| Lib Dem liberalism |
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| Written by Tom Clougherty |
| Wednesday, 21 May 2008 06:03 |
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When Labour came to power in 1997, the Government took three hundred billion pounds a year in tax. This year the Government will take nearly double that. They take one thousand seven hundred million pounds of our money every single day of the year. That’s more than £18,000 a second. Indeed – and isn't that a great way to put it? The whole speech is pretty interesting actually, as it marks a definite departure from the tax and spend, social democrat stance of the party – which characterized its last two general election campaigns – and a shift towards old-fashioned liberalism. Clegg says he wants to break the consensus on ever-higher spending and claims he " would not be interested in spending a single penny of people’s money unless I knew it was going to give a greater benefit than leaving it in their pockets". Which is excellent. But while I don't doubt Clegg's conviction – it's always been clear that he is much more free market than most Lib Dem activists – I suspect this speech is more the result of a political realization than an economic one. The Lib Dems know that most of their key election battles in 2010 are going to be against the Conservatives, and are positioning themselves accordingly. In either case, this is good news for British politics. When the Lib Dems position themselves on the left, it drags the centre of political gravity in that direction, pulling the terms of debate with it. Hopefully the Lib Dems' explicit embrace of freer markets, lower taxes and greater decentralization will have the opposite effect.
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Comments (5)
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written by Not an Economist, May 21, 2008
Do we really expect that the Lib Dems will cut public spending? That is a vital part of any convincing tax cutting agenda if it is to be robust and long term. Sorry but I just don't believe they would. I am sceptical enough of the Tories in this regard.
Key election battlegrounds
written by MatGB, May 21, 2008
"The Lib Dems know that most of their key election battles in 2010 are going to be against the Conservatives"
Actually, the opposite is the case, and Nick definitely knows it. They'll be defending seats against the Tories, yes, but the target seats are virtually all against Labour. Seats where they'll need not just disenchanted Labour voters but also former Tory voters who're fed up voting for a third place candidate. Of course we can argue over definitions of 'left' a lot as well, but leave that for another day--personally I'm very 'left', but am also very much in favour of decentralisation and a smaller state--it's not how much you tax but who you tax that matters to me. But yes, a chunk of activists and members won't like the direction--but many of us will, very much so.
LibDems? Going Liberal?
written by Michael Schwartz, May 21, 2008
Any comment by a Lib Dem about a traditionally liberal policy must be set in context against the fact that this party supports the single European currency (euro) which is managed by the remote and unaccountable European Central Bank. How can there be truly liberal policies in the British tradition when this party would like to see British management of British affairs wiped out and replaced by Brussels? And all because the Liberal Democrats can't win an election in Britain but want political power via the EU. We get sold out - the Lib Dems get power. A disgrace to everything that Adam Smith held dear. Some Liberals.
Evolving the political debate written by Oranjepan, June 01, 2008
I think it is silly to hold onto the dogma of former aguments because they need to be readapted to the circumstances of the day.
We LibDems do not understand the distinction between 'social democrats' and 'liberals' which our opponents continue to try to use as a stick to beat us with - we are Liberal Democrats. Even Adam Smith's ideas need updating in accordance with the wealth of new data that has come to light since his time. We recognise that classical liberalism does need to be balanced by the demands of democracy, but the failure of our opponents to also do so is one reason why the old-style wing politics of both the old-fashioned Labour and Tory parties is becoming increasingly out-moded and irrelevant to the needs of the day. Write comment
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