Friday, 30 December 2005

Is it still the Torygraph?

Many folk in the blogosphere have been lamenting a perceived leftward drift in the pages of the Daily Telegraph. I don't buy the dead-tree version myself, but usually have a quick daily scan of the paper's website. I guess this story in today's paper is the kind of thing that people have in mind:
Redistribution has traditionally been seen as a socialist objective, even though Tony Blair has consistently refused to go that far and has not reversed the cuts in the top rate of income tax introduced by Margaret Thatcher.
"Refused to go that far"! Give us a break, Mr Jones.

Are the rises in National Insurance figments of my imagination? Doesn't the local Labour administration raise my council tax every year? Didn't Gordon Brown mug my pension, but not his own of course? It seems to me that the entire period of the Blair government has been one continuous redistribution of my hard-earned wealth (not to mention my civil liberties) into the pockets of the Guardian-reading classes, as described so well elsewhere in today's Telegraph. No wonder readers are getting worried.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Andrew Ian Dodge
My worry about the DT is its sycophancy towards Cameron, althought today's leader sees them drifting away from that.

2 January 2006, 15:07:45 GMT
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chris
Actually the Barclay Brothers are technically feudal serfs to the Seigneur of Sark. Not that they pay taxes to anyone.

1 January 2006, 21:21:42 GMT
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Martin Kelly
David, 
 
What you have noticed is its move away from a classical conservative position to a very much more 'neoconservative' one. 
 
The historical roots of neoconservatism lie in the Trotskyism once espoused by thinkers such as Irving Kristol and James Burnham, and Conrad Black was a raging neo, pretty much like the gang of well-spoken bovver boys and thugs who now lead the Conservative Party.  
 
They still believe in continuous revolution - as Bruce Forsyth CBE used to say, that's still the name of the game. It's not surprising if some of the old revolutionary language still shines through.

31 December 2005, 19:33:33 GMT
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Guest
The Barclay Brothers dont care about UK personal tax rates as they live in Monaco and Breqchou.

31 December 2005, 00:16:58 GMT
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Esbonio
Like you I stopped buying the paper version (save Saturday's for the TV guide, book reviews, etc) a view years ago. I had gone off the balance of the content for some time ( a bit like the Speccie) and like you check the on line addition. Of course you miss a lot on line so I'm thinking of the Times.

30 December 2005, 17:00:34 GMT