Mar 31 2007
The main struggles are currently within the parties, not between them
Labour is deeply split between Blairites and more traditional tax and spenders. Gordon Brown is trying to straddle the two wings, hinting deeply to the left
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
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“The main struggles are currently within the parties, not between them”
Your title sums up the problem with current politics. All parties share the same policies so all policy disputes are held within each party. This leaves the non-affiliated general public with no option but to look to the smaller parties or just ignore politics entirely.
JR: “Voting for parties that cannot win in a General Election cannot further the causes you believe in.”
We do not know, so far as I can tell anyway, what policies the ‘other parties’ are taking from the Conservatives, because we don’t actually have any Conservative policies yet.
Cameron made one definate commitment during his leadership contest, to withdraw from the EPP within a defined period. That defined period elapsed months ago, the Tories are still in the EPP.
Since he became leader, he has endorsed Poly Toynbee, the mysanthropic rabid Marxist. He has endorsed the Socialist principle of the redistrubution of wealth. He has embraced the disguised socialist environmental hysteria, and is preparing to implement so called ‘green policies’ to impose more socialist regulation and taxes on industry and commerce. If rationing of ariline tickets, suggested within the last few weeks, isn’t a communist policy, I damn well don’t know what is! Basically, I see no evidence that he is anything but a Socialist.
The causes I believe in are; Freedom of expression, economic freedom, individual freedom, individual responsibility, low taxation, the rule of law and constitutional small government. Not one thing Cameron has said leads me to think he gives more than a microsecond’s thought to any of those concepts, ever.
So if voting for one or other of the small parties is what it takes to ram through the thick skulls of our politicians that we want a real choice between the mainstream parties, if that is what it takes, then I for one want you lot to learn that lession. I am sick of socialism, you can’t make it palatable by pretending it is Conservatism.
JR: “I also believe in freedom of expression, economic freedom, individual responsibility, low taxation, the rule of law and constitutional small government. All those ideas matter more to me than any particular party.”
John, your opinions on those issues are in no doubt. The doubt is, what does Cameron think? If he really believes what he says in regard to Toynbe, redistribution of wealth, and environmental hysteria, then he is not a Conservative. If he doesn’t believe it, then he is worse, a demogouge out for power for its own sake. We already have one of those, we do not want nor need another to replace him.
John,
The question remains - can we trust Cameron to fulfil these policies?
Too often he seems like Blair and we don
Kit’s problem remains. We merely have to wait till one side or other in each party has won. We have no actual choice when, as currently, all parties are pretty much agreed on the eco-doom, low growth scenario. If, as you say, putting your vote to small party doesn’t help, then everybody who doesn’t accept the political consensus is effectively disenfranchised. No wonder fewer & fewer are voting. Tha answer is proportional representation which would free individuals to stand for what they believe in without it being sieved through a “big tent”.
JR: I also believe in freedom of expression, economic freedom, individual responsibility, low taxation, the rule of law and constitutional small government. All those ideas matter more to me than any particular party.