Ideas and action

How to inspire young voters and unite the country as the managerial age collapses: offer the hope and reality of a better future founded on ideas that work.

If the hon. Gentleman uses the word “ideological” to accuse me of having thought about how society works and what the law ought to be, of course I plead guilty.
– House of Commons, 2010

Shortly before the last election, I was honoured to speak in defence of freedom at a dinner for young professionals in London when I found the menu included the 2010 quote above, which of course I had forgotten all about.

Today, interviewed about young voters and the Conservatives, I was reminded of the importance of ideas in practical action.

As a former chartered airworthiness engineer then software engineer, I am convinced practical action ought to be informed by a robust grasp of theory if it is not to be, perhaps profoundly, dangerous.

Yet politics seems to thrive on the merely pragmatic, the expedient and the convenient. If you would accept that from the aircraft engineers next time you fly – or perhaps from your surgeon – I would be surprised. But in our impatience, mere pragmatism is the common demand made of our politicians.

Is it any wonder our politics and public policy is mired in failure?

The challenges facing the UK and the western world today cannot be explained – let alone solved – by nostalgia for party, tribe, tradition or easier times. Vague and comforting rhetoric won’t cut it. We must have pragmatic action founded on ideas which work.

That is why I return time and again to the literature of liberty and the principles for a free society.

The Principles for a Free Society