This year's general election result proved that the Conservative Party has become far too disconnected from Thatcherite Tory values. Though many Conservative activists were disappointed with the result, ultimately it should have come as no surprise to those who have been following developments in the Tory Party since Theresa May became Prime Minister last July. If she will not offer any alternative vision to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, disillusioned voters are only likely to opt for the real thing.
"Little more than hollow words"
For those who watched Philip Hammond's speech at this year's Conservative Party Conference, which was reported by Blasting News, his language regarding the free market was most welcome, as was his enthusiasm to take his party's fight to Corbyn's Labour Party.
Sadly, Mrs May conclusive, yet calamitous, speech only committed her Government to more state interventionism. It made the Chancellor's opening remarks seem little more than hollow words.
To give Mr. Hammond some credit, the Sunday Politics' usual commentators disclosed in a previous episode he has been engaged in a battle with Downing Street and the Department for Local Communities to provide the free market with control over house-building. Unfortunately, neither the Prime Minister nor the Communities Secretary respectively seemed interested in that idea as they continue to embark on a programme of state intervention.
"The Chancellor's Budget must reflect Thatcherite values"
The Chancellor's Budget must reflect Thatcherite values.
It was Margaret Thatcher's policies that generated wealth and prosperity for people across all backgrounds. From slashing taxes to ending state control over private utilities and council housing, these were the achievements that shaped modern Britain to this day. For too long, the Conservative Party has abandoned these beliefs.
Hammond's Budget must witness an end to state control over the railways full stop, from concluding John Major's botched attempt to privatise the railways in 1994 to the appalling way the Government has managed HS2. The latter should have been built by a private company anyway.
It must see an end to the National Living Wage, which is destroying jobs and businesses across the country instead of providing everyone with a pay rise.
It should end the ridiculous energy cap and stimulate competition in the energy market to reduce prices for everybody. It should end the "dead hand of state control", as Mrs Thatcher once said, over the energy, railway and housing industries full stop.
The free market is not an enemy to prosperity, it is the means to generate it, particularly in relation to housing. Since 1947, the state has controlled the allocation of land and curbed housing development. That does not mean the state should allow private companies to build over every blade of grass in the country. Instead, outdated planning policies should reflect the twenty-first century and allow brownfield sites to become cheaper for developers so that they have more incentive to build on that land.
This article is only an aspiration. Given the current ideology of state interventionism in Theresa May's Conservative Party, it's unlikely she will allow her Chancellor to deliver a Thatcherite budget.
