‘Marxist protesters’ have got it badly wrong

Why doesn’t Leeds Council evict the Marxist tented camp in City Square, just as Bradford Council evicted a similar camp, from the public square in front of Bradford City Hall? Also why don’t the police move them on for obstruction of a public place?

These Marxist protesters have got it badly wrong. No system is perfect, but only the free market delivers, out of which it can help those in genuine need.

The top one per cent of taxpayers pay a considerable amount in tax, which goes to help fund social security and health etc. Though money and material possessions are not the be-all-and-end-all of everything, nor should they be, there is nothing wrong in itself in wanting or having the good things of life.

It is what motivates people to start up and expand businesses, to produce the wealth and jobs on which we all depend. And it is what motivates people to get better pay for skills and talents, often gained through qualifications, which benefits us all.

Tax such people too much and they lose the incentive, and so there is less wealth and fewer jobs. A reasonable tax rate yes, but not huge tax increases based on an irrational Marxist levelling down, which kills the goose that lays the golden egg.

But more importantly, economic freedom, political freedom and religious freedom are closely linked. Though economic freedom is not a guarantee of democracy, as some dictatorships have market economies, it is a necessary precondition to it.

There is no example anywhere in the world of a democracy which doesn’t have a fairly liberal economy.

In the most glaring example of the abolition very largely of the market economy – the old Soviet Union – it was an atheist tyranny bent on world domination by armed force, which tried to wipe Christianity from the face of the earth.