Carl Gardner

21 July 2009

What is it about your political beliefs that puts you on the Left rather than the Right?:

I’m not sure I believe in a simple “left vs. right” model of politics. But I do think of myself as both a social democrat and a liberal, for a number of key reasons. Because I think there’s lots of avoidable suffering in the world, and I think the task of politics is to avoid as much of it as possible. Because I think greater equality is probably the best way to achieve that. Because I’m not instinctively repelled by the state, and government action. And because I think positive political change is only ever achieved democratically.

What do you consider made you Left wing?:

Some people might say growing up in the North made me more concerned about equality and poverty than I might otherwise have been. Myself, I don’t think our origins determine our politics all that much. Perhaps paradoxically, I think the fact that I felt I had to reject the Labour Party as a teenager in the early 80s, even as an opponent of Mrs. Thatcher, meant I questioned more closely than I might otherwise have done why I felt myself “on the left”, and gave me a clear view where I stood politically. My experience as an adult has made me more convinced that many social problems are related to inequality.

How would you describe the sort of society you want Britain to be?

I’m absolutely against utopias: basing theories on them too often leads to practical dystopia. I’d like Britain to be much more socially and economically equal, I’d like people to be more polite and considerate, I’d like crime and aggression to be dramatically reduced, I’d like work to be far more rewarding for far more people and I’d like our towns and cities to be more pleasant places.

What one or two changes would make the biggest difference to bringing that about?

I’m very concerned about the gap between top and bottom, so I’d like much lower taxes – on the less well off – to be made up by higher taxes on the better off. I’d also like companies to be increasingly taxed on the differential between, say, the pay of the top ten percent of their employees, and the typical employee. If that drives so-called “top people” abroad – then let them go. We must also do something about asset price bubbles: unearned wealth is a big cause of inequality at the moment.

What most makes you angry about the way Britain is now?

Anger’s a bad thing. I reject the politics of anger. But I dislike the way middle managers are afraid to have opinions because their livings hang from a slender thread, so that all down the chain conformity is enforced on everyone. I dislike the way young people increasingly have to work for nothing in order to have any shot at moderate success. I dislike the obsession of the left with “equality of opportunity” when what we should be doing is increasing both opportunity and equality – not simply making a winner-takes-all game of musical chairs a little fairer. I also dislike noise pollution, which is everywhere – many people’s lives are blighted by the sound of cars, the hum of motorways and the whine of planes, not to mention the stereos of inconsiderate neighbours. Even bookshops have piped music! And I dislike intolerant, militant, extreme Islam, which I’d like everyone on the left to oppose much more vigorously. I really dislike the way some people believe a kind of Islamism is somehow “leftist”: that’s the sort of thing that makes me disbelieve in common perceptions of “left vs. right”.

Which person, event, era or movement from the past should we look to for inspiration now?

I think we should look again at Butskellism. Not because I want consensus with the Conservatives, but because the post-war period, until the 70s, seems to have been one of growing wealth and increasing social mobility based on a broad acceptance of social-democratic ideas. We could do with a period like that now. Perhaps we should also think about Gandhi and William Morris – people who advocated a simpler life. I think a simpler life is entirely compatible with many of our modern pleasures (like the web) and may be the way to greater happiness for many more of us.

Position: Blogger

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