We want a society in which we are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. That is what we mean by a moral society – not a society in which the State is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the State.
Tag: Margaret Thatcher
(1925-2013) British Prime Minister (1979–1990)
Power to the people?
Socialists cry ‘power to the people’ and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know they really mean power over people. Power to the state.
Taxes under socialism
I believe that what most people want in their lives, is what the Conservative Party wants to have for them. I believe that our policies are fundamentally common sense policies. Just let’s take taxation for an example. Wherever I go I hear enormous resentment about the amount which people are paying out of their own pay packet in tax. And, this goes right across the income ranges. Socialism started by saying it was going to tax the rich, very rapidly it was taxing the middle income groups. Now, it’s taxing people quite highly with incomes way below average and pensioners with incomes way below average. You look at the figure on the beginning of a pay slip, sometimes it can look quite high, look along the slip to the other end, and see how many deductions you’ve had off, those deductions have increased enormously under Socialism … Public expenditure, which they always boast about, is financed out of the pay packet in our pockets. People are saying that they really think too much is being taken out of the pay packet for someone to spend on their behalf, and they’d rather be left with more, and it’s now well-known that Socialist Governments put up taxes and Conservative Governments take them down. It’s part of our fundamental belief giving the people more choice to spend their own money in their own way.
Equality vs. liberty
Nations that have pursued equality, like the Iron Curtain countries, I think have finished up with neither equality, nor liberty. Nations, which like us, in the past have pursued liberty, as a fundamental objective, extending it to all, have finished up with liberty, human dignity, and far fewer inequalities than other people.
Founded on liberty
America, my friends, is the only country in the world actually founded on liberty — the only one. People went to America to be free.
The problem with socialism
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.