One more bonkers than the other.
The first one is fairly acceptable actually. It’s not going to change anybody’s mind, but I don’t think it’s that bad a line.
Socialists against protectionism?
I wasn’t aware that Socialists were now in favour of free trade, but fine. If they’ve now decided to change their tack and follow us into the eminently sensible position of letting the markets deal with trade I’m not about to criticise them for that.
The second one is slightly more contentious:
But Socialism never worked?
I’m not so sure.
The standard response to this is to ask the Socialists if they can point to a single Socialist regime in the world that has at any point in history achieved a higher standard of living for its people than the standard of living enjoyed by people living in capitalist countries. The answer of course is that Socialism has never provided adequately for the poorest in society while in capitalist countries even the poorest enjoy luxuries such as clean water, electricity, safe food and a home to live in.
In Socialist countries people have lived miserable lives, exploited by the leaders who told them that they would bring them prosperity and equality. Under capitalism even the poorest person has the chance to change their lives, to rise, and to do so while being assured of a basic security should anything go wrong. Ideally anyone born into the roughest council estate should be able to become rich, while anyone born to a millionaire should be able to fall and take the consequences of bad decisions.
That this does not happen and that social mobility has declined under Labour shows precisely why we can’t rely on Labour and the Left to fix our social problems.
Posted by Will Stobart 
Posted by Will Stobart 