Class war on private schools reveals Labour’s plan for theft

Labour party members and supporters received a jolly little email from the party on Sunday evening. “What a weekend,” it said. “THIS is what Britain could be like.”

Well, yes, exactly. THIS is what Britain could be like under Jeremy Corbyn. That is precisely the point and the reason anyone not mad is deeply worried about the prospect. Tuning into the proceedings in Brighton, from a safe distance, it became more apparent than ever that this is not a party leadership to be trusted with power. This is a group of individuals that one would not, in West of Scotland parlance, “send out for a loaf.”

Indeed, if you were unwise enough to send the current Labour leadership out to buy a loaf you could be certain that they would fail to locate a loaf, and then stop on the way back to formulate a special one day party conference dedicated to agreeing a policy on nationalising bakeries. Or more likely they would just steal your  money.

The Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn is now pro-theft, with the passing of a policy statement that stipulates that the assets and endowments of private schools should be stolen and “democratically” reallocated by a future Labour government. The schools will be closed or moved by force into the state sector. This goes well beyond removing charitable status or imposing extra tax burdens on schools that dare to be not run by the state. This is a policy of liquidation.

While the Brexit punch-up in Brighton today was amusing in its way – and perhaps significant for the course of the next general election campaign – the sinister new policy on schools endorsed on Sunday was in its way much more revealing for what it demonstrated. Expropriation and theft are what lies in stores if this gang ever manage to win an election or are put in place by accident during coalition negotiations.

Property rights are an essential, basic component of a functioning free society. They are the foundation stone. Without a guarantee of property rights – and a legal framework for the orderly resolution of disputes – the state or a tyrannical ruler, proclaiming that it or he knows best, can, under the banner of convenience, take anything with impunity.

The far left, of course, will have none of that. Property is theft, according to the old anarchist dictum of the 1840s adopted by the Marxists. The writings and speeches down the years of Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell demonstrate that this is an analysis he endorses. Incidentally, anyone in the City of London who has fallen for his cuddly uncle routine is a naive fool.

The Corbynistas are not even hiding their intentions now – their activists made it party policy on Sunday and the deathly logic is clear.

Private schools are not a particularly popular cause, of course. In the UK, overall only around 7% of all school pupils go private.

But a process that begins with class war rhetoric and stealing the assets of private schools can easily be extended once property rights are decisively breached. It will quickly be pointed out that to complete the revolution all charitable endowments should be appropriated in our better interests and shared out. What piece of property is safe in an emergency? The Labour leadership are Marxists, and the answer is nothing is safe if they get half a chance.