Adam Tugwell: Labour vs. Conservative = Equality vs. Opportunity

Adam Tugwell, a Councillor in Tewkesbury, argues that we need to do more to show we are on the side of those in the poverty trap.

So, stage 2 of New Labour Government is in progress and ‘David Cameron’s Conservatives’ are expected to have the best chance of regaining a working majority since the 1997 Election. But what are the real differences between a re-worked socialist Labour Party and the new, improved, greener and leaner Tory Party?

Iain Duncan-Smith has just delivered a raft of social policy ideas that have made many people see a very different side to today’s Conservative Party, even if there are serious questions regarding the practicality and depth of the ideas which are on offer. Social policy or the more recent buzzwords ‘social justice’ have never been one of the strongest areas of Tory Policy in the perception of the man in the street. This of course is far from an accurate portrayal, but I nonetheless often ask myself why Labour has so successfully walked away with the prize given to the group of politicians who most effectively sell themselves as caring most about the disadvantaged and the people who experience a rum deal in their everyday lives.

So is socialism a real deal or just a great big con?

The lifeblood of anything which propels a political group to power arguably has reality to it, but one wonders if that is merely down to perception and perception is everything. Like it or not, spin is the creator of perception and it is one of the most rotten parts of today’s political scene. Look at socialism without the academic twist, peel away a layer or two of the New Labour Trojan horse and you can clearly see the mechanics of this horrid creature. New Labour sells a set of values which purports to be based on opportunity for all. But is it?

We have heard the concerns about school examination dumbing down, the onset of higher education for all and of course, a welfare state and benefits system that rewards reliance upon the Government. This culture will inevitably lead to a preconceived state of equality and to all who are interested, it already very much looks like we are well on the way to having a society where all have the same educational standards; where all are pushed to have the same moral benchmark; and where all are coerced by stealth to become an average Joe. Paradoxically, New Labour have successfully created a ravenous mindset that leaves many thinking that being famous or that having a glamorous occupation are the only things that will give you value in the eyes of others and that these successes just arrive in your lap. This is a society heading for a date without individuality and modern conservatism should now become its saviour.

Ask yourself "am I proud to be a Conservative" and "what does being a Conservative mean to me" – Are you happy with the answers?

The Conservative Party, in its fear of a truth that New Labour had discovered the nirvana of electoral success with a formula that can’t be beaten, has gone through an evolution which has seen the abandonment of many core, traditional and timeless Conservative values which continue to be applicable today and for the future of the country; values which just need to be dressed to suit the wearer of a contemporary ensemble.

Like many I grew up with the doctrine that Conservatives were the party of business, the party of capitalism and the party of wealth. Like it or not, Thatcher’s take on right-to-buy is responsible for today’s property wealth; it’s just a shame that her vision and actions could be likened to the momentum of a supertanker and one that is proving to be just a little harder to stop and control than some might have liked. It doesn’t mean that the idea was wrong.

Perceptions of those in IDS' 'poverty trap’ are that Conservatism is a play-thing of the rich and doesn’t consider anything else. I say such people would be wrong, but who could say that much has been done to convince them otherwise. Indeed, who could possibly argue that there is an issue with communication and that all policies need to be addressed to the varied audiences for which they were intended?

The point that is being missed as we struggle to link with the electorate, is that most people, whoever they are and from whatever background they have come from, want to be happy, to live without fear and to look forward to a future which is one of increasing improvement to their standard of life. This is territory where there should be a clear and massive divide between New Labour’s take on equality and our own. To Brown and his party, equality effectively means stasis and if anything else, reversal to a condition of sameness. Equality it may be, but opportunity – no way.

Traditional Conservative policies and viewpoint is applicable to the advancement of all and should be championed once again. True Conservatism recognises the strength and greatness of the individual and encourages the freedom which accompanies growth and advancement. As we strive to develop policies which work, we must recognise that the content will have to identify with those primitive needs and wants of the great many people that we collectively need to attain an understanding of today’s Conservative Party as a Government in waiting which is ready, willing and able to provide true opportunity for all. That would be worth voting for.

Comments

[Michael Nye]

In the last few years I have been struggling to understand just what conservatism is today? Where do the principles of the party ‘sit’ with the other two parties, in this predominately tri-party system? Back in 1997 New Labour came into government, with a subtle but none-the-less distinct, shift to the ‘right’, effectively taking the ground from under the feet of a Conservative Party, which was in total disarray after losing the election. We have now had 10 years of the present government dominating the centre ground, in many cases supported by the Lib Dems, after all this ground was their own ‘stamping ground’ in the old order when Labour were left and Tory were right.
Like Adam, I grew up in an era when the Tory Party was the party of Capitalism, with a capital ‘C’, and although there was the taint of the creation of the ‘Fat Cats’ appearing in many industries, those ‘Fat Cats’ turned out to be the very life blood of the wealth creation that was to fund the needs of the nation, both socially and in investment for the future. We had an economy that was based on Trade Balance. A balance of payments deficit meant that we were importing more goods than we were exporting. We are now in a position, as a nation, when we are grateful when a foreign company buys a British company, because it at least, gives a short tenure of continued employment to the workers. That is until the Tax burden forces the company to move to a cheaper manufacturing base in the World Economy. We have, very much, turned into a service based economy, most of the products that we purchase, are of foreign manufacture; our export base is very limited. We now have foreign interests looking at purchasing our second largest supermarket chain; even our domestic service sectors are threatened. We are rapidly turning into a nation that cannot be self sufficient for our needs any longer, and on the world stage those needs will get progressively more expensive to procure. How will we continue to generate the necessary wealth to procure them?

[Lindsay Jenkins]

Thank you Adam for this excellent analysis. I hope those in charge take note for you are articulating what many if not most think.

To your list which as you say 'most people, whoever they are and from whatever background they have come from' want, I would add to be free.

Most of us just want to be free to get on with our lives without a nanny state, state interference, a clunking fist, told what to do, to think and from such a country come great innovations, wealth and charity.

And we want to live in a coutnry where not only we and our families are safe but so too is our property - safe from crime and safe from the state.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Mr. Brown seems to demonstrate that he knows what is best for everybody, and to that end he wants to control everybody's life his way. People that are independant (of him) he almost seems to resent, so that he seems determined to make them pay as much as he can get out of them in taxes etc: for the privilege of that, relative independance.

Total equality never works, it didn't work in Russia/Soviet Union or Cuba, and although it hasn't seemed to sink in yet with this government, it won't work here either. According to articles in the newspapers this week a fair few of the students shoe-horned into university to satisfy Labours equality ideals, have dropped out of uni: and quite a few within the first year. University is not an end in itself and certainly it is NOT a guarantee of work afterwards.