We are still living in the shadow of the post war Labour Government of Clement Attlee. In 1945, the British people changed their religion from Christianity to Statism. The British Empire was replaced by the National Health Service. Labour left the country in a financial mess. The pound was devalued under Attlee's watch. Apart from the formation of NATO, Labour's foreign and imperial policy was a disaster.
The Conservatives returned to power in 1951 for Winston Churchill's Indian Summer and were re-elected in 1955 under the leadership of Anthony Eden, followed by a third term in 1959 under Harold Macmillan. By 1964, when Labour returned to power with Harold Wilson's first government, the cracks were showing in the post war welfare state. People were being taxed to death and Britain's economic decline relative to France and Germany, both of which had recovered from WW2, forced us to abandon our East of Suez defence policy and look towards entering the European Common Market. Then Labour devalued the pound once again in 1967. The second post war Labour Government left the country hitting the rocks while drowning in a sea of social democratic asphyxiation.
The Conservative Government of Edward Heath made matters worse by joining the EEC and compromising the sovereignty of parliament. The subsequent failure of the Heath administration was the result of trying to govern the country on terms set out by Labour, resorting to wage and price controls. Labour had rejected Barbara Castle's trade union reform program, In Place Of Strife, leaving the task of reform up to Heath, who failed miserably. The Tories left the country in an economic mess for the first and only time ever.
The Labour Government of 1974-1979 was even worse. Wilson had lost the plot and James Callaghan, the man who stopped In Place Of Strife, fell victim to the same radical trade unionists who Callaghan he tried to protect from Barbara Castle's trade union reforms.
Margaret Thatcher entered Number 10 Downing Street in May 1979 and the rest is history. Government spending was reduced from 50% of the GDP to 39% of the GDP. Exchange controls were lifted and you could move your hard earned savings out of the country once again. Trade union laws were reformed, the closed shop was finally ended and militant unions were finally placed firmly within the rule of law. Margaret Thatcher, in the face of an extreme leftist Labour Party, had saved us from national bankruptcy and economic collapse.
Yet, the Attlee welfare state remained. She did not reform the British welfare system. Despite privatization programs under Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, Britain today still has a mixed economy with relatively high taxes and generous government spending on education, health and pensions.
Tony Blair saved the Labour Party from its Marxist ideology and went on to become the most successful Labour Prime Minister in British history. But like Mrs Thatcher, he failed to reform Britain's welfare system. Blair wanted to reform the welfare state, but Gordon Brown stopped him. Like Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown left the country in an economic mess.
Every time Labour comes to power, they spend and borrow too much money and undermine British enterprise, leaving the country in a mess. Every time we return to power, the Conservatives are left with the task of cleaning up the mess left by Labour. Thus, Winston Churchill in 1951, and Margaret Thatcher in 1979, set us on the road to recovery after having to introduce reforms which Labour Governments refused to enact. It would have been better had the Wilson government reformed the trade unions and the Blair government reformed welfare.
The David Cameron Government has successfully started to reform the welfare state, reforms without which this country would go bankrupt. More tax increases, necessary to fund Labour's free-for-all version of the welfare state, could destroy enterprise in Britain and thus drive talented people out of the country. Socialism is the road to serfdom. It has not worked since 1945 and will not work in the future.
Edward Miliband wants to jack up taxes, declare war on capitalism and start a class war. Increasing the maximum rate of income tax to 50% under Labour would be an act of theft by a ruling class of socialist apparatchiks who have never worked at proper jobs in their lives. Remember, Americans don't pay the 40% tax rate until they start earning over $400,000 per year. Why should we pay 50% under Miliband?
David Cameron is by no means perfect. But this Coalition government has created stability during the last five years and has started to introduce long overdue reforms in welfare and education. We still live in the generous Attlee welfare state. Yet we cannot afford to pay for this Welfarism without raising taxes. So we need further reforms of the welfare state. David Cameron may not finish this job, which will take a generation, but he will at least offer the nation stability. His government has set the nation on the road to recovery.
Do you want an in/out referendum on the European Union? Vote for a Conservative Government and you will get your referendum.
Ed Miliband is threatening to destroy the Thatcher trade union reforms, which Tony Blair was wise to leave on the statute books. Mr Miliband was elected by public sector trade unions wanting to preserve the privileges of their members. Labour needs a new leader before they can be trusted to govern the country again.
If you want to go back to the dark days of the 1970s, when Britain was on the verge of economic collapse, vote for Labour. That is the dangerous road on which Ed Miliband wants to take us. He wants more welfare, bigger government, higher taxes, and more dependency on the state by the British people.
Do you want Britain to become like France under Hollande? Thousands of French people have come to Britain to escape socialist France.
Do you want Britain to become more like continental Europe, which is how Mr Miliband sees our future? Millions of Europeans have moved from Europe to Britain to enjoy the relative economic freedom we enjoy in Britain. Ed Miliband will drive everyone out of the county. People will move to Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand. And Britain will lose.
The Labour Party under the leadership of Mr Miliband has moved dangerously to the Marxist Left. Socialism failed behind the Iron Curtain. Socialism failed in China. Socialism was failing in Britain under Labour. Ed Miliband may end up doing to Britain what Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened to do to America:
"He will bury us".
David Semple