May decides state intervention is a Good Thing

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14 years 5 months

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A Blair move, but from the other direction. Where does this put free-market Conservatives? Will they look to an anti-Corbyn to restore some principle to the party?

Got to admit it's clever - pull the rug out from under the opposition and then stand on it like it's your own!

Original post

Member for

17 years 6 months

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There have never been any such thing as 'free-market' Conservatives; they are a myth.

And 'state intervention' is common to all political parties, or at least governing ones.

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14 years 5 months

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Silly me. Must have imagined the last 35 years then. Strong stuff, Soda Stream.

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17 years 6 months

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Well, that depends what you mean by 'free market' Conservatives?

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14 years 5 months

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I meant conservatives who believe that supply and demand should regulate prices and wages, that there should be no central control of resources (eg the privatisation of utilities), rather that competing private concerns should dictate availabilty and price, that who is employed and the function of the labour market should also be left to the competing private concerns, and that unregulated choice is paramount whether a private individual or a business.

Some of which is eroded by a land-grab back to the muddle-ground.

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17 years 6 months

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'Unregulated' is not a concept embraced by any United Kingdom government or party in the last thirty-five years, nor a long time before that...

...and 'supply and demand' does dictate the price of almost everything in our globalised world, unless you're talking about subsidising certain resources (or lowering tax / duty). And subsidising certain resources only shifts the 'supply and demand' equation around a bit, transfering the cost onto something else, because you can't subsidise everything; you have to artificially raise the cost of something to lower the cost of something else.

This is what governments do, and all United Kingdom governments have done it for generations.

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12 years 11 months

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Got to admit it's clever - pull the rug out from under the opposition and then stand on it like it's your own!

Labour have decided that they're no longer interested in the centre ground, so a hollow gesture by the Conservatives is really all they need to win over swing voters. The scale of the massacre that is to befall Labour in 2020 will be something not seen in decades.

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14 years 5 months

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Well, I was talking about subdidies and taxes.

So you'd say that all reports of a serious change of message from Ms. May are wrong, and there is nothing different in what she was announcing about the state 'working with' business, specifying who should be employed, state housing schemes, or the workings of the state being geared to the interests of the working class (without calling it that as it seems to be an insult now).

Was it a thought crime to suggest it wasn't always this way and in fact it wasn't this way a month ago? Am I about to be 'disappeared'?

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 8,464

With the total lack of any serious opposition, Mrs May has clearly decided she can do what she likes. That's with a majority of 12. Wait until she has over a hundred.

My feeling is that the Grammar school debate (for example) is designed to fail - if it is brought forward in this parliament, it may well do so, with a number of Tory MP's, including two former education secretaries, and the former chancellor unlikely to back it. The tone of this particular issue clashes with what she said yesterday; she cant trample over Labours and UKIP's lawn at the same time - but she can play one off against the other, on her own terms.

Right now, everything she is doing is, in my opinion, designed to destroy UKIP support, and marginalise Labour support. A climb down here and there wont do her any harm at all right now.

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14 years 5 months

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It is the new politics, quite unlike anything we have seen before (except maybe 'blue period' Blair). Crush the opposition by agreeing with them, only stand for what the party you are trying to destroy at that moment stands for.

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17 years 6 months

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Absolutely nothing new in this 'new politics' at all; have a look at the Conservative conference of 2015...

...David Cameron even said the Conservatives were the party of 'working people'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34460822

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Well, I was talking about subdidies and taxes.

So you'd say that all reports of a serious change of message from Ms. May are wrong, and there is nothing different in what she was announcing about the state 'working with' business, specifying who should be employed, state housing schemes, or the workings of the state being geared to the interests of the working class (without calling it that as it seems to be an insult now).

Was it a thought crime to suggest it wasn't always this way and in fact it wasn't this way a month ago? Am I about to be 'disappeared'?

Please, no ! We need you.

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17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

I meant conservatives who believe that supply and demand should regulate prices and wages, that there should be no central control of resources (eg the privatisation of utilities),

While I think nationalisation of such bodies is not the way forward, I am an avid supporter to the principal that the government should regulate ownership by preventing key strategic infrastructure such as these being in foreign ownership.

Take the mass closures of older coal powered electricity generating stations, reducing the capacity availability to the extent there may be power cuts during the winter. Power stations that were viable with years of useful life remaining have been binned rather than invest in the costly conversion to gas, which was possible, but deemed to costly and would reduce the profits to these foreign owned companies. End of the day, they will still sell their power and maximise their profits, to the detriment of the U.K.
But my main concern is the likes of China taking control of these National assets, Australia has already prevented it, and the U.K. Should too, because in a time of conflict, the ability to shut down a Countries core Power, Water and Fuel assets are a weapon in themselves. Just think what would happen if you had access to our Nuclear Generation capabilities, no need to nuke a Country, simply remotely send the reactors into meltdown.

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Couldn't agree more, Tony!