Congratulations to the British Conservative Party. A fourth straight election victory after a campaign where, apart from their clear message on Brexit, once again the party seemed afraid to stand for anything. Despite facing the most leftwing manifesto in modern history, little time was spent promoting an alternative vision, with Boris Johnson preferring instead to roll back promised corporation tax cuts, disavowing privatisation in the NHS, abandoning talk of income tax cuts, kowtowing to the big state green agenda and so on. Of course, after emerging with the biggest majority in decades, his strategists will feel vindicated. It is hard to say what the outcome would have been if the party had opted for a brave, positive, aspirational message of free markets and personal responsibility. But a manifesto is not a contract with the people, as we have seen so many times before. And with five years until the next general election, there is no better time to ditch the defensive stance and pursue bold reforms that will transform Britain for the better. For the economy this means tax cuts, deregulation and proper free trade; for civil society, a rollback of hate speech laws, nanny state policies and politically correct overreach. But reforms are not enough. Boris Johnson must take the population with him. The reasoning behind the policies must be explained to the public. “Free market reforms”, Johnson must say, “will release the potential of the British economy and a competitive, free economy will deliver the productivity gains that drive real wage increases”. He must make clear that “when your family is better off in 5 years time, this is why”.
There is little reason to be timid. Though capitalism has suffered some reputational damage recently, largely due to a false narrative around the causes of the Great Recession, most voters are not ideologues but care about results. Take Labour’s nationalisation agenda: it enjoys support from a clear majority of Brits, however, most are probably not dogmatically wedded to the concept of democratic control of the means of production but mistakenly believe they will get a better and cheaper service from a state run enterprise. The job is to explain why this is unlikely and why public services should be provided in a competitive market by the private sector.
Now is the time to be brave. Now is the time to present a vision of a dynamic, free economy and a meritocratic, aspirational society. With a large Tory majority and five years to the next election, now is the time to drive through those free market reforms so sorely needed and still be in power when the British public start enjoying the fruits of those reforms. Boris Johnson talks of ‘unleashing Britain’s potential’. If he is serious, that means releasing British capitalism. There is no time like the present.