We've moved on from Labour / Tory wars, despite New Labours determination to keep this phony war going. Whilst I concede that Cameron's henchmen are still 'Tory' as in having a propensity to trend toward oligarchical totalitarianism, many people who support his party have moved on, and if he gets elected will move him and his henchmen on as well.
What we have now is Labour / Anti Labour.
Labour, and New Labour in particular, are the party of big government, big tax 'n spend, big bureaucracy and big control. They trend to statist totalitarianism. They are anti freedom.
The opposition is now coalescing around a disparate and amorphous group that represent the opposite traits. In particular they represent freedom. They believe in small government, low taxes, small bureaucracy and the responsibility of the individual. But they also believe in the state as insurer and lender of last resort. They could be labelled compassionate libertarians. This coalition has been enabled and nourished by the shrinking of time and space provided by the Internet. Nowadays I don't just go down the pub to argue I can sit at my laptop in my kitchen and reach across national borders and develop global connections. This exchange of views and ideas is driving the new opposition to the Statists / Oligarchists.
However such a loose alliance is very difficult to deploy into a national parliament. You cannot stand on a party ticket and get party funding. Yet. But maybe, just maybe that could happen. And why not? Socialist International has been a movement across borders. Why not a new political movement shaped to fit the 21st century and the Internet age? A looser more individualistic independent movement with members sharing principles but standing as independent? Representing anti -Socialism, anti - Tory oligarchism, anti -cartelism, pro - freedom and responsibility.
You may think this unlikely, but witness Hannan's video. Does he really need the Tory party any more? His views are shared by millions he'll never meet from here to Timbuktu. He may have more in common with David Davis than Cameron. Why shouldn't they ally outside the Tory agenda and seek their funding and support from the Internet generation?
I think that New Labour sort of realise this. I could see it in the recent comments from Draper on the tellybox. He was determined to revert to the old classist common room wars of yesterday. Determined to keep this Labour / Tory war going. I've witnessed the same desperation on other lefty blogs and politicians as they start to realise that the game is up.
But the fight is not yet won. We still have to make this new paradigm work. It will take time and effort and resources to pull the world back into an era of renewed freedom and responsibility.
Are you up for it? I am.
1 comment:
Nice piece Mr Lola, if I might say so.
For me there is only one vote I could cast with a clear conscience at the next general election and that is Conservative. Jeremy Corbyn is my MP, an excellent and assiduous constituency MP but someone with whom I agree on very little. Labour will get in here again, but I still have my vote.
My vote is a precious thing to me even though it will not hold any sway in the result. However much sympathy I have with UKIP and the LPUK on some issues, I want to register my choice for government and that means the Conservative Party.
I hope the Tories will adopt a more libertarian stance and try to dismantle the suffocating State, but even if they don't they are the only credible alternative to Labour as things stand. The best chance of them moving their position on subjects such as the EU, the overall tax burden and the proper role of the State is for them to be in power and witness from the inside the damage that is being done.
Moving from the disastrous position the country is in today will be a long haul because so much of the problem lies with deep-seated institutional inefficiencies and flaws. I, like you, hope it can be done. My view is that it can only be done through the Conservatives.
(I am not and never have been a member of any political party.)
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