Tuesday 5 October 2010

Liberty and Equality

Civil liberties, strongly guaranteed by State action, make possible proper sentencing and proper prison discipline, because we can have confidence in the justice of convictions. Likewise, full employment, strongly guaranteed by State action, makes possible, both morally and financially, very generous welfare provision for the small number of people who will need it at any given time.

That worked perfectly well until, by abandoning full employment, Margaret Thatcher invented mass benefit dependency, as a lifestyle choice if you will. Such a thing was unheard of before her. She also made a very significant contribution to the erosion of proper sentencing, and of the proper policing that is a key part of how the State actively guarantees civil liberties. The consequences were Tony Blair's excuse for the further erosion of those liberties, further removing the justification for proper sentencing and for proper prison discipline. And so it goes on, and on, and on.

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