Down with the poor
Sir: Your review by Angus Maude MP of Down with the Poor shows how much the book is needed: he
welcomes it, yet like so many men on the side of private enterprise he seems to doubt that system's ef- fectiveness. So far has socialism spread into our thinking. It is ap- parently only 'enthusiastic authors' who can overcome this poison and thank goodness they exist!
School vouchers and wider parental choice of schools are pro- bably the only ways to improve school standards—at the moment we are moving towards a system where allocation to schools will be made by bureaucrats with no need for schools to respond to parental demands. Once such a system is established throughout the country then a future Labour government will, as hinted by Alice Bacon at the last Labour party Conference, wipe out the public schools as being totally divisive!
Our basic political and economic argument in 'favour of reverse in- come tax in Down with the Poor is simply that one will never move in this country to an incentive growth economy fired by greatly reduced income tax and surtax until public opinion is assured that those who cannot compete in a market economy are fully and automatically catered for. Thus re- verse income tax would not only be morally right if it abolished ,poverty but it would economically be cheap at the price. It would not pauperise the lower paid worker. There are two centuries of dif- ference between Speenhamland and now-95 per cent of the population will strive for the extra refrigera- tors, colour television sets, foreign holidays now available—the intro- duction of such consumer goods has transformed the attitude of the ordinary worker.
I have not the slightest doubt that our country is ready for a radical free enterprise and personal responsibility policy. My only worry, and I imagine this is shared by very many others, is whether the Government as a whole has, despite Mr Heath's clear words, moved as far in this direction as has the ordinary voter. This is why I must reply to Angus Maude, a gentle- man for whom I have the highest respect, and whose book (with Roy Lewis) The Middle Classes I have always considered a model of its kind.
Rhodes Boyson Churchill Press Limited, 2 Cecil Court, London Road, Enfield, Middlesex
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