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

National Review, Sept 1, 1997 by Rupert Murdoch

Some of you may have noticed that our London Sun endorsed the Labour Party in the recent election. One reason is that Prime Minister Tony Blair is a much-needed new broom. The Blair party repositioned itself brilliantly as the voice not of the old working class, but of the frustrated lower middle class which Margaret Thatcher had captured and John Major abandoned. The Conservative government was simply not giving us -- and more to the point our readers -- much to get excited about.

What, then, is to be done?

The current situation is not particularly stable. Neosocialism is prone to economic breakdown, just as the old model was. It confronts an inexorable reality. If the farmer is filling out forms, he cannot be raising cattle -- let alone getting rid of gophers.

For another thing, there are obvious signs that New Class monopolization of politics causes the party structure to break down, as people look for new vehicles to express their discontents. New parties are making waves in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, Italy, and France. In Britain -- unnoticed over here, and indeed over there amid the carnage of the last election -- a small anti -European Union party cost the Conservatives perhaps twenty seats. And in the U.S., of course, we have seen Ross Perot.

Not all these parties will amount to anything, and no doubt some are led by undesirables of one type or another. But, as a head of a mass-media business, I tell you: something is stirring out there.

Still -- what is to be done?

Let me put it this way. As a boy in Australia during World War II, I dimly remember the headlines about the fall of Singapore where the great guns notoriously faced out to sea. Nobody had ever imagined an attack could come overland. Nobody imagined this new neosocialist attack on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, either.

Let me suggest that, as a first step, all of us who believe in private enterprise and individual responsibility make sure our guns are facing the right way.