Free trade, Cullingworth and the Great Schism (with apologies to Paul Ellison)

My Party has, throughout its history been bedevilled by a “Great Schism”. And each new generation of political activists, MPs, members and debaters has returned to a reincarnation of this vast divide. The knack for a leader – other than getting the top job of course (which is the main objective for most of them) – is to find a means of bridging the gap.

To pin down the source of the schism we need to go right down to the very local. In a village like Cullingworth – still proudly boasting two pubs, two general stores, a butcher, a Post Office, a chemist and a health centre – there are two sorts.

“No I don’t shop at Paul’s his meat is too expensive. I go to Taplins in the market or to ASDA”

And:

“Paul’s meat is really good quality and I’m happy to pay a little more because of that and because I know where it comes from.”

Now if we want to keep the butcher – and I do – we need plenty of the latter sort. If all the villagers go to the market or to ASDA then we’ll lose our butcher and be a poorer place. Now there are many – inspired by reading the blurb of “Small is Beautiful” or a Green Party pamphlet – who hark back to a past age before supermarkets. And propose draconian measures to prevent the supermarkets taking all of Paul’s trade. The most radical of these say we should get together with other villages to form a united front against the supermarket – a butchers’ union.

Others say, “just a minute…it can’t be right to stop someone shopping where they want? Surely we need to make the argument for using Paul rather than forcing people to do so?” These people see some sense in getting together with other butchers for marketing but feel that such cartels for protection are wrong.

I’m not picking sides here (although I do have one) merely illustrating the divide between those whose instinctive response is to pass rules to “protect” what we have now and those who prefer the idea of personal and individual informed choice. This is the “Great Schism” in the Conservative Party – the one that divided us over the corn laws, over empire preference, during the League of Nations period and since the 1950s over “Europe”.

Today that dilemma remains – the “butchers union” is set up and called the European Union. This Union has one primary purpose – the management of trade. And for the time being free-traders in the party must grin and bear it. Our time will come because free trade works and managed trade doesn’t.