Labour don't get it, the world has rejected socialism, says caller
30 December 2019, 14:51
Labour "still don't get it," said this caller, "the world has rejected socialism."
The caller Daniel listened to Shelagh interviewing Labour activist George Aylett and branded his ideas a "recipe for disaster" and "quite frankly absurd."
"He still doesn't get it," said Daniel, "they still don't get it. It wasn't just this country that rejected socialism, it's the whole world. If you look at what happened in France with Francois Hollande, when he was the head of the French socialists, he brought in 70% tax rates. He scared away all of the wealth creators."
He then referenced the United States' President Donald Trump as another example.
"The world has rejected socialism. It's regressive, it's high tax," he said, "it's stealing wealth and hard earned assets from hard-working people. It's just not the way forward. The whole country has rejected socialism, I think it's ridiculous what he said."
Shelagh said that the Conservative party under Boris Johnson appears to think that the votes that gave it this 80 seat majority have been "leant" to them.
She pointed out that the reality is "there is still space for democratic socialism... something that isn't as hard left as what George and others are espousing." Shelagh asked caller Daniel where this aspect of the nation's belief would find itself in politics.
"I think Boris Johnson is very much a centre man," said Daniel, "I think that Boris Johnson's style of government going forward is going to be a lot more aspirational and I think that's why Tony did so well.
"Again there's this vitriolic hatred on the left under Corbyn and Momentum of Tony Blair and he understood that 'working class people' are aspirational. They want to do well, they want to have nice houses, they want to go on nice holidays, they want to support local businesses, they want to earn well, they want to have a nice life.
"And Labour under Corbyn and Momentum and the extreme left socialists do not understand that."
Shelagh countered that some of Labour's concern was about the tipping point; some people ending up with far too much and others ending up with far too little. Shelagh pointed out that we do have this imbalance.
Daniel conceded that the UK's wealth imbalance is a problem but said he believes the Conservative government will bring people up, such as reducing the income tax threshold.
He said that the government need to reallocate spending to enable this to work successfully; "I think the government has more than enough tax revenues it's how they spend it." Instead, he said, they waste hundreds of billions of pounds on "vanity projects and bureaucracy" and it needs to go on frontline public services.
