Douglas Carswell's Blog

Labour lurches to the left - because they can

Remember how Conservative leaders used to be accused of "lurching to the right" during the Blair-Brown years? 

Remember the howls of protest on the BBC whenever a Tory spokesman even hinted that government spending might be just a tad excessive? 

The state now accounts for half of our total national spending.  For every £10 we each earn, almost £7 will go to government in one form of taxation or another.

Today Ed Miliband says that he wants even more taxation.  He proposes taking away more of the income of those who work in the financial service industry and spending it on re-trainning those without work. 

In other words, after years of more government, more redistribution, more state intervention - and almost nothing to show for it - Ed is proposing yet more of the same.

Labour is clearly lurching to the left. 

My fear is that Labour are able to get away with it because cocooned in this coalition too few Conservatives seem willing to make the case for less government and less intervention.  And you can't beat something with nothing.    

Miliband can get away with proposals to further complicate the tax system because no one seems to making the case in public for simpler, flatter taxes.  He can paint a rosy picture of income redistribution because no one is holding up a vision of a country in which more people can keep more of the fruits of their own hard work.

If the Vince Cable vision of our economic future is the only thing competing with Ed's idea of Utopia, it won't just be Labour moving left.  The whole country is going to end up that way.

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