One dog at a time, expensive housing is tearing the Tory heart out of Britain

Owning pets has long been correlated with leaning Right. While analysis of this will inevitably be impressionistic, it is no stretch to say that if you’re disciplined enough to look after an animal, you’re less likely to take a lax view of crime and punishment, for instance.

It is not necessarily a mere case of the types of people who vote Tory also being the types who have pets, either: one study found that dog owners are more likely to consider inequality a result of natural differences in ability or people’s varying willingness to work hard, rather than nebulous “unfairness”. This stands to reason. The benefits of training a dog to behave, for example, are relative to the work you put in.

The picture looks no better elsewhere. Having to wait longer to buy a house means couples waiting longer to have children, postponing the moment their minds turn to, as Edmund Burke put it, society being a contract between the past, present and those yet unborn. New homes are often built without parking spaces, depriving people of the freedom of driving, pushing them on to public transport and giving them a greater stake in higher state spending.

Psychologically, this cannot be healthy either. If you are suddenly confronted by the reality that, however hard you work and disciplined your saving, your dream of owning a home may never be realised, it is little wonder you might be seduced by socialism.

This problem is much bigger than a few people feeling stretched because their incomes are being eaten up by rent. One dog at a time, expensive housing is sucking the Tory heart out of Britain.