Tory divisions
Sir: The history of the Conservative Party is also the story of the rivalry between the interventionist and free market groups. On the outcome of that contest hinges the fate of the free, capitalist system in Great Britain. If the interventionist wing are allowed to dictate policy, the result will be to prepare the ground for a Marxist takeover of this island. If the free market group are able to win control of the party then we will be able to enjoy prosperity and extend freedom.
There are many Tory politicians who try to conceal the fact that there is a deep rift in our party. One interesting diversionary gambit to distract the attention of the public from this situation is to present the Communist Party as the main threat to democracy. This is not true. The number one enemy of the capitalist society is the interventionist wing of the Conservative Party. Briefly the interventionists believe in state control and intervention in the economy. For example, they accept and are accommodated to nationalisation on a vast scale, to state education, state transport, state communications, state medicine, to significant state ownership of land, and also to the retention of dozens of laws, thousands of regulations and millions of civil servants. Most interventionists do not understand the moral and philosophical arguments for capitalism and have never read, studied or even heard of pro-free-market intellectualsor writers like Ayn Rand or Ludwig von Mises. As a result they are not aware that many solutions they advocate are based on statist ideas. They offer to provide a more efficient management of a socialist economy. They have not discovered the radical alternatives to socialism.
For decades the interventionists have failed and failed again, reaching rock bottom under Edward Heath. The state has been allowed to penetrate into every part of our lives. This process has seldom been challenged or reversed. Now the left is within striking distance of legislating a planned economy into being. I firmly consider that the policies which the free market section have consistently proposed should be given careful consideration. Policies which would often be of a radical and even revolutionary nature but which would guarantee our economic and political freedom. Socialism must give way to capitalism, collectivism must give way to individualism, and state coercion must give way to freedom.
R. L. H. Heaton 33 Southfield Park, Harrow, Middlesex
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