Tim Almond

I’m backing someone else…

I’m pretty much at the libertarian end of right-wing politics, but I understand broad churches and political expediency. Sometimes, politicians have to back off from certain policies because it’s dangerous territory, and people need to be gently persuaded. So, dropping the 2005 manifesto policy of giving people incentives who opted for private treatment, I understood. When the tax cuts were dropped, I also understood. I was getting twitchy, but I’m not rash.

Then this week, two things were done. First, David Cameron backed "fairer" milk prices for farmers.  I don’t know why he did, but it’s anti free-market.

Then, there was the Greg Clark "relative poverty" thing. I don’t even mind him mentioning Polly Toynbee. If Polly’s got a good idea, there’s nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, "relative poverty" is nonsense. It’s a socialist idea geared into the idea of creating equality of wages, that the economic cake is a fixed size, and that if people are rich, that they must be taking wealth from the poor.

What we should be worried about is not relative poverty, but that some people don’t have opportunities. That some people aren’t getting the education to improve their lives. That they live in high crime areas which means they lose their property. That we impose many taxes that quash opportunity (TV license, low tax thresholds, road fund license).

There’s another reason for not backing "relative poverty". That whilst it means people are more equal, it doesn’t mean they’re richer. Ireland’s "relative poverty" has been getting worse for 20 years. Yet Ireland is a much richer country than it was 20 years ago. France has been steadily improving it’s "relative poverty", whilst we’ve gone past it in GDP/capita, and their unemployment rate has risen to close to double ours.

I realised that the Conservative Party led by David Cameron aren’t just dropping a few dogmatic, but difficult to sell policies. They’re not just repainting the storefront. Instead, they’re outright abandoning the principles of 18 years of Conservative government. They’re abandoning the markets, abandoning incentives, and the result will be that there will be less opportunities for people to rise from their poverty. I want nothing to do with that.

So, I’m taking my vote and my support elsewhere. And before anyone says "if you back UKIP, you’ll just help Labour stay in power", I’ve considered that. And it’s just a crappy trade of principles. The difference between Labour and Conservatives is so narrow that I’d rather go where my principles are now most clearly aligned and accept the risk that I’ll get the worst of two centre left parties.

Tags: Politics //