Allister Heath Why Mrs May’s government isn’t conservative

An alliance of bureaucrats and social democrats controls all aspects of policy apart from Brexit

It is not just “centrists”, that motley crew of Blairites, Left-wing Tories and Remainiac metropolitan graduates, who feel politically homeless, stuck between Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left army and Theresa May’s Brexit government. Such folk have garnered much attention for their cause, and are by all accounts busy plotting another doomed party.

Yet another important ideological group feels just as marginalised, even if its unhappiness has received almost no publicity. Yes, dear readers, I’m thinking of those who were once known as Thatcherites: that loose assortment of free-marketeers, taxcutters, anti-statists, libertarians and true liberals. Despite overwhelmingly supporting Brexit, this smallish but vital component of the Tory coalition now feels almost as alienated as the Europhile money men and pro-business soft Leftists.

For those who believe in individual freedom and free markets, there is almost nothing good about this government’s non-eu policies, and no immediate hope of anything other than more bad news. Battles that were fought and won decades ago are being lost again; we are leaving the EU but becoming more French, German or Italian in our economic thinking. John Major and Tony Blair were far more Thatcherite on economics than Theresa May; her government is intervening in takeover battles in the City, seeking to pick winners in industrial policy, demonising firms it doesn’t like, and clearly has no understanding of, or affinity towards, the messy process of wealth creation.

True, the pound is recovering, unemployment is at its lowest level since 1975, and real pay is growing again, but the Government cannot take much credit. It pays lip-service to entrepreneurship but appears never to have seen a company, transaction or contract it doesn’t want to regulate, tax or subsidise. It confuses bookkeeping with conservatism, which is all about upsizing individuals, families and communities and shrinking officialdom’s sphere of influence. It has no interest in supply-side economics, or in the idea that cutting taxes is good for self-reliance, or that we must reform public services by learning from Singapore or Switzerland.

Instead, the only question appears to be whether one could dream up a new, “hypothecated” tax for the NHS, which would merely provide succour to Labour’s world view. Sajid Javid, the man charged with delivering more homes, is a true radical but his reforms keep being diluted, too. The answer is to free up land for housing, cut red tape, slash stamp duty, push down prices and spread ownership by extending suburbs and creating communities; instead, we are stuck with debates about building flats above railway lines or a massive return to disastrous council building programmes. What a tragic waste of an opportunity.

The neo-thatcherites, for want of a better term, have so far decided not to rock the boat – leaving the EU takes precedence in the short term, and Corbyn would be a catastrophe – but are deeply depressed with the direction of the May government, which they don’t consider to be conservative in any meaningful sense. It’s not just the sell-out on economics. Many other core values have been discarded, not least the idea that spreading opportunity is better than trying to equalise outcomes, or the concept that what matters is individual agency, not group identity. The Tories no longer care about comfort and convenience; and instead of trying to empower families to seek their own version of happiness, they now believe that they have all the answers.

But it is the Government’s utter lack of control in other areas that has proved especially infuriating. Knife crime is at shocking levels in London, and yet a debilitated police establishment appears to have other priorities. It has also behaved appallingly in Hither Green, allowing the family of the deceased thief to route their funeral procession past the house that he attempted to burgle, while Richard Osborn-brooks has been forced to flee his home. Have the police forgotten who they are meant to protect? Meanwhile, how could Historic England, a taxpayerfunded agency supposedly dedicated to preserving the past, post a tweet simulating the destruction of Nelson’s Column? Is Corbyn already in charge? Why can’t this Tory administration actually impose its will?

It feels as if the machinery of government is in fact controlled by an alliance of social-democrats, corporatists and bureaucrats. For every problem, there must be a state solution; in the absence of any kind of principled conservatism, the default “philosophy” is that the official in Whitehall knows best. The elites are in disarray over Brexit, but continue to hold sway over almost all else: those in charge are paid up members of the Left-wing consensus, guaranteeing that whatever nostrum is fashionable is soon translated into policy. There is thus little difference between decisions taken under the previous or current prime ministers.

Too much obesity? Never mind that soft-drink consumption has been falling for years – let’s tax fizzy drinks, and cheer when people start stockpiling original Irn-bru or venting about the new, degraded taste of sugar-free Ribena. As to the war on plastic and packaging, it is almost entirely irrational, with decisions taken that will use more energy and resources and lead to greater food waste. We must reduce pollution, and preserve rivers and oceans. But the best way forward is to embrace new technologies and materials. Moral panics and virtue-signalling are rarely a substitute for clear, calm thinking; the last time we went down that road we embraced filthy diesel.

Even when the May government tries to be “conservative”, as with immigration, it gets entirely the wrong end of the stick and ends up embracing a bizarre mishmash of incompetence, stupidity and nastiness which has nothing to do with Burkean Toryism or Hayekian libertarianism. The treatment of the Windrush Britons has been a disgrace. The Home Office’s “hostile environment” policy is at odds with one of the foundational principles of modern Britishness, the presumption of innocence. The state, not the individual, should have to show guilt, and the private sector should not be forced to become border guards.

This is a Brexit government, and it is for this that it will be remembered. But let’s not fool ourselves: this isn’t a small-c conservative government, and it certainly isn’t a free-market, procapitalist government. It’s not just the centrists who are politically homeless.