But - in passing - none of the Bloggertarians ever address the question of how you can have a CBI without ID cards?
Well, it's just one more benefit like the dozens paid right now to countless people without ID cards. It doesn't have any special quality that makes an identity card necessary. How can you have free museum entrance without ID cards?
Beyond that, it forced me to confront just how rare I am in being a non-libertarian blogger. There are left-liberals and dozens of libertarians but I reckon you could count the conservatives in the UK blogosphere on one hand. That isn't at all the case in the US blogosphere or in the broader movement here. The only other environment in which I've seen libertarians enjoy such an ascendancy among the Right was in the students' union.
I'm not quite sure what to make of that.
5 comments:
Well, that's strange because nearly all the ones I come across are conservative! Must be me....
But surely the highly means-tested complicated and occassional nature of ordinary benefits is very different from a system that says "If you are a citizen, you get £12k a year. Every one of you"?
I should stress that I'm not specifically arguing for either ID cards of CBI. Like most specific policies, I'm agnostic on them.
Oh, and if you are a conservative, and not a bloggertarian/libertarian, you could consider joining the campaign for the Burkean model of representative democracy that I've outlined here?
http://nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com/2007/11/ignore-fundis.html
It's entirely compatible with poltical conservatism, but objectively socialistic (I would argue). I suspect that bloggertarianism is an acknowledgement of this.
Oh, good blog by the way! (For a tory...) ;-)
Welshcakes,
You're separating conservative from right-wing and Conservative - two overlapping but very different groups - right? Who are the conservatives?
Paulie,
The CBI is certainly very different to regular benefits but not in a way that would seem to necessitate an ID card. There would seem little difference in the difficulty of preventing entitlement fraud. In fact, the simplicity of the CBI might even make things easier.
I can't quite see the point in your other post right now but I'm very tired. I'll try to take another look some other time.
Libertarians are conservatives - small government, no Statism, freedom, free market.
Sorry Matthew - I should have pointed to my conclusion ( a cheeky one) that democrats who are not liberals are part of the great social democrat conspiracy - even if they don't know it yet.
I need an editor...
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