To survive, the Right needs to make new arguments for capitalism
The old ones no longer work
The arguments in favour of low taxes and deregulation that were once so powerful fall flat when deployed today.
That is because the big threat to civilisational progress is not the same as it was a generation ago.
The socialism of the 1980s was a peculiar cross-breed of working-class radicalism and champagne socialism, both aggressively utopian and sopped with middle-class guilt. That made it vulnerable to a thorough bludgeoning by the Right.
Thatcher could push through a radical agenda, while at the same time presenting herself as serious-minded pragmatist in the face of Left-wing militancy.
By this point, the socialist animal was mortally weakened by a track record of failure. Under the democratic socialists of the 1960s and 1970s, Britain’s economy declined precipitously and strikes crippled its industry. Hence, when Thatcher said There Is No Alternative, much of the country believed her.
Today’s emerging anti-growth movement is a trickier beast. It is not straightforwardly socialist. It is, rather, an alliance between a Leftish younger generation and centrist managerial technocrats, helped along by short-sighted Tory nimbys.
The longer the Right refuses to confront this slightly nuanced reality, the stupider it looks.
It was the unfunded nature of Truss's tax cuts that frightened the horses, not the low tax aspiration itself.
Sherelle Jacobs Telegraph 6 February 2023
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