THE IDEOLOGY GAP
Rescue capitalism and re-empower the individual to build a winning centre right ideology
There is much more to government than management, writes Tim Morgan in The quest for change and renewal: how to fill the centre-right ideology gap , published on Friday 8 June by the Centre for Policy Studies. An ideological vision, largely accepted by the electorate, is essential if public support is to be secured for the major reforms needed for economic revival.
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Tim Morgan, Global Head of Research at Tullett Prebon, shows that the two post-War administrations which achieved long-lasting reforms – the Attlee and Thatcher Governments – both changed the tide of public thought. It was their success in winning the battle of ideas that made possible the fundamental reforms that characterise their governments.
Both these Governments started in adversity, Attlee inheriting an indebted, war-weary state and Thatcher inheriting a failing, near-bankrupt exchequer. But in statistical terms, Gordon Brown’s economic legacy is more dire: Thatcher inherited a deficit of 4.9% of GDP, the Coalition inherited a deficit of 11%.
Tim Morgan writes that with flat-lining economy, an unsustainable deficit and escalating debt, Britain stands in extreme need of the radical reforms that only a popular, inspirational administration can deliver. Yet:
“The current Coalition, far from winning the battle for ideas, seems not even to be trying to do so. There is, as yet, no sense of a cohesive ideological alternative to the facile, superficial and now-discredited agenda of New Labour.”
He argues that:
“The problem for the centre-right is that Blair and Brown’s subjective concept of ‘fairness’ still dominates the British political landscape, at least in the form of the politics of envy. Unless this New Labour legacy is challenged, the implementation of enterprise-based reforms is likely to prove all but impossible. Enterprise, after all, requires winners and losers, an outcome to which the politics of envy are antithetical.”
In place of New Labour’s synthetic ideology, the centrepiece of a new ideology needs to be a mission to restore capitalism to first principles, and to undertake thoroughgoing reforms so that the system benefits everyone, and does not, as now, overly favour a privileged minority. Capitalism needs to be reformed in ways which will align rewards with success and not with failure; strengthen the role of shareholders; and, above all, provide a fairer deal for individuals, be they citizens, customers or employees.
In addition, the centre-right must champion the individual over the collective and the corporate. This requires promoting freedom, and empowering the individual in relation both to the state and to corporate interests.
Morgan concludes that, without such a programme, Britain will remain on course for economic and social decline.
Media Impact:
- CoffeeHouse: The centre-right ideology vacuum by Tim Morgan
- James Delingpole, The Telegraph: “Capitalism has not failed. Capitalism has not recently been tried”
- City AM: Cameron told he needs vision
- The Commentator: Where’s the vision thing, Dave?
- Daily Express: “Be bold with EU to restore pride”
