Stephen Pollard
which flow from the state should be permitted in a socialist society. Existing private property is at root illegitimate, and until it is returned to the state, is only loaned.
Schools are merely one example of this. After the Grenfell Tower disaster, Jeremy Corbyn said that Kensington is an “incredibly wealthy” area and highlighted the issue of rehousing the victims. He then called for surrounding properties to be seized by the state: “Properties must be found – requisitioned if necessary – to make sure those residents do get rehoused locally.”
He did not mean some kind of emergency Compulsory Purchase Order. The reference was in the context of Kensington’s “incredibly wealthy” homeowners. This was about land grabs, in the style of revolutionaries the world over. Moreover, under Labour taxes would soar, affecting business and the City. One recent estimate found that Labour would need to find at least £26billion more in tax to keep to its spending plan.
BUT it is no longer just the Labour leadership that is extremist. At the weekend, a YouGov poll for the new Mainstream group, set up by former Labour MP Ian Austin to combat political extremism, found 40 per cent of Labour members believed Western foreign policy is equally as responsible for terror attacks on British soil as Al-Qaeda and Isis. Another 28 per cent blamedWestern foreign policy more than those groups.
Almost half of all Labour members were in favour of Britain abolishing all its borders and allowing anyone to enter the country. Nearly two-thirds said we should abolish the monarchy and 43 per cent were “ashamed” of Britain’s history over the last three centuries. Just 15 per cent were proud.
That is why, when party leaders plan such extremist policies as seizing property, they are cheered to the rafters.
Even without taking over private schools’ assets, Labour’s plan to abolish them is almost certainly illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights (which has nothing to do with the EU), to which we are signatories. It states that “the state shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions”.
But such matters rarely concern revolutionary movements, which move against the legal system early on.
At a time when parties should be looking to heal the divisions of Brexit, Labour is focused on class war. It pretends it is still the mainstream party of Attlee, Wilson and Blair. It isn’t. It is a revolutionary party in the tradition of Castro and Venezuela’s Chavez.
Their words of praise for such people and plans for running Britain have been repeated often. Never let it be said we have not been warned.
‘Almost half of Labour’s members want Britain to abolish its borders’