tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8943949783899762463.post5430009473406713129..comments2007-10-17T22:14:25.026+01:00Comments on Swing Voter Is Closed.: What I like about libertarianismGileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09529088940244463487noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8943949783899762463.post-66451173215932598292007-09-15T07:39:00.000+01:002007-09-15T07:39:00.000+01:00Look, I hold up my hands to the Telegraph point. I...Look, I hold up my hands to the Telegraph point. I was using shorthand - the only time I've read really blatant attitudes of that sort (e.g. if more Bangladeshis move in "our culture will disappear") it has been from Heffer or someone within 2 pages. There may well be many sensitive writers as well - I enjoyed Craig Brown recently - but it is very hard to be an expert in something that annoys you. For example, the only time I read Will Self I hated it so much that that was the only novel of his I read. If you have read several books by Polly Toynbee or Immanuel Wallerstein, I would be curiously impressed. <BR/><BR/>That consensus was a very long time - even reading Churchill's world war accounts you realise they had a very long period of seeing a government-ordered world as natural. I personally admire Thatcher because she came from such an uncomfortable position for so many Tories and yet stuck with it. Lots of what she did was ant-conservative and the opposition within her own party was extreme. There have to be trade-offs faced up to in taking bold views - you can't pretend ever policy of a party neatly captured all that was great and fine.Gileshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09529088940244463487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8943949783899762463.post-29345150306688934172007-09-13T08:48:00.000+01:002007-09-13T08:48:00.000+01:00I think you'll find the Tories converted to Free m...I think you'll find the Tories converted to Free markets around the time of the corn laws, and the post war socialist consensus was generally agreed to be as a result of Tory cowardice - the theory that they acted as a pause for breath between bouts of labour centralization.<BR/><BR/>And do you actually read the Telegraph? It is a lot more thoughtful (and libertarian) than any other paper, not the reactionary caricature you present.Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.com