The Telegraph has an editorial piece which implores us to listen to John Major, rather than Ed Miliband. In this piece Major is quoted as saying: "that a smaller state focused on what it must do and what only it can do together with a larger private sector is the best way to national prosperity".
This, from a man who rammed the Maastricht Treaty through Parliament? This from a man who condemned this country to yet more EU governance as a result of that treaty? This from a man who obviously believed in a big state and an even larger public sector?
Sheesh! Someone Kebab him, please?
This editorial continues:
"And it was the philosophy of both Labour and Tories from 1945 to 1979, in retrospect a disastrous interlude in British economic history in which ministers set about “planning growth” with dictatorial incompetence."
to which one has to ask what the difference is between the political dogma of 1945 to 1979 and that of the present-day European Union?
Update: Comments from IanPJ on Politics in the comments section are totally correct and are ones that I should have included in my post (slapped wrists!).
4 comments:
WfW, I fear you misunderstand the words of Major.
"that a smaller state focused on what it must do and what only it can do together with a larger private sector is the best way to national prosperity"
What Major is advocating here is not a free state, with a small state function with a private sector that is free to trade as markets decide, nor is it as you describe someone who believes in big state with an even larger public sector.
What Major advocates is a smaller but authoritarian state with a larger private sector acting together, using the power of the state for protected commercial advantage.
In other words a Corporatist State. That is hardly a choice from what we have already.
It has long been the preferred Conservative option for EU governance, where corporations use the power of the EU, through lobbying, legislation and quotas to gain advantage and limit new entry into their now protected markets.
It is not free trade, no matter what headings the treaties may have.
IPJ: I stand corrected - see update!
IPJ, isn't what you describe fascism?
jic: facism comes in all forms - and the political governance that we now live in is but a form of facism, or what I tend to call "democratic dictatorship".
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