“We don’t ask anything in particular of the accuracy of the judgment of individuals as to their own interests, which would suggest some extrinsic criteria. What concerns us is that it is for them to judge.
Autonomy of will, not calculating rationality, is at the heart of economic liberalism. De gustibus non est disputandem shall be the whole of the law. Which is why social authoritarians are seldom genuinely economic liberals, even though they often try to pretend to be. And, for that matter, why economic authoritarians are seldom really social liberals. They are almost always looking to penalise people who don’t live as they deem they should, but see economics as primary and so are most inclined to look there for carrots and sticks.”
It should be clear after ten years that the Labour Party are not social liberals; they are unreconstructed socialist authoritarians.
Centralisation has increased under Labour and they will not simply give people the money to buy education and healthcare. They are not content with redistributing money; they insist on spending it for us as well.
But the problem is more than economic. Whether they are trying to ban consensual prostitution, or incarcerating people in state schools, or banning “extreme pornography” with the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, they cannot resist the urge to interfere with people’s private lives.
Tags: authoritarianism, Labour, liberty