Tim Montgomerie, former editor of Conservative Home and now comment editor of The Times tweeted this yesterday:
He was right, in a sense, and so wrong at the same time. It's not that the Scots have not been persuaded of the value of capitalism and non-state welfare, it' more that the current drive towards no welfare has persuaded the Scots that they don't share values with a country that seems to have embraced a brutal and callous form of capitalism.
And this is the core of what the referendum is about. For once it is not detail that is driving decision making. It is values. And the signs are that a very large number of people do not share the oppressive values of the right wing in England, in particular.
The next job will be to get the majority in England who also detest it to get rid of it south of the border as well, whatever the referendum result.
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What on earth does Montgomerie mean by “non-state welfare?” Presumably a return to the institutions that existed before the modern welfare state, e.g. workhouses? Perhaps he thinks most of the Scottish population should be eating at foodbanks.
I think you’re on the right lines Howard
That and the sort of charity that does not ask why a person is in need of help – which is the Conservative view of permissible charitable activity
With ‘non-state welfare’ he is euphemistically referring to food-banks which one Tory MP proudly considered an example of the big society. Here is endorsing the local food bank without any sense of irony! (you couldn’t make it up!):http://www.markpawsey.org.uk/news/mark-visits-rugby-foodbank
I think charities are now getting very reluctant to critique Government despite being stretched to the limits. I have done voluntary work for one charity that is getting stretched further and further yet abstains from any expression of concerns about the underlying causes. This charity does a lot of good (helped me in the past) yet strangely sees the prevailing conditions as a ‘state of nature.’
Radio 4 did a programme in early August where people who had worked for charities had been told, quite clearly, that if they wanted grants they should not go public with criticisms of govt. policy.
You are quite right Simon. I now volunteer for a charity which used to pay me for the same work. Being retired I can do this but I know of former colleagues who are trying to be ‘self employed’ in the same field. These are decent talented people who want to be of service. It makes me angry.
Lets us prey the Scots do not vote to separate from us in a week or two because such an act will damage the counter balances to our growing Neo-Liberalism and give the Right a disproportional influence on the future of England and Wales more especially if the anti-Europe brigade dominate further. What will be left will be an isolationist inward looking England. Together we are united and have the potential for Progressivism, divided more Brits will suffer from a lack of European Social Democracy.
Then we will have to fight for a better England
That will be the challenge
And then we have no Union and will be infinitely diminished. The best way to have gone about this would be to work as a union to work against a brutal and callous form of capitalism.
As it is, with a divided United Kingdom working against each other and both halves agitating to get investment, the only way that the division works is to support exactly that brutal and callous form of capitalism.
It’s not for nothing that socialism was supposed to be a global movement. I’m really suprised that you, Richard, are supporting a move that can only result in a race to the bottom when it comes to taxation.
I believe in democratic states
And international tax cooperation
Both are fundamental to tax justice