The Tories have come to put too much trust in the state and not enough in the individual
Have you ever sat through a meeting where a lot of informed people run through an agenda, but everyone knows that you are all failing to discuss the elephant in the room? The desire for conformity; the wish to be liked; the fear of being called “disloyal” – all this creates groupthink.
The most worrying aspect of groupthink in the Conservative Party today is that the state, not the individual, is the answer to the problems we face. This thought has seeped into our party’s worldview over decades. It has suffocated what was the lodestar of Conservatism, expressed in our 1992 manifesto: “you, and not the Government, should be in charge of your life. That’s what Conservatism stands for … a society in which government doesn’t try to take responsibility away from people. Politicians must never make the mistake of thinking the state always knows best.”
Thanks to the Conservative Party’s lack of a “constitution”, we never had a Clause 4 moment where we rejected this principle. Imperceptibly it happened. There are numerous reasons for this. Our nation’s addiction to cheap money is one. Another is the deluded argument you hear that our overriding objective must be to keep so-called Red Wall voters onside, and that means spending more money.
For proof of how this groupthink manifests itself, consider our approach to social care. A consensus has built up that the family home is a sacred asset, and parents must be supported in passing it on to their children. After all, the Englishman’s home is his castle, and surely must be defended at all costs? The last Conservative manifesto said “nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it.” Based on this assumption, complex policies have been dreamt up, costing billions of pounds. And to pay for it, the government raised taxes.