As the General Election draws nearer, the political parties will increasingly try to draw out the differences between them, to emphasise the choices that are available. No majority or coalition government can avoid difficult choices with public spending. They have to address the budget deficit of some £178 billion. There are limited options around speed of action and emphasis but decisions are fundamentally unavoidable.
Whoever forms the next government, they need to take account of the imbalance in the distribution of wealth in this country. This is a situation that has worsened since 1997 with even greater affluence concentrated in the top 1% or 10% of the population, or wherever we choose to slice the top of the pyramid. Removing the pyramid in the pursuit of equality also removes incentives to achieve but we should be aiming for some flattening of the structure and be asking ourselves how the current situation came about.
Equality of opportunity, rather than absolute equality, should be a core political goal. I believe that today’s imbalance of wealth is evidence that we are some way from achieving this. The imbalance is an outcome from a society where we too often see inappropriately acquired or inherited advantage being used to great personal effect. I do not contend that we can ever achieve a perfect equality of opportunity but we can do better than we are today. It is a central tenet of Conservatism that there is no ultimate point of arrival where we can sit back and say, “Job done”. Rather we believe in an ability and obligation to continuously improve what we have.
The new government needs to act on public spending while taking care not to disadvantage many people who have already suffered a great deal in the recession. That must include some reference to the many low-paid employees in both the private and public sectors. For many such people, the notion that we might live in a meritocracy could seem somewhat hollow.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
3rd February 2010