We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Taxes don’t win elections It is often argued that the Conservative Party must move to the Left to win. It must tone down the tax-cutting agenda, and take the centre ground.
Sounds plausible, but reality is different. At a recent dinner of the Imperial College Conservatives, David Davis revealed that the all-important swing voters are more free-market than normal Tory supporters. According to a Conservative Central Office survey, 87% of swing voters think taxes are too high, compared with only 80% of loyal Tories.
So if you hear the nonsense about “gaining the centre”, tell The Enemy Within to go to hell.
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Hey man, look what happened when the Republican Party moved to the left (well, the domestic issues left) in the US. We got Ford and Nixon. Collapse of the dollar (and a bunch of foreign currencies that had indexed their value to it). Vast expansion of the regulatory state. Wage and price controls, which, among other things, contributed to devastation of domestic oil production.
Sadly, the Conservatives may be more concerned about winning back the Tory & Liberal voters who switched to “New” Labour.
We don’t seriously think they are more free-market than normal Tory supporters, do we? I’m just trying to keep hold of reality here.
Ugh. Disraeli being honoured on the same website as Heath and Euro-Hezza?
Probably right about the Tories wanting/having to move to the left though. Mores the pity.
Even more disgraceful is the appropriation of Churchill. He, for goodness sake, campaigned against the welfare state, asking what was the point of defeating National Socialism in Europe only to vote for it at home.
Dear James,
Do you want to know why Welfare wouldn’t be such a bad idea in the UK?
Here’s the answer below.
FIRST FIGURE: percentage of children living in households with incomes below the US official poverty line converted into national currencies (with purchasing power parity exchange rates).
SECOND FIGURE: GNP per capita ranks (GNP values are in purchasing power parity terms and relate to the same years as the poverty data).
Figures by UNESCO, year 2000.
Luxembourg 1,2 01
Norway 3,0 03
Denmark 5,1 07
Sweden 5,3 12
Finland 6,9 14
Belgium 7,5 04
Canada 9,5 05
France 10,7 10
Netherlands 11,1 09
Germany 12,5 08
USA 13,9 02
Australia 16,2 06
Ireland 21,4 15
UK 29,1 13
Italy 36,1 11
Spain 42,8 16
Czech Republic 83,1 17
Hungary 90,6 18
Poland 93,1 19
A fifth of Britain’s children lived in poverty in the 1990s, a rate more than twice as high as in France or the Netherlands and five times higher than in Norway or Sweden. And while child poverty has remained stable or risen only slightly in most industrial nations over the last 20 years, it tripled in Britain.
UNESCO = bullshit socialist manipulators
Damnit Carr you beat me to it. Trusting outfit related to the UN about statistics? You have to be kidding. Recently I heard some leftie fool quoting some UN thing that said that Canada has a better economy than either the US or the UK.
David,
Are you chauvinistic?
You should be proud of the privatised UK’s most eulogistic ranking: close to 30 % of British children are living in poverty (according to US standards).
What’s 30 % compared to 70 % more lucky ones living happily as they enjoy the Anglospheric economical freedom ?
Don’t worry: I’ll find other figures for you, with no UNESCO signature.
Post Scriptum:
The excellent 30 % figure is reduced to 20 % after social transfers such as Welfare benefits, thanx to the State.
There’s hope, David.