The Tories have tacitly made a very important concession
When back in 2013 Labour leader Ed Miliband announced a 20-month freeze on energy bills the Conservative Party went into paroxysms of rage. The announcement was a ‘con’ that would not be out of place on the pages of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, according to the Tories.
These were not the shrill cries of the party’s backbenches, either. No, they were the words of no less than the prime minister and the chancellor. Commenting on Labour’s 2013 price freeze announcement, they said at the time:
“We have to address the causes of prices, rather than effectively come up with what is a con.”
– David Cameron, 10 October 2013.
“I know he wants to live in a Marxist universe. He needs a basic lesson in economics.”
– David Cameron, PMQs, 9 October 2013.
Meanwhile the chancellor George Osborne described the energy freeze as something out of Das Kapital.
Conservative cheerleaders in the press didn’t hold back either. Here was Allister Heath in the right-wing newspaper City AM:
“…price controls have been tried thousands of times throughout history in hundreds of different markets and always fail“.
So what do we take from this? Well presumably that all price controls are nascent signs of Marxsim-Leninism that ought to be thoroughly opposed by all right-thinking people.
And yet what’s this we see coming over the horizon today? Only a Conservative party promise of a …rail fare price freeze.
There is already a restriction in place limiting increases in fares to RPI (retail prices index) inflation which has been in place for two years. However under today’s Conservative proposals this will be extended until 2020, saving, so the Tories claim, around £400 per rail commuter.
A price freeze in other words – and the sort of thing the Tories previously decried as an unfailing sign of incipient socialism.
It would be an exageration of course to claim that we are all Marxists now, but there is hope: the Tories have with this policy tacitly made a very important concession to the left: that market mechanisms by themselves do not – and cannot – solve all of our problems.
Welcome aboard, comrades – perhaps we’ll see you in Cuba over the summer…
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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16 Responses to “David Cameron comes clean: he’s secretly a Marxist”
G.davis
This so called person will do nudnik he says he will…. Labour promise but overall always make the place worse … Vote ukip n let’s take charge of our country n have real people take taxes off us for real things x
G.davis
UKIP will make sure rail travel isn’t a massive bill out of ur wage each month!! UKIP stand strong by all british citezens , make that vote and transport won’t cost wat it does at the minute!!!!! This country’s a mess good by ,,,,,labour let ukip clean ur act up!!!!!! N to prove there is no race issue , I have the most amazing friend. Who has spent 5 years in uni studding language, she’s 26 mixed race female , who. Was promised a degree after all her studying she spent day and night doing nothing but studying only to find out Mr camron… So called priminister…. Could not find her work in this country……….. Shame on him , she moved to Australia wear they adored and loved her and she now runs a ward In Perth Australia! Get labour out ……. Vote ukip x
Leon Wolfeson
In fact, per crime stats kids today are far safer than they were when you were a kid.
“Go bk to ur own country”
So, racism.
Leon Wolfeson
You, who wants to “send them all back”, would go to another country?
You’re a hypocrite.
Leon Wolfeson
You’re talking nonsense. UKIP are committed to capitalism on this.
“I have a mixed race friend”….oh, that excuse.