Why I’m a Tory
We have a bloke working for us who is a very articulate, and very committed socialist. Talking to him today, I finally realise why I’m not; since, as a christian, I share many of his ideals. I think that the problem with socialism is that it actually makes an idol of the State. Resources (mainly yours and my taxes) are the “offering” that are brought to the State, in the expectation that the State will then look after the needy. Of course some gets through, but always at a price. Spending is always excessive, because the spending is on the State, whose demands are unlimited as department after department expands, and not directly on the needy. An idol is never satisfied. The Tory mindset, on the other hand, is that of Stewardship. Obviously there are going to be some weak policies and some weak people implementing them (as there will be in any party), but the focus remains on the needs and lives of individuals, not the needs of the ever-hungry monster than is over them. In this context, the £4bn that David Cameron is proposing to “take out of the economy” is chicken-feed!
Actually I think you’re talking about the Labour party Bob, not socialism. Socialism is about empowering the people, not the state.
My politics are straight down the middle – I believe having a right-wing or left-wing party in power too long causes too much of a shift in one direction or the other, which is bad for the “average” man.
Having just watched the last prime ministerial debate I should now be pretty sharp! Democracy should indeed be about empowerment of the individual: unfortunately socialism empowers committees and government departments on behalf of the people, (which is not the same thing at all), and whinges when some people end up being more empowered than others. So what if a handful of rich people benefit from a tory inheritance tax cut? They are an example of a principle in action, not an unfair bias towards an elite. I don’t think there is a “down the middle”: Lib Dems certainly aren’t: if anything their Robin Hood economics is more left-wing than labour. Let’s legislate for fairness and reduce the Capital Gains Tax threshold to £1000! (Trumpet! Trumpet!) The result would be a massive flow of capital out of the UK, because the motivation of a businessman is, basically, to make a capital gain (I should know). What’s the motivation to invest in a country that’s going to tax that gain to the hilt? Unfortunately the fairness brigade are too deafened by the sound of their own trumpet to consider things like that.
A very belated reply – apologies for being off-radar for so long.
I totally agree with this. Honk Kong boomed in the 1970s because corporation tax was cut massively. Bulgaria is one of the strongest growing economies in the “New Europe” and guess what – uniform 20% tax. Ireland grew when it did because of the same thing. It bust for different reasons, but we won’t go into that!
But against that you can’t have an international competition to see who will lower their taxes the most, and have big companies runing round the world chasing tax cuts – employers are part of the community they are rooted in and have a responsibilty to it.