25 Jul 2011, 11:47 am
British conservative commentator Charles Moore put out an interesting column on Friday:
I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right. To give you an idea of the man, here's his wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Moore_(journalist)
He edited the Spectator as well as the Daily and the Sunday Telegraphs. These are regarded as pretty high-Tory publications, old fashioned (and a bit stuffy), and distrustful of the more populist aspects of modern British conservatism. He's currently engaged to write Thatcher's official biography, and she was not likely to hire someone remotely hostile to her positions. The think-tank he chairs, Policy Exchange (or 'PX') is quite new, and tends to propose free-market and voluntarist solutions to social issues.
Of course, this article is not an account of a Damascene conversion. But it is, I think, a challenge to the right (just as someone like Nick Cohen can issue a challenge to the 'liberal-left').
It's mainly about the UK, partly about Europe and briefly mentions the USA and the rest of the world, so I think it's relevant to all. eg:
On the media:
On the economy:
On US politics:
Thoughts?
I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right. To give you an idea of the man, here's his wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Moore_(journalist)
He edited the Spectator as well as the Daily and the Sunday Telegraphs. These are regarded as pretty high-Tory publications, old fashioned (and a bit stuffy), and distrustful of the more populist aspects of modern British conservatism. He's currently engaged to write Thatcher's official biography, and she was not likely to hire someone remotely hostile to her positions. The think-tank he chairs, Policy Exchange (or 'PX') is quite new, and tends to propose free-market and voluntarist solutions to social issues.
Of course, this article is not an account of a Damascene conversion. But it is, I think, a challenge to the right (just as someone like Nick Cohen can issue a challenge to the 'liberal-left').
It's mainly about the UK, partly about Europe and briefly mentions the USA and the rest of the world, so I think it's relevant to all. eg:
On the media:
It has surprised me to read fellow defenders of the free press saying how sad they are that the News of the World closed. In its stupidity, narrowness and cruelty, and in its methods, the paper was a disgrace to the free press. No one should ever have banned it, of course, but nor should anyone mourn its passing. It is rather as if supporters of parliamentary democracy were to lament the collapse of the BNP. It was a great day for newspapers when, 25 years ago, Mr Murdoch beat the print unions at Wapping, but much of what he chose to print on those presses has been a great disappointment to those of us who believe in free markets because they emancipate people. The Right has done itself harm by covering up for so much brutality.
On the economy:
The credit crunch has exposed a similar process of how emancipation can be hijacked. The greater freedom to borrow which began in the 1980s was good for most people. A society in which credit is very restricted is one in which new people cannot rise. How many small businesses could start or first homes be bought without a loan? But when loans become the means by which millions finance mere consumption, that is different.
And when the banks that look after our money take it away, lose it and then, because of government guarantee, are not punished themselves, something much worse happens. It turns out – as the Left always claims – that a system purporting to advance the many has been perverted in order to enrich the few. The global banking system is an adventure playground for the participants, complete with spongy, health-and-safety approved flooring so that they bounce when they fall off. The role of the rest of us is simply to pay.
On US politics:
Last week, I happened to be in America, mainly in the company of intelligent conservatives. Their critique of President Obama’s astonishing spending and record-breaking deficits seemed right. But I was struck by how the optimistic message of the Reagan era has now become a shrill one. On Fox News (another Murdoch property, and one which, while I was there, did not breathe a word of his difficulties), Republicans lined up for hours to threaten to wreck the President’s attempt to raise the debt ceiling. They seemed to take for granted the underlying robustness of their country’s economic and political arrangements. This is a mistake. The greatest capitalist country in history is now dependent on other people’s capital to survive. In such circumstances, Western democracy starts to feel like a threatened luxury. We can wave banners about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, but they tend to say, in smaller print, “Made in China”.
Thoughts?
