Comments on: My Philosophy

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By: Praguetory

Praguetory — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:07:41 +0000

Hi Guy,
Nice philosophy. This is what motivates our members here in Ladywood where Labour’s approach of throwing money at problems without addressing root causes appears to have entrenched issues.

It’s great that you believe that things can be better. Unfortunately, it seems that many of us have bought the Labour spin that all politicians are rubbish and we need people like you to raise people’s standards.

Best
Dom

By: guythemac

guythemac — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:45:10 +0000

Nigel, for my sins I was briefly a member of the LibDems in my younger student days – around the Time John Smith was moving Labour on. One of the issues I had then, and still have now, is the Libdems being ‘all-things-to-all-men’. On the doorstep then they would exclaim themselves as ‘more left wing than Labour’ when chasing Labour votes and as compassionate conservatives when chasing Tories. They wanted it all ways. I also found most of the members to be lacking any drive or dynamism and, Liberty issues aside, Big Government proponents by instinct. Very happy to tax, tax, tax.

By contrast having recently joined the Conservatives I have met a wave of people who are as far from the stereotype as I could have dared hope (don’t get me wrong I have met some hardcore ‘Tory Boy’ types too, particularly in London) but the few people I have met who made my toes curl are the ones who are bleating about the direction of the party. That’s a good thing – and for now – I feel at home with the current Conservatives.

By: Nigel Quinton

Nigel Quinton — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:18:47 +0000

Guy – I cannot fault your guiding principles, but I have news for you – if that is what you think then you should be joining the LibDems. Yes I know from your tweets that you think us hypocritical and irrelevant but if we are motivated by the same principles you espouse, which we are, then I think maybe its time you thought again.

Neither of the two main parties believes in truly devolving power to individuals, in fact neither seem terribly interested in changing the system at all, whereas we are just tearing at the leash for a quiet revolution in how our state functions.

And you are spot on regarding social mobility and social justice. I cannot see the Tories ever being really serious about a meritocracy – their core support is too tied to inherited advantage, always has been. And as you say, although Labour may espouse the ideal, they just have no way to go about it effectively, as the last 12 years have shown ad nauseam.

So, how about it?

By: guythemac

guythemac — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:04:34 +0000

I think that is where the ‘Centre’ bit of my ‘Centre-Right’ leaning comes in – whilst my first instinct is to always be guarded against state attempts to intervene, creating a high baseline of educational opportunity for all is one area I do think it right and proper for the State to flex it’s muscle in striving for.

By: Douglas Hainline

Douglas Hainline — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:45:55 +0000

I think we have a (weak) moral sense which includes some primitive concept of fairness, and this is where the idea of “justice” comes from, which involves equality before the law; and then the Left point out that social circumstances and access to the good things of life are very unequal, and this triggers our sense of fairness. I don’t know. But as a practical matter, the Right should stress our desire to see social mobility (that is, the removal of barriers to same) and work out if we are opposed to all and every form of forced income redistribution to achieve it. If we are, then we need to come against any form of state education, including vouchers. If a kid is unlucky enough to have parents who are too poor and/or feckless to send him to school or teach him to read or write, tough luck. Not my idea of decent politics but I suppose it’s a coherent position.

By: guythemac

guythemac — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:37:48 +0000

Hi Iain, I’m not that comfortable with the phrase ‘social justice’ either. It is all things to all people. I tend to always say ‘Social Mobility and Social Justice’ as a pair, because for me, barriers to social mobility are the root cause of what I define as social injustice in the UK. I bang on about one current example here: http://wp.me/pHMG9-1m.

The trouble with the term ‘social justice’ is that it is such a warm, fuzzy phrase no one is going to say they are against it. With the left claiming the whole vague notion of ‘social justice’ as their own it makes anyone slightly to the right vulnerable to the swing voter who thinks both sides are the same, but hey – Labour are the ‘Party of Social Justice’ therefore the Tories are not. Vote lost. We need to reclaim the phrase. So my way of reclaiming it is to try and tighten the definition by tie-ing it to Social Mobility, and Labours whole approach to that subject is genuinely well-meaning but 100% flawed.

By: Iain Swan

Iain Swan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:49:45 +0000

i agree with everything you say , Guy , but the phrase “social justice ” confuses me . Where is the social injustice ?