1. So we’re all in it together, as the tories keep repeating.   When Osborne first declared this ( repeatedly) at the tory party conference, my first reaction was that this was a barely veiled attempt to slough off the banks’ multi-billion crimes of recklessness on to the rest of us, and notably the public sector in terms of pay cuts and massive loss of jobs.   Whilst that is obviously true, I think a deeper significance in this praying in aid the rest of us is now becoming clear.

The new tory mantra is now ‘There is such a thing as society, but it is not the same as the state’.    Well, maybe it’s good to see Mrs. Thatcher’s political cadaver finally dead and buried, but it’s not as simple as that.   You really can’t continue to say that everyone should look after himself or herself, that individualism is rampant, that markets are about maximizing self-interest, and then say, as the tories repeatedly did at their Battersea Power Station send-off yesterday, that we need ‘national effort’, ‘new economic models’ (so capitalism or neo-liberalism won’t do any more – tory shock horror!), and ‘collective endeavour’.

So how are the tories managing this ideological gymnastics?    By making a distinction between the State and the ‘Big Society’ (whatever that is).   But then what’s the point of this distinction (if, that is, you can understand it)?   The real point here is that the tories have been brought, reluctant and sullen, to recognise that social, not to say collective, responsibility is a key ingredient in any half-decent and civilised society.   If society is broken, as Cameron keeps on insisting, it’s because of the Thatcherite onslaught in favour of unabashed selfishness.

The other problem the Tories have is with the other side of the equation.   Between gritted teeth they’ll admit that action to limit the huge downsides of Britain’s unadulterated class system is needed, but they don’t want the State involved at any cost.   Partly that’s because they’ve always wanted to shrink the State, to reduce their own taxes, but even more it’s because the State is the one effective instrument of making sure things actually happen.   Leave it to Lady Bountiful, leave it to charity (preferably with some nice tax breaks), leave it to voluntary activity, and we can just do our token bit for the lower classes.   Without the State there is no enforcement, no assurance of outcomes, just a tingling of the charitable impulse, but never enough to be anything like affective.

Now wonder the Tories are in a conceptual mess.   Neo-liberal selfishness has run its course, they’ve been forced to see the need for social action, but the one thing they’ll never concede is a strong State which alone can make that social action effective.

Bookmark to: