Meaningful freedom has always
implied responsibility.

Fascinating reading from Civitas:

Politicians from all parties say they are committed to the ideal of a ‘meritocratic’ society – they all want talented and hard-working people to succeed in life, irrespective of their social background. However, a new report from the independent think tank Civitas argues that many politicians are badly informed about the facts of social mobility in modern Britain. And because they don’t know the facts, they support policies which are at best unnecessary, and at worst deeply damaging.

In Social Mobility Myths, Peter Saunders, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Sussex, sets out to convince the political class that much of what they believe (or say they believe) about social mobility in Britain is either false or more complicated than they think.

The bottom line is: we cannot hope to develop good policies if we ignore the key influence on the phenomenon we are hoping to change.

The author argues:

• Social mobility is common in Britain
• Britain does not compare unfavourably with other countries
• Social mobility has not been falling
• Intelligence matters
• Most bright, working class children succeed
• Ability trumps class

We learn that personal effort and talent still matter more in shaping people’s destinies than class origins. Great!  Let’s make the most of encouraging effort and nurturing talent.

Via Tories plan bonfire of Labour laws – Times Online:

DAVID CAMERON has unveiled a detailed blueprint for the first days of a future Conservative government as the polls suggest he is on course to win the largest number of seats in the general election.

In a Sunday Times interview, the Conservative leader revealed the four pieces of legislation that would dominate his debut Queen’s speech.

Cameron also promised that on “day one” Tory ministers would each be paid 5% less than their current Labour counterparts.

“We have got to get started straight away,” he said.

The centrepiece of the Tories’ Queen’s speech, to be held within the next month if the party forms a government, would be a “great repeal bill”.

This would scrap ID cards, home information packs and dozens of rarely enforced criminal offences introduced by Labour over 13 years.

I have no inside knowledge, just a feeling of optimism and hope.

UK Public Debt To GDP (via BIS)

A joke doing the rounds by email at the moment¹:

While walking down the street one day a Member of Parliament is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St Peter at the entrance. ‘Welcome to heaven,’ says St Peter, ‘Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.’ ‘No problem, just let me in,’ says the man. ‘Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.’ ‘Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,’ says the MP. ‘I’m sorry, but we have our rules.’ And with that, St Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.

The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly and nice guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go. Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises…

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him. ‘Now it’s time to visit heaven.’ So, 24 hours pass with the MP joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns. ‘Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.’ The MP reflects for a minute, then he answers: ‘Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.’

So St Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. ‘I don’t understand,’ stammers the MP. ‘Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time.. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?’

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, ‘Yesterday we were campaigning … Today you voted.

But who now rides on whom?

Which is most amusing but it also gives me an excuse to mention public choice theory:

Public choice in economic theory is the use of modern economic tools to study problems that are traditionally in the province of political science. From the perspective of political science, it may be seen as the subset of positive political theory which deals with subjects in which material interests are assumed to predominate.

In particular, it studies the behavior of politicians and government officials as mostly self-interested agents and their interactions in the social system either as such or under alternative constitutional rules. These can be represented a number of ways, including standard constrained utility maximization, game theory, or decision theory. Public choice analysis has roots in positive analysis (“what is”) but is often used for normative purposes (“what ought to be”), to identify a problem or suggest how a system could be improved by changes in constitutional rules.^[1]

That is, in a nutshell, for a very long time, that joke has been a reasonable characterisation of politics and the consequence is the catastrophic public debt projection above. The Wikipedia article is somewhat biased against the theory and lacks citations but it is still worth reading.

Now, consider this:

What is that change? Some promise solutions from on high – but real change comes from collective endeavour. So we offer a new approach: a change not just from one set of politicians to another; from one set of policies to another. It is a change from one political philosophy to another. From the idea that the role of the state is to direct society and micro-manage public services, to the idea that the role of the state is to strengthen society and make public services serve the people who use them. in a simple phrase, the change we offer is from big government to big Society.

And this:

The era of big government has run its course.

The former is from the Conservative manifesto and the latter from David Cameron’s Hugo Young lecture on the Big Society. One party is telling people clearly that we need a radical change in the relationship between people and government. It is the Conservative Party.

1. And see also this speech by Mark Littlewood at the IEA, which makes good use of another version. [↩]

Via I’ll put you in driving seat, says David Cameron – Times Online:

David Cameron will invite voters today to take greater control over their own lives as he challenges Labour’s vision for Britain’s future.

The Conservative leader says that he wants to put the public in the driving seat, wresting control of their lives from the State, a sharp contrast with Labour’s pledge to form an “active reforming government, not an absent government”.

Writing in The Times, Mr Cameron holds up the promise of a “more contented country” if voters take up his offer to run schools, vote for police chiefs and set up co-operatives delivering public services.

Via conservatives.com:

David Cameron has welcomed the official announcement of the General Election date.

The election is a choice between five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse – or change with the Conservatives, who have the energy, leadership and values to get Britain moving again.

Speaking to supporters this morning, David Cameron will say that the Consevatives are “fighting this election for the great ignored”.

“Young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight. They start our businesses, operate our factories, teach our children, clean our streets, grow our food, keep us safe. They work hard, pay their taxes, obey the law”, he will say.

“They’re good, decent people – they’re the people of Britain and they just want a reason to believe that anything is still possible in Britain.”

“This election is about giving them that reason, giving them that hope”.

At last, we can begin to look forward to the Big Society replacing the Big State:

What I have spoken about today combines optimism about the potential for social renewal with realism about the role of the state in fighting poverty and inequality.

If we stick the course and change this country then we will have a national life expanded with meaning and mutual responsibility.

We will feel it in the strength of our relationships – the civility and courtesy we show to each other.

Just as we have felt this coarsen in the past decade, so I believe we will feel it change for the better in the years ahead.

And we will feel it in our culture – a new can-do and should-do attitude where Britons once again feel in control of their lives.

This is not the work of one parliamentary term, or even two. Culture change is much harder than state control. It will take more than a generation. But it is because I believe the appetite for change is there that I know that change will come.

The era of big government has run its course.

Poverty and inequality have got worse, despite Labour’s massive expansion of the state. We need new answers now, and they will only come from a bigger society, not bigger government.

That’s why it’s now clear to me that the Conservatives, not Labour, are best placed to fight poverty in our country.