Reinventing socialism: the triumph of neosocialism is the defining characteristic of politics today

National Review, Sept 1, 1997 by Rupert Murdoch

It is the self-interest of this bureaucratic class that drives neosocialism. These are the people who benefit from proliferating regulations because they administer them. They want to see the nanny state, because they are the nannies. They want to see "politics in command," because they are the commanders -- elected and unelected.

If we had been having this conversation in the 1890s, we would probably have been talking about the Rise of the Proletariat, the labor unions, and the Socialist parties. Today, the rise of the New Class is just as ominous. As in the 1890s, we don't really know where it will take us. But we can see reason for real concern.

To begin with, the New Class is an international phenomenon. Take the European Union -- this is a quintessential New Class creation. It is basically a supra-national bureaucracy built above the heads of the national legislatures. It is constantly having to circumvent national insurrections. But its impact on everyday life in those national communities is tremendous through ubiquitous and detailed regulation.

For example, EU regulations dictate that British farmers not allow their fields to be used as parking lots for country fairs because land "set aside" under an EU program to reduce production cannot be used for commercial purposes. This applies even if the car park is free.

British commercial growers of oak -- a patriotic symbol in England -- can't use British acorns because Brussels says they're not pure enough. Caerphilly cheese is no longer made in Caerphilly because EU rules required uneconomic production changes. It is illegal to sell small Cox's orange pippin apples -- Britain's most famous apple --because EU regulations require apples to be more than 55 millimeters in diameter.

All Wellington boots sold in Britain must come with a user's manual which includes this advice: "Each boot should be tried for fitting before use."

Now, 18,000 European Union officials spend their time on this sort of invasive nonsense. They, incidentally, were not tried for fitting before use.

The New Class is also a party political phenomenon. Many commentators are puzzled by the success of Center - Left parties --in Britain, the United States, Canada -- at a time when capitalism was supposed to have triumphed. Well, one answer is that capitalism has not triumphed. Neosocialism is triumphing. And the parties that are most firmly based on the new social force that underlies it are reaping the benefits.

In fact, one of the interesting things about recent politics is how completely the traditional parties of the Center - Right -- which are also, after all, run by professional politicians -- have been subverted by the New Class and its values.

George Bush, who used to say, "I'm a government guy," presided over a vast rebound in regulation.

I guess he wasn't joking.

In Britain you see the utter inability of the Conservative Party, at least until now, to handle the gulf between the grass roots' and the elite's views of the European Union.