The New "Labour-Right"

Fire of Liberty

Well it looks like David Cameron, the UK's Conservative party leader, is slowly but surely turning the once great party of Disraeli, William Pitt the Younger, Lord Salisbury, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher into a mere shell of itself by scrubbing away any if not all traces of a conservative philosophy. Now I know that a party that has been relegated to a "political wilderness" by enduring three straight election losses at the hands of Tony Blair and Labour is extremely hungry to take back to the House of Commons but one should never cast aside a parties political heritage and philosophy to achieve victory. This is clearly evident in the way that the Cameron folks are rebranding the Tory party as what I'd call "Labour-right," which means picking up the ideas and policies of the Labour party and stamping a made by the Tories stamp on it. Take this most recent article in the Financial Times, in which David Cameron is seeking the female vote by launching a campaign to end what he calls the "morally wrong" pay inequality between men and women in the workforce. It's rather ridiculous that a country like the UK which is facing an onslaught of problems ranging from violent street crime, radical Islamic fundametalism, the threat of terrorism, a decline in the education system, immigration out of control, excessive regulations on businesses and the people, and Lord knows what else and the Tory's new man is worried about pay inequalities between men and women. I guess Cameron has forgotten to read the countless articles and work by various UK and US think tanks that reveal that it's true that men a women have a difference in what they make but it has absolutely nothing to do with sexism or discrimination but more to do with the personal choice of the female workers.

Just think about this for a moment, when you look at human nature you've got to be crazy not to realize that the female workers of child-bearing ages or one's that have children are likely than not to take time out of work for maternity leave or spend time with their children thus they're not going to be able to break their backs like the male workers who are single or the fathers trying to support their family. (I'm aware of the single mothers supporting their families and I give them a hand but they are the rare exception). Another thing is that most soon to be mothers or current mothers are generally more willing to give up greater pay or large salaries for jobs that offer greater flexibility in their works hours which allows them to work their schedule around their children's activities, schooling, or illnesses. Even if you go beyond my layman argument on why women make less than men and focus on the academic arguments in books like Wayne State University's law professor Kingsley Browne's Biology at Work or Warren Farrell's Why Men Earn More you'll discover that they're making the same argument that I've been making, which is women earn less than men because they chose to take the jobs that were less labor intensive, were out of the elements, had flexible hours or because they wanted to spend more time with their family rather than due to some infringement or discrimination on behalf of the government or some business.

You know it's a sad day in the UK when the Tory PM is deciding the fate of the party on what the polls say is an attractive issue for a particular interest group. You'd think this up and coming star of the Tories would be more interested in strengthening the base of the party by promoting a conservative agenda that would tackle issues of increasing lawlessness in the streets, poor conditions of the NHS, out of control immigration, decline of the education system that Blair and the Labour government has failed to prevent or reduce than focusing on a small group of people who will never vote on them in the first place. From looking at the path Cameron is taking the Tory party down, one can understand why Lady Thatcher preferred Liam Fox and David Davis. I can assure you if he keeps it the current quest for new voters by deleting all traces of conservatism from the Tory banner and he'll see more folks rejecting him come poll time. So my best advice is that the Tories should be true to the party and reject this rebranding or they'll enjoy eight more years in the "wilderness."