... in anyone who does not read long blog posts like mine earlier today which included the following, and pace that nice Mr Dale who is far more charitable to his political opponents than so very many of them deserve, here is my personal Conservative apologia in terms which you are unlikely to hear in polite society from any elected Conservative politician or candidate. (The word apologia does not, incidentally, mean 'apology'.)
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While individual followers in either of the two main parties may be either venal or foolish and delusional, the philosophies behind the Parties are, in my view, morally different: the Conservative Party has a conscience in a way that the Labour party does not. This is about as fundamental a distinction as it is possible to make: one party is honest and the other dishonest. This is why I am a Conservative and why I will always fight the Labour Party.
Conservatives do not believe that the end justifies the means and they do believe in democracy.
Labour believes that its ends, being in their opinion so inherently superior to any other political creed that they do justify the means – any means. Labour thinkers and apparatchiks do not believe in democracy. They believe in collectivism which is a horse of a very different colour.
Fortunately for Labour, most of the electorate does not understand the distinction. When liars like Gordon Brown pontificate about 'democracy' when they what they really mean is 'collectivism and state control paid for by taxing wealth creation', the electors relax and tell themselves that their democracy is safe. But it is not.
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What? The Liberal Democrats, you say? Hahahahaha. Crooked and self-serving to a degree. They are not even honestly dishonest like Labour. A despicable shower. I diskard them.
Not very often I take issue with what you write, but.......
ReplyDelete"they do believe in democracy"
In which case, how does that square with the wish to remain a member of an organisation which can hardly be described as 'democratic' - ie the EU?
I have to agree with WFW regarding Cameron's stance on the EU. I am unhappily reaching the conclusion that he is just another career politician with his eye on the gravy train.
ReplyDeleteLeaving aside my own preference for the BOO option which is not going to happen all I can say to this objection is 'nobody's perfect'.
ReplyDeleteLet me qualify: I think political force majeur - or realpolitik if you like - is keeping us in the EU... for now. (It seems liable to crumble in some respects, starting with the Euro.)
I did not say the EU is democratic, because it is not. But we are where we are and, frankly, while I sympathise hugely, I believe UKIP's aim is a pipe dream and their politics (as it happens) often naive.
Unlike Labour (Brown constantly claims to have powers which he knows he has ceded to Brussels and all his ministers lie almost daily about Europe) I think the Conservatives have been honest about the EU. Their policy is to minimise the adverse effect on Britain of EU membership and to reduce it as far as practicable. I don't like it but, for myself, I think it will have to do. For now.
Apart from all that, one ought to vote for somebody (unless you want to give a resurrected Adolf another go) and I merely give the philosophical reason for my choice between the two parties most likely to be asked to govern: one is trustworthy and holds itself accountable to the electors while the other is anything but trustworthy and holds itself accountable to no authority outside itself - which philosophy tends to dictatorship and therefore is dangerous.