Iain Duncan Smith united his party over Europe, made it the largest party in local government, and took it to parity and beyond in the opinion polls. The 2005 Election threatened to turn into a proper contest, and that not only between colours of rosettes, but between ideas.
So, in a lesson to Ed Miliband, a putsch was staged, with almost all Conservative MPs as much spectators as the rest of us while the thing was played out on the rolling news channels. Remind me, how well did the Conservative Party then do in 2005?
But IDS did not go away. He did sterling work on poverty, and in the run-up to the last Election he gave at least one interview saying that he did not care which party implemented his preferred policies in government, just so long as they were implemented. And now, he is in a position to implement them.
From that platform, he has today repudiated the capitalist system, which corrodes to nought everything that conservatives exist in order to conserve. There cannot be an unrestricted European or global movement of goods, services and capital without an unrestricted European or global movement of labour, i.e., of people; or vice versa.
Now, will IDS recognise that the most obvious solution is also the best? There would be none of this trouble if workers were still required, as a condition of employment, to produce their union cards.
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Notice how the World at One gave the floor on this to Denis MacShane, a David Miliband supporter who has had the Labour whip withdrawn because of his dodgy finances.
ReplyDeleteYes, but at least they then had Frank Field on to agree with IDS. Frank Field, who initially nominated John McDonnell.
ReplyDeleteIDS is just another rich man blaming immigrants for a crisis caused by rich men. His is the type of politics that appeals to the worst side of the electorate and has never, and may never go away.
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