The Il Duce Solution to England's Ills
The market cannot mend our broken society | David Selbourne - Times Online
In the mid-19th century, many thinkers regarded the “condition of England” as dire. Carlyle called it ominous. Established beliefs were waning, communities were being destroyed by industrialisation and poverty was increasing amid plenty. Macaulay gave warning that the discontented were growing as social order dissolved. There was rage, he declared, below the surface. ...Anxiety about the nation's condition is exacerbated by the public knowledge that all three main political parties are inadequate both in leadership and thought. It is clear, too, that millions think that none of these parties truly represents their views. Vox pop, reflected on many websites, regularly wishes a curse upon all their houses.
The creed of our times is to be non-judgmental. It is not shared by legions of discontented in Britain, whose contempts, fears and frustrations surface daily on blogs. Here is public opinion at its most direct: “They are unprincipled,” such voices typically say of the political class, a “bunch of jobsworths troughing at the public expense”.....
...the main parties now share the overarching belief that a “market economy”, espousal of the “values of the market” and exercise of the “right to choose” are preconditions of human progress and wellbeing. Instead, as the internal social condition of free societies worsens, we can see that free enterprise and moral licence are now two sides of the same coin. The free market and the free lifestyle go together; the privateer and the libertine are birds of a feather....
Britain's social crisis demands more public spending, not less; as the country falls into recession, more intervention is needed, not less. A small state and low taxes will not cure the ills that are daily increasing public alarm. Only a strong state can. You cannot repair the “broken society” while simultaneously “leaving people to live their own lives”, as Mr Cameron has put it.
...in times that have much in common with the Thirties. They are times when national self-repair is required, when the “free society” needs to be protected from itself, and when Islam is advancing into our moral void. When the “condition of England” was last seriously debated, the issue was reform or revolution. It still is.
David Selbourne is an author and historian
And the man used to be an advisor the the Conservative Party! I gather he lives in Italy so at least his proposals probably include decent uniforms with feathers rather than just boring old Brown Shirts...