If there is to be immediate, radical rectification of laws and the government machine, the underlying principles must first be defined, and every proposal be measured against them.
This seems obvious, but many articles one reads from longstanding politicians, demand changes with no apparent principle behind them, just as we read other articles afire with principle which fear to propose practical action. We know that a group of Conservative or Reform politicians put in a room to hammer out a policy platform will hare around with no direction. Dropped into the Commons, they will come to no action until the next election.
Furthermore, when he public pick up that something is going on in readiness for power, the accusation will go about that tyranny is planned, as we saw with the American ‘Project 24’. Therefore the fundamental principles, based on individual liberty and responsibility, must be at the top of the paper and must be seen clearly to underline every proposed action.
The principles can be:
- Increasing individual freedom, with a view to making Britons the freest people in the developed world, in terms both of freedom from state compulsion, and freedom from compulsion by others.
- Reducing the interference of the state in everyday personal and commercial life.
- Reducing and eliminating taxes.
- Permanent, continual project for the management of government, pursuing sound finance, while reducing the national debt, furthering efficiency and reducing waste.
Those are big ideas. They must though be the basis for reform. They are the mete-rod against which all proposals should be measured. Write then as a strap-line at the head of every page:
“Making Britons the freest people ● Reduce interference in our lives ● Lower taxes”
These principles are an answer to those who will portray the reforms as tyrannical in some way. They will accuse conservatives of dishonesty in claiming to stand for freedom, because their preconception demands an oppressor. Claiming you speak for freedom is easy: the Liberal Democrats’ first principle is “We believe in the right of individuals to make their own decisions about how they live their lives”, but they are the party which call for bans and regulations on everything. If Conservatives say it, it must be made credible.
The actual implementation of freedom-increasing measures therefore must be measurable. Opposition voices will still claim Conservatives / Reform are imposing dictatorship, because those voices always do, so we must show irrefutable facts in defence.
From that, then we can move on to actual proposals.
The proposed principles on this page do not address the national economy. That is deliberate. Freeing economic activity must allow the economy to thrive, but if we start with economic measures, we get distracted: we must first build the fundamentals which allow prosperity.
The proposed principles do not address increasing opportunity or welcoming diverse viewpoints, as this will be misunderstood and misapplied. Removing state interference should allow individuals to rise by their own merits without waiting on the especial favour of an official. The consideration in policy is to ensure that where the state is regulating it does so in such a way that it does not favour client groups nor forces endeavour into a preconception of how it should go. That sort of detail comes within policy, not overarching principle. The one place for positive government action to increase diversity, is to diversify recruitment to the Civil Service.
The principles do not specifically set out protestations for patriotism either – because that it understood. Conservatives (and Reform) are patriots. Making it a declared principle would be like declaring the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a principle: it is there and need not be said. It is also not strictly speaking relevant to the sort of actions to be put into effect.
Now, let us get on with it on that basis.