Two speeches on sound money, the morality of taxation and the cruel fiction of state power


I spoke yesterday to the European Young Conservatives on the origins of the crisis in excess state power, deficit spending, debt and debasement. Here are the slides:

And this morning, I spoke on the morality of taxation alongside Syed Kamall MEP, Cllr J P Floru and Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers’ Alliance. My remarks are here: PDF.

My central message was the same on both occasions: if we really care about human welfare, especially the welfare of the poor, we need to think extremely carefully about the size and role of the state and how it is funded.

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Comments & Responses

3 Responses so far.

  1. Peter Colman says:

    Steve,

    I loved your speech on the morality of taxation – I think you’ve hit quite a few nails on their respective heads. It has always been evident to me that socialism is a dehumanising force – one only has to deal with the NHS to see this in action.

    Scream it from the rooftops – high taxes are immoral and hurt the poor the most. Spending our unborn children’s money is immoral and they won’t thank us for it either.
    .

  2. David C says:

    I also heard you on the morality of taxes – sorry I didn’t get chance to say hello. Your presentation, in effect, if I may paraphrase ‘I am a conservative because I care about the vulnerable in our society and recognise they have been badly served by a century of socialist interventions’ could win the next election if more of your colleagues in parliament would talk about the world from that viewpoint.