I note the Guardian’s report today on the Taxpayer’s Alliance conference in London. I think they fairly summarise it as an attempt to launch a version of the Tea Party movement in the USA in the UK. As the Guardian notes:
Libertarian US Tea Party organisations attended a conference in London today to share tactics with British and European taxpayer lobby groups, and described their activities as "an insurgent campaign" against their government's tax and spending policies.
The move reflects an increasing desire within rightwing circles to establish a British version of the Tea Party "uprising", and a growing belief that expected union action against the coalition government's programme of cuts could be harnessed to mobilise vocal counter-demonstrations. The Taxpayers' Alliance also believes that public anger at the Revenue & Customs blunder that has left 1.4m people facing backdated tax bills could fan the flames of a wider anti-tax revolt.
"You could say our time has come," said Matthew Elliott, founder of the TPA, which has seen its supporter base rise 70% to 55,000 in the last year.
I also note Michael White’s comment that:
Europeans are not so easily inclined to hate the state or socialised medicine, more widely resistant to string-pulling by wealthy Berlusconis or Murdochs. The Tea Party too may implode. But as global power shifts eastwards, only the foolish would dismiss resurgent extremism on either side of the pond.
Quite so. The extremists — those who want to undermine the whole way in which our society works — are on the war path in the US, and want to be here in the UK.
It’s a nasty prospect — but then, this is a nasty philosophy: a philosophy that says that those who have cash survive and those who haven’t got cash do, quite literally not survive, at least as long.
A philosophy that says access to health care, education, retirement, security in the event of disability, legal representation, all means of leisure, safety and so much more is dependent entirely on your means to generate cash yourself — even if for any reason you are unable to do so.
A philosophy that says nothing but money counts and that without it you’re worthless.
A philosophy that is brutal on learning for learning's sake, the arts, culture, and understanding.
A philosophy that wants society created on the basis of one thing and one thing alone: and that is fear, the fear that will hold people in the power of those with money who can exploit them.
The Taxpayer’s Alliance might think it’s time has come.
I say the time has come to expose it for the fraud it is: the extremists that they are, the nastiness that they represent, the harm that they seek to cause, the untold misery they wish to create.
That’s the reality of the Taxpayer’s Alliance — they’re a politically extreme threat to the ordinary people of the UK. No other description is appropriate.
And what’s really worrying is that, like the Trots in the 80s, these people are planning entryism into a major political party — the Tories — where they al;ready have powerful friends. I’m entirely willing to agree Cameron is not of this mould — but many in his party already are — and unlike Kinnock Cameron hasn’t the strength to throw them out. Which is also profoundly worrying.
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I am somewhat of a libertarian and I believe that the State should be as small as possible. For what it’s worth, I also think that the US Constitution is a fantastic project definition document.
I also believe that my ‘as small as possible’ is very ambiguous and I enjoy debating the issue. IMHO I am no more extreme than you, just of different opinion.
For example, I do not think that it is the State’s responsibility to employ people but do think that the State should do all it can to support a growing economy. You could paraphrase my philosophy here as “regulate, set and manage standards but do not manage”. I certainly think that safety nets are very important for everybody, but equally that you shouldn’t be able to plan to live in one.
I also think that Prince Charles is a loon, but that’s probably a future thread.
I rather enjoyed the anger in this post – nothing like a decent rage against the Right’s worship of Mammon. Richard, you may like a post I recently wrote regarding the philosophy underlying the outcomes you give above: http://declineofthelogos.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/atlas-blogged-19-a-theocracy-of-talent/.
@Stuart: You’re not a libertarian; your position sounds much closer to one-nation conservatism than anything else.
“IMHO I am no more extreme than you…”
“For example, I do not think that it is the State’s responsibility to employ people”
Er, that sounds wildly extremist to me.
@Stuart
If it’s OK for the state to be ‘lender of last resort’ why shoudn’t it also be ’employer of last resort’?
With regards to the US, had the government been any smaller it wouldn’t have been able to afford being tapped by Goldman’s for the $700bn to preserve their bonuses and continue their financial-sector pillage of the real economy.
Also, if you’re in favour of a small-government state I recommend you move to Somalia.
Oh dear. I’m not sure that Somalia is quite what I had in mind!
I’m going to give up commenting and debating here. I don’t often agree with Ritchie but at least he’s always polite. Life’s too short…
Anyway:
@Adam
You could be right but labels are so one-dimensional, don’t you think. The politicalcompass.org scored me off the libertarian scale (and I did say “somewhat of a …” although now I’m going to have to research what a one-nation conservative is!)
@BenM
The devil is in the detail here. I didn’t say that the State shouldn’t employ people. My point is that I don’t think that it is the job of Government to provide jobs. New Zealand is a model that works for me here (and @Neil yes, I’d rather go to NZ than Somalia).
@Neil
You seem even more confused than I am!
Lender of last resort may have helped keep the system working (although like so much else it’s not certain). It’s temporary and as it happens we’re about to make a profit on the deals… Employer of last resort would be permanent and would probably result in a concentration of less-motivated, less-effective employees. Please respect my conditionals here too.
Re the US, I think that you’re conflating financial power and/or wealth with scope.
Ttfn all. I’ll just go back to shouting at the screen 🙂
I’m fairly relaxed about the Tea Party if they do establish themselves in the UK. The ConDems are already moving in a very right-wing direction (the fact that Tony Blair called them ‘centrist’ underlines his own extremism rather than being any kind of sensible evaluation) and Tea Party influence will push them that bit further to the right – making them even less electable next time round. There will, sadly, be even more damage for the incoming Labour govt to clear up in 2015 or before – but that’s always the case.
I think George Osborne is the most susceptible to Tea Party influence of the clique running the coalition – if anybody remembers when he was first appointed shadow chancellor by Michael Howard in 2005, he was going very heavily for the flat tax, under the influence of right-wing think tanks like the Adam Smith Institute. Those influences are still there and I think he’d love to move in that direction in the longer run. But as I say, I don’t think he’ll be in office long enough to get the chance – fortunately.
Cameron and Clegg are likely to pick up on Tea Party concepts in a more populist way – using them from time to time but knitting them in with the woolly ‘Big Society’ rhetoric to create a truly incoherent mix.
@Adam Bell
That really is a superb blog you’ve got there… hours of fun to be had.
Respectfully,
The Federal Government was not “tapped” by Goldman Sachs (Or J.P. Morgan, etc.). In fact, the Treasury “offered” Goldman (and J.P. Morgan, etc.) some capital under the TARP program, an offer Goldman understood it could not refuse.
Goldman (and J.P. Morgan, etc.) redeemed the Government’s capital contribution within months, together with a return well in excess of 20%, making it one of the best investments ever made by the US taxpayer (i.e. YOU and ME). On that basis, I really do not care, and neither should you, whether or how much these guys pay themselves.
👿 OMG: I rarely comment but this post, and comments, have left me stunned, and more convinced than ever that I must do something.
That is straight over to tax payer’s alliance and join the crusade against the state.
Thanks Mr. Murphy, keep up the good work, with stuff like this the system transformation will happen faster than ever.
@Stuart allen
Wow, a rightwing lurker. Knew you couldn’t keep it up.
@Carol How sad. Let’s stick to name-calling shall we. You’ve just proven my case, this being my final thread.
@Stuart
You won’t be missed