I hope PM Modi will woo British Indians, and not just British Indians woo him. Let me explain why his and our patriotism demands it.
Watching the Conservative Party Conference and indeed British politics recently is like watching a good game of chess. Just as people wrongly through electing Corbyn as Labour leader was them tipping their King and conceding, so they have miscalculated what the Conservative Party is doing.
The old Conservatives would have said at Conference ‘We must be hard on criminals, more prisons, longer sentences, hang them if you can.’
The New Conservative says ‘Prisons cost money. Its far better we get society to engage and educate and rehabilitate because we want them paying tax and working.’ If you want to understand the ideology behind new Conservatives it is economics.
Of course there is a conscience, but they’ve discovered that the biggest sin is when costs to the government are too great – because guess who suffers? It’s not the rich. It’s not the rich, not because we don’t tax them enough, it’s not the rich because no matter what you do to the rich, they will never suffer – they’re rich!
It’s the poorest. And it’s not the poorest because Conservatives are toffs and hate the rich, but because they’re poor. Price hikes hit them most. Wage falls hit them most. Benefits cuts hit them most. There isn’t enough money in the world to make the poor rich.
So what to do? That is why economics can be moral. It can save the poor by making sure our prisons are not costly by ensuring we cut the number of prisoners. By ensuring our NHS is economical. By making sure we increase the total number of people paying tax because there are not enough rich people to tax to oblivion. And the only way to increase the tax base is to get more people who can work, to work – and keep them there – young, old, male, female, father, mother, ex-criminal, able, disabled.
Just as there is a danger Corbyn could outmanoeuvre the Conservatives if they become complacent thinking he is Michael Foot, for Labour the real possibility is they’ve been outmanoeuvred by the working class Conservative who has always been a strong strand for over one hundred years of the Conservative Party.
And if you don’t believe me that for the New Conservative it is all about economics – remember the Chancellor’s visit to China – all economics. And if you want to know why India matters – it’s not as a Democracy in a region of totalitarian nuclear armed neighbours, but economics.
If India wants more influence on the world stage, then it won’t do it by the size of her army, the political system, the number of nuclear missiles. It will only do it by growing her economy. All else will be secondary. Either India makes it easier to do business in India, or as the Indian Diaspora has proven in Britain and Silicon Valley, we are more than willing to live elsewhere and benefit other nations and call them our own too. Woo us PM Modi, just as much as you did Silicon Valley, for we too in Britain are talented and an asset to our country.
