Compassionate Conservatism

Numa entrevista ao Telegraph, Oliver Letwin (responsável pela revisão das políticas dos Tories) apresenta as bases do novo programa dos conservadores, agora liderados por David Cameron. Entre outras, surge a preocupação com a redistribuição da riqueza:

"Of course, inequality matters. Of course, it should be an aim to narrow the gap between rich and poor. . . not by trying to do down those with most but by enabling those who have least to share an increasing part of an enlarging cake."
Unlike the Prime Minister, he is even prepared to use the R-word. "It's more than a matter of safety nets... We should redistribute money."(...)
"We need to make it clear that we are concerned with wealth creation but we are also concerned with improving public services. That means restructuring, but it also means spending money on them."
Mr Letwin also seems ready to abandon the Tories' flirtation with a "flat tax". The party wants "flatter and simpler taxes" rather than a revolutionary approach.

E ainda:

"The Government should seek to reduce what would otherwise mean intolerable inequality."

O que diria Lady Thatcher sobre estas ideias sobre a repartição do "bolo"? Talvez dissesse:

"(...)we have gone as far as we possibly can with the redistribution of income. We really now must concentrate on creating more growth so that the size of the cake is bigger."(...)"It's no part of my job to be a propagandist for a socialist society."

E o que pensará agora George Osborne, o "shadow chancellor", sobre o "flat tax" (ele que o defendia há alguns meses) e sobre estes comentários do seu colega?