The Past is Present...

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Given the current, frankly astonishing lack of engagement with either the populace or the problems we collectively face at the minute, our government seems to be continuing, as ever, down the path of reflexive laissez-faire that characterizes the Tory Party and their supportive ilk. Reading today’s Financial Times - yes, it pays to keep track of what these people think and say - I was particularly vexed by the tone of the opinion piece by Janan Ganesh, echoing as always the trite left/right economic bifurcation of old. I quote: “The reflex case against the left - how will it fund it’s Jerusalem - becomes more potent, not less, when revenue dries up.” This has been the stock right wing standpoint for as long as I can remember.

 

But no-one - no-one, ever posits the same ‘axiom’ regarding the right. Their position, when in government, is precisely the same as any other: they are required to raise revenue in order to do the job they are elected to perform: govern the sodding country to the best of their collective ability. So I ask, boot on the other - and current - foot: how will the Tory government fund it’s Jerusalem?

 

Answer that, and I think you will find that there ain’t much real space between right and left, except that the left will try, however hard, to smooth out the absurd inequalities of opportunity that obtain, and ensure that more people have a chance to thrive and prosper, not just those born into privilege. Socialism is not inherently anti-business, nor anti-aspiration. What it is about is levelling-up in a way that Boris Johnson could never, ever understand, should he live to be a hundred, heaven forfend...

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