Are ethical principles now abstract reality?

IN 1948, the NHS was built upon the moral principle, extracted from the Gospels, ‘that each shall care for all, and all shall care for each, using taxes taken from citizens, in accordance with their ability to pay’.

In every generation for 200 years, Conservative voters never discover any principles during their lifetime, so they fiercely opposed the introduction of the NHS, until they were defeated, when they then pretended to favour it.

Presently, they are mounting a new attack, to change a dedicated national service into a competitive Insurance system so that shareholders can take their cut.

There is only a tiny minority of British citizens in this generation, who comprehend moral principles, or are familiar with the Gospels where they might be found.

Conservative economics, based on commercial advertising telling children since babyhood, plus a defective educational system, limited to pragmatic subjects about earning a living as a wage slave, as the pinnacle of your life, serving billionaires, has deprived this generation of that birthright – an appreciation of ethics.

The minds of today’s voting adults were damaged when they were children by the Tory philosophy of society, billionaires and beggars, and no one owes any pity or compassion, any obligation to anyone, because Oligarchs deserve their power.

The Marquis of Bute was the richest man on the planet, who owned mines, railways, docks and most property in Cardiff, while men coughed and died underground to favour his hobbies.

Conservatives never saw anything wrong with that then, or now, when their misplaced conceit prevents them attempting any intellectual self-criticism.

A society based upon this unprincipled economics probably condemns the next generation to be unable to discover if ethical principles are an abstract reality of this universe.

C N Westerman, by email