What I Believe In

What follows is an attempt to summarise my personal philosophy. I don't claim it's consistent, because it isn't. Broadly speaking, I would describe it as tolerant, libertarian, sceptical and conservative with a small c.

Lifestyle Freedom

I am disturbed by the growing trend in society to want to ban all kinds of things. People from the 1960s would be amazed by how illiberal society has become today
In particular, it was wrong to ban handguns because of the actions of isolated deranged individuals, however terrible they were. Nor do I think foxhunting should be banned, although it is undoubtedly in a sense cruel and barbaric.
As a society we take an irrational and over-emotional view of risk. Every human activity involves some element of risk. Clearly we should try to minimise risks to life and limb as much as reasonably possible, but they can never be entirely eliminated. If you took no risks, you would never do anything. Doing nothing is often the most dangerous option of all
Smoking is an unpleasant and dangerous habit. I have dabbled with it in the past, but never taken it up permanently. All pubs should assess the demand for non-smoking areas and provide them if their customers want it. But smokers have a right to pursue their habit if they want to, and I don't think they should be treated as pariahs. There are also clear and disturbing parallels between the anti-smoking campaign and the campaign against alcohol. People have a right to go to hell in their own way if they want to. I also believe that the threat to health from passive smoking is much exaggerated.
I am seriously concerned that there will be a major movement towards neo-Prohibitionism in this country in the next twenty years, as there already is in the US. The crusade against what might be called "one-drink driving" is maybe the little cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man's hand
I believe we should carefully be moving towards full legalisation of cannabis and ecstasy. I can honestly say I have never taken either. But we need to be sure we have effective measures in place to prevent people from driving when impaired by soft drugs.
I have no idea what we should do about the problem of hard drugs. You can't legalise them, but you can't stamp them out either. And apparently heroin in particular has such a wonderful effect that if you ever try it you'll crave its "beautiful sadness" for the rest of your life. (Of course I haven't) I suspect that heroin has had a part to play in a large proportion of great rock music.

Crime and Punishment

Society is often very cruel and unforgiving towards people who have broken the law in an accidental or spur-of-the-moment manner. We need to separate out the genuine calculating evil villains from the rest.
We should be more tolerant of people who act in self-defence against criminals. Often, people are reluctant to intervene because they fear that they rather than the criminals will end up being punished
I don't believe in knee-jerk reactions, short sharp shocks, three strikes and you're out or any of that.
And we certainly shouldn't be locking people up who are involved in road accidents unless it can be shown that they are guilty of extreme recklessness. Accidents are precisely that, they are caused by momentary lapses of attention or judgment, not malice or premeditation.
"Zero tolerance" is generally equal to "Zero intelligence". Every problem, however serious, must be handled with discretion.
I am inherently suspicious of people who take strong, black-and-white moral positions on any issue, particularly when they want to curtail the freedoms of others. That way leads us to the intolerance of Hitler and the Ayatollahs
In theory, I believe that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for people who murder in cold blood in the pursuit of an objective, such as those who shoot police officers during the course of a robbery, and terrorists who plant bombs where they know people will be about. However, it should not be applied to people like Myra Hindley, Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman or Roy Whiting as their actions, however monstrous, are ultimately not sane or rational.
Having said that, since the chances of the death penalty being reintroduced in this country are nil, to harp on about it is counter-productive and undermines sensible debate about crime and punishment.

Business

Experience of the behaviour of the big brewers makes it clear that large corporations are a bad thing, and function almost as mini fascist states that force obedience and conformity upon their employees. It's easy to say that if you don't like a company you can always go and work elsewhere, but for most people it's not as simple as that.
Companies should be much more democratic and tolerant of individualism and diversity. There should be a lot more women and people from ethnic minorities at the tops of companies. There should also be a lot more single men, fat people, ugly people etc.
I'm not in general a fan of the present government, but I applaud their labour market reforms - the minimum wage, increased protection against unfair dismissal, and the working time directive. In some respects they should have gone further. Everybody should have a cast iron right to work no more than 35 hours a week.
There is no reason why all office workers in non customer-facing roles should not be allowed to work within a proper system of flexible working hours
You will gather from the above that I am no fan of unfettered capitalism. It inevitably leads to monopoly and the abuse of corporate power. One of the main objectives of government should be to break up giant corporations
I am saddened by the way so many mutual organisations have been destroyed to pander to individuals' greed. It is like bribing people with their own money. However, if the people at the top of mutuals had run them as genuine democratic organisations rather than cosy oligarchies they might have stood a better chance of survival
The mutual ownership of enterprise rather than shareholder capitalism is the way we should be heading. This is emphatically not the same as public ownership. The John Lewis Partnership - who also own the Waitrose supermarket chain - is an excellent but unfortunately all too rare example of this form of ownership

Transport and Environment

We should preserve the glories of the British countryside and avoid if at all possible building new developments on greenfield sites. The outskirts of many of our major towns (for example the A49 north out of Warrington) are coming to resemble suburban America, which is profoundly depressing.
The densely-packed, vibrant urban centres of cities like Bath and Edinburgh are something we should be aiming for in more locations. But you have to do it through choice, not through compulsory urban cramming. And if you build new developments with no space for cars they will inevitably end up being unattractive to the vast majority of people with middle incomes and above, and turn into sink neighbourhoods
The motor car is one of the most liberating and empowering inventions in human history. It has given ordinary people a freedom of movement they never enjoyed before in the whole of history. You can't just wish it away. And what would be the alternative - not mass cycling, but the widespread exploitation of draught animals, particularly horses. Clearly, though, it is not well suited to moving large quantities of people into and out of the centres of cities. I don't think anyone labelled as "pro-car" would dispute that
Speed cameras are counter-productive and encourage drivers to concentrate disproportionately on something that is only a relatively minor factor in road accidents. They might be useful in a handful of locations, but the vast majority should be scrapped
I strongly oppose and condemn drunken driving. However, driving not only when "over the limit", but after consuming any alcoholic drink whatsoever is increasingly being viewed as unacceptable, even though this has no statistical foundation. In a generation I fear that this attitude will eradicate the British pub as we know it today and impose a kind of fearful semi-Prohibition on most responsible people. We may stave off the 80-50 mg limit cut now, but I suspect that by the time I die we'll have a 20 mg limit (as in Sweden) and greatly increased penalties, maybe even including prison sentences, for anyone caught exceeding it. This is another example of a hysterical, irrational attitude to risk
A lot of "environmentalism" is basically puritanism dressed up in a green cloak. It's used as an excuse to stop people doing things or making them feel guilty. However, I strongly believe that humanity has a duty to be responsible stewards of the planet. One of the best ways of doing that would be to reduce our numbers which would reduce the pressure on land and resources. The reason why lemurs are under threat is overpopulation in Madagascar, not the evil actions of multinational corporations.
Much overseas aid is best described as "a transfer of resources from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries". The reason Africa is poorer than it was in 1960 is the incompetence and corruption of its rulers. Nothing else.
Global warming is caused by long-term climatic shifts, and is not a result of human activity.
The activism of people like the tree-and-tunnel anti road campaigners and the Seattle protesters is disturbing because it is basically nihilistic - they are not really "for" anything, they are just against the world

Society

I am a strong believer in the principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
I wouldn't vote to abolish it, because it would be replaced with something worse, but I think monarchy is an anachronism in the 21st century and I have no interest whatsoever in the private lives of the Royal Family. However, Prince Charles is one of the people in public life for whom I have most respect, as a decent and thoughtful man in a difficult and thankless position who is prepared to "think outside the box"
I found the mania following the death of Princess Diana profoundly disturbing. It exemplified all the cant, hypocrisy and muddled, sentimental thinking that is so prevalent in our country today. During that terrible week between the accident and the funeral, sensible people kept their mouths shut.
People's private lives should be kept private, even if they are in the public eye. The intrusion and prurience of the popular press is disgusting
I find the reduction of the age of homosexual consent to 16 somewhat disturbing. But I can sympathise in a way with the position of 16-year-old gay men, and I wouldn't presume to judge them. So basically it's got to be right.
I believe that this country needs strong and effective armed forces, and we have been very well served by the courage and dedication of our fighting men from the Armada through the Battle of Britain to the Falklands. But military influence on civilian life is almost always pernicious, and conscription of any kind is inherently wrong.
I abhor the traditional, intolerant, jingoistic, hanging and flogging brand of Toryism.
I also abhor racism. I find in particular the hostility towards the Jews, one of the most non-violent and civilised of peoples, completely unfathomable. But I don't think ethnic minorities should cry "racism" whenever individuals are badly treated
I don't believe abortion should be banned, but the criteria should be stricter. In general there should be fewer abortions and more adoptions
One of the biggest scandals in our society is our shameful treatment of the elderly. They are grossly under-represented on films and TV and we increasingly try to write them off as incapable. The growing pressure to curtail the right of the over-70s to drive is an example of this. Even though we are living longer there are fewer and fewer over-60s in prominent positions in public life
We allow sport, particularly football, to assume a position of disproportionate importance in our society. An obsession with sport, and in general with physical rather than mental activity, is a symptom of an immature society

Pubs and Beer

I love pubs as a wonderful and uniquely British cultural institution. I love spending time in pubs. They have been justly described as "wooden wombs for adults". But I worry that the uniqueness of the British pub is disappearing and being replaced by bars targeted on particular groups of people
I also love beer. Real ale is obviously the peak of the brewer's art, but most beer actually is pretty nice, with the exception of nitrokeg ales, which I think are uniquely vile. US Budweiser isn't nasty muck, it's just bland. But it's not worse than Coke
Beer is more characterful and profoundly satisfying than either wine or spirits, both of which are surrounded by far more pretension
I am dismayed by the current trend in society to regard regular moderate drinking as undesirable and antisocial, but to tolerate and indeed celebrate occasional gross drunkenness, which I believe militates against a responsible approach to alcohol and the traditional rhythms of the British pub

Miscellaneous

We should no more be forced to use metric measurements than we should be forced to speak Esperanto. Another example where I favour freedom of choice rather than compulsion.
The "Modern" movement in the arts is basically just a con-trick that ends up disappearing up its own backside. Books should have stories, music should have tunes, paintings should be of recognisable things. All this Damian Hurst and Tracey Emin crap is a glaring example of the Emperor's new clothes
I don't believe in God. Sorry - but religion is a myth created to explain the world.

If you read the above you'll find in many respects I'm more "left wing" or "liberal" than you might have imagined, particularly in the sphere of crime and punishment. But I think those tags themselves are old-fashioned and don't reflect the divergences in the way people think nowadays.

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