The preoccupation with equality

I awake to the quiet staggering news that the Financial Times, which is read by those who own our country and by hardly anyone who lives in it, has only gone and declared its support for the Conservative Party in next week’s General Election. “The FT would like to see a Conservative-led administration,” says its leader column today. And the main reason? Labour leader Ed Miliband “is preoccupied with inequality.” Well, who knew? The Labour Party, and I quote, “Believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.” The FT, which laughably professes to have “no fixed party political allegiances”, opposes one which stands for equality. That certainly rules out one party then.

When I say equality, it is not some communist ideal, as multimillionaire Tory supporting ex footballer Sol Campbell seems to think. The inequality I despise is the very richest people in society getting richer and richer whilst the working classes either stand still or get poorer. No one is saying no one should be prevented from being well-off and better off than someone else, especially if they work hard and play by the rules, but it cannot be right that millions of people are trapped in a never ending cycle of struggle on the minimum wage, on zero hours contracts and sometimes in absolute poverty.

In addition to better equality, how about a genuine meritocracy in our society, where no matter what your background, you have the opportunity to, at the very least, improve your life, but always to be on a level playing field with those born of privilege. That way society in general benefits. Potential is fulfilled, people with skills have them utilised for the greater good, through public service or by entrepreneurship, and we are all winners.

The FT is on shakier ground when it declares “the choice is therefore between a dynamic, flexible and open economy delivering higher living standards for all, and a pinched nationalism that clings to the past. Little England or Great Britain”, unintentionally pointing out the “pinched nationalism” of the Tories (they have pinched it from Ukip). This economy has not and will not deliver higher living standards for all: it is achieving the exact opposite.

The game is really given away when the FT congratulates David Cameron and, tellingly, Nick Clegg for helping to “shrink the state”, another term for the scorched earth policy that is ravaging vital public services and would destroy them altogether if Cameron (and by implication, Clegg) were to cobble together another coalition, governing on a straightforward Tory agenda and not the centre ground as pathetically stated by Clegg.

I did not expect the FT to come out in favour of a Labour Party standing in the election on the basis of fairness, equality and opportunity for all, because the FT represents the rich establishment.

But there’s another thing. The author of the FT’s leader article is one Jonathan Ford, pictured on the attached photograph sitting next to Boris Johnson and just down from David Cameron. Another Bullingdon boy, of course, the powerhouse behind the way our country is being run.

The FT has “no fixed party political allegiances” my arse.