Do Conservatives prefer Blond?

Posted by Owen Bethell at Fri, 27/11/2009 - 2:36pm in Political commentary

The much hyped launch of the ResPublica think tank, headed up by 'Red-Tory' Phillip Blond, has provided some food for thought for David Cameron and his key policy makers as the Conservative Party seeks to further codify its ideas ahead of the General Election. A lengthy 'inauguration' speech at the launch event provided Blond with the perfect platform for espousing his new vision. The publicity generated by his controversial approach to areas such as free market reform was reflected in the capacity audience - a who's who of big cheeses in politics, the media and corporations keen to assess the impact on their regulatory environment post-May 2010.

Blond split his vision into three broad sections - the need for a stable state, the move towards 'moral' markets and a restoration of the associative society. On social policy, there is much that unites contemporary thinking at Central Office with his ideas - the call for a return to a working class self help culture where local communities would take over the running of local services to make them more responsive to needs and to roll back the centrally imposed activities of the state. Blond strongly criticised a welfare dependency that has seen the establishment of a dysfunctional relationship between state and individual and the break down of inter-community activities and mutual support. Recent Tory moves to increase the role of the Third Sector and to try and reform benefits reflect this line of thought - increasing the power of the community to commission, manage and run services where the state has failed.

There was also much in what he had to say on the power of association that could lead to pragmatic policy uptake. According to Blond, the individual is not born free of relationships - rather those closest to you inform your ethos and values. Therefore, the state should do less to collectivise behaviour and more to encourage individual freedom and spontaneous association that fuels social cohesion and the desire for self-improvement. Again, the Conservative's have made moves to encourage localism and to roll back the more intrusive elements of state social control in areas such as identity cards and overt 'political correctness'.

But it is on the economy that Cameron et al will face their biggest challenge, and is perhaps why the party was so keen to distance itself from the ideas of ResPublica ahead of the launch. Blond attacked private monopolies which dominate areas such as high street banking and laid the blame on the Competition Commission and, previously, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for allowing markets to stagnate and become un-competitive. He called for genuine free markets, where capitalism is opened up to greater competition based on accepted principles of good behaviour but without the permissive regulation that stifles market entry and entrepreneurial activity. Particularly at fault were the big supermarkets whose ability to set strict prices controls stifles markets and supply chains. He called instead for such companies to encourage the stocking of local products at a fair price to suppliers.

The idea that the Conservatives will seek to break up the private sector or do anything radical to change the monopoly position in areas such as food is not realistic. However, it will be interesting to see how long Cameron can take a hands off approach when it is now freely acknowledged that regulation spectacularly failed the public interest in at least one area of the economy. With mounting public anger over bankers bonuses, it could soon be the turn of other sectors to be put under greater scrutiny for the good they actually deliver.

Whilst it is easy to attack Blond's economic vision as slightly removed from reality, ideas on encouraging entrepreneurialism and removing barriers to market entry do chime with the mantra of fair and free markets that the modern Conservatives are moving towards and a call for localism may not just focus on local political power, but on reform of local economic factors too.

Certainly the debate launched by this new think tank could lead to a refinement of ideas by the party and bolder policies being prioritised.

Tagged with: Conservative Party, David Cameron