Economics - When Left Meets Right

December 2005

Let me warn you - this is a political diatribe/blog (OK - it isn't a diatribe - I have nothing radical or startling to say, just my observations on world politics based on my limited knowledge of such things).

I was watching the BBC (yes - again - time hangs heavy on one's hands in Qatar). A guy called David Cameron just got elected the Chief of the Tory Party - Britain's version of the American Republican Party and India's BJP.

He looks and sounds suspiciously like his Labour Party counterpart Tony Blair did in 1997. Young, photogenic, articulate to the point of being verbose, and relentlessly cheerful (this is a deeply annoying trait both of them share). And what did he say? Pretty much the same things that Blair did (and still does). He wants lower crime, regeneration of Britain's inner cities, higher employment rates for young people, well-funded universities, a "secure" Britain safe from terrorism, etc. In other words, like Blair, he wants to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative. How nice for him!! Of course, he never discussed where this money will come from. Politicians are always vague when it comes to funding.

Traditionally, the Liberal parties (Labour in Britain, the Democrats in the US) have stood for "big" government - higher public spending and investments based on higher taxes, "progressive" social polices such as equal rights for women and minorities, etc. The Conservative Parties (the Tories in Britain, the Republicans in the US) have stood for "small" government - lower taxes and fewer regulations for business and less "progressive" social polices (extreme right-wingers in the US oppose abortion rights and want to introduce school prayer which would endanger the secular staus of the US).

However, in the last 20 years, everything has changed. Liberal and Conservative parties have both moved towards the Center since that is where the votes are. Both say that they want the exact same things. Neither of them can accomplish what they say they want to - again for the same reasons. Conservatives want to be "compassionate", but cannot regenerate inner cities or create jobs through public investment without raising taxes which is always unpopular with voters. Liberals, tired of being labeled "Tax-and-Spenders" cannot do this for the exact same reasons.

The same situation applies in India as well. Look at the BJP and the Congress. With each passing day, it becomes harder to diferentiate between the two. They have pretty much the same economic agenda (liberalisation) and the same foreign policy (dialogue with Pakistan and resolving the Kashmir issue). Of course, they never agree on anything even though they have the very same policies. As a venerable British 19th century politician (a Victorian gentleman with a double-chin and a walrus mustache whose name escapes me right now) once said, "The duty of the Opposition is to oppose".

So what happens in a situation like this? Hardliners on both sides start grabbing headlines - people like Pat Buchanan in the US, and Uma Bharti in India.

Sometimes, I miss the old days when these guys had different positions on everything and actually had something new and different to say.

Oh well - this "blog" of mine doesn't have much of a point, really. But thanks for listening, anyway :-)