David Cowan: Are Red Toryism and Blue Labour one and the same thing?

David Cowan is an intern at the Institute for Economic Affairs and will be going to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in the autumn to read History.

There have been two phenomena written about of late in the Conservative and Labour parties. First came Philip Blond’s ‘Red Toryism’ which contributed towards Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ vision. Now Lord Glasman’s ‘Blue Labour’ has been gaining currency with its supposed appeal to the patriotic working class.

Both Blond and Glasman have emphasised a communitarian view of society which does lead one to wonder whether or not these two ideas are in fact one and the same, despite coming from two different traditions. I would argue that they both stem from a wider traditional conservative movement which has its roots in both the Tory and Labour traditions before the social liberalism of the 1960s and economic liberalism of the 1980s.

These modes of thought hold true to Lord Salisbury’s dictum that “delay is life”. They hold a Burkean conception of society as an organic entity where it is the social bonds between us, rather than individual rights, which matter. They see people as living in an ‘atomised’ existence in which marriage, family, community, country, the appreciation of beauty, and religion play a less crucial role than they did before the 1960s ‘liberal revolution’.

David Cowan: The current division inside the Conservative Party is between the “Old Whigs” and the “High Tories”

David Cowan is an intern at the Institute for Economic Affairs and will be going to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in the autumn to read History.

There has been a public debate over the divide between “liberal conservatism” and “mainstream conservatism”. The focus has been on policy differences rather than the philosophy of the Party. If we choose to look at the philosophical outlook of the Conservative Party then a dividing line between the “Old Whigs” and the “High Tories” becomes clear.

Conservative strands of thinking are firmly rooted in “love”. That is not just romantic love, but also love of companionship, love of family, love of community, love of nation, and love of God. They are the bonds between us and give meaning to our lives. It is not a view which embraces the harsh utilitarianism, brutal modernism, and rampant libertarianism of modern society. It is a view based on trust and cooperation. The state is an intruder as it denies freedom and coerces us.

Adam Smith recognised that we are not just motivated by “self interest”, but also by “sympathy” for one another. We emotionally invest ourselves in others by trying to make them happy, consoling them, or sharing their sorrow. Roger Scruton argued that Conservatism understands the human condition and recognises humanity's evolutionary nature as we develop traditions, values, and a culture which passes from one generation to the next.

David Cowan: How to get credit flowing into Britain’s deprived areas

David Cowan is a sixth form student in West Sussex who won last year's annual research and writing award organised by the Churchill Centre.

One of the biggest contributing factors to poverty is financial exclusion. High rates of interest and credit criteria from banks have made this so. During a time when banks are even more unwilling to issue high risk loans it is unlikely an individual stuck in the poverty trap will be able to escape. The New Labour government attempted to tackle poverty through numerous “welfare to work” programmes and other means of distributing wealth. Despite a decade of unprecedented economic growth before the financial crisis unemployment is now at a 16 year high and the inequality gap has widened to an intolerable level.

Capital has become a closed shop, denying access to the very poorest in our society. People stuck in the poverty trap cannot aspire to own their own home, start a business, or have access to other financial services. Currently, those who don’t have access to credit are forced to go to loan sharks, as is the case in the East End of Glasgow, and continue to live their lives dependent on benefits. Capital must be allowed to flow into deprived areas. The key principles a new settlement should be based upon are social justice and localism. The poor need to be given economic freedom. They just require the right opportunity. This is where the state can step in to advance the “Big Society”.

The new coalition could start a National Credit Scheme to help make credit readily available to people below the income tax threshold who are seen by banks as too high a risk due to their very low income. These people can be given the opportunity to have access to legal credit, thus taking them out of financial exclusion, so they can raise themselves out of poverty and improve their lives. It should be based on a loose decentralised framework. To oversee the implementation of the scheme would be a “National Credit Select Committee”, with the Minister for Welfare and Pensions assuming responsibility, to observe developments, make any necessary amendments to the scheme, remove unnecessary regulations and determine the size of the “credit budgets” granted to local Post Offices which would act as the providers of the scheme. This can also include increasing funding to Community Development financial institutions (CDFI), and allow them to be integrated into the scheme.