thin.

I was staggered to find myself agreeing with Marxist libertarian Brendan O'Neill who made an excellent case that libertarianism is not an a la carte menu which one can pick and choose which liberties to allow, but a smorgasbord which should be entirely inclusive. One conversation I often have is what is your exception to libertarianism?

After my contribution from the floor, Chairman of the debate Mark Littlewood asked me who I disagreed most with and of course it was Michael White, if asked who I most agreed with I would of been hard pressed to choose you or Brendan.

Two final points, the Conservative Party now does have libertarian section, the Progressive Conservatives whom, I am on the Executive and Nick Clegg joins Mark Pack as cypto socialists of the Liberal Democrats. On the Your Freedom website an amendment to the smoking ban is the most debated, popular and just causes. On the video posted yesterday Clegg made a point of saying the smoking ban will not be included for amendment. Disgraceful.

The Voices Of Freedom was a timely debate.