"His piece epitomizes the gulf between EU "center-right" thought and conservative/libertarian thinking as it is espoused in the US. Crook states that "without new gov't interventions, the gap between winners and losers may continue to widen". What interventions does he have in mind? Wealth redistribution? Pouring more money into faulty gov't run schools that exacerbate the very inequality he bemoans? More progressive taxation? All of these and more? He can pick any initiative he desires; it's been tried and has failed. Do we need even more time than the 150 odd years since Bismarck to realize gov't is not, has never been, the answer?

"He later he says "intelligent discrimination" is needed regarding public spending. This canard, called " smart gov't spending" on my side of the pond, doesn't actually exist. (I exclude wartime spending which, while wasteful, is unavoidable). When has this ever happened, not just over the course of a year or two, but over generations? (cf Head Start, or worse the NHS).

Crook further remarks that it is "idiotic" for the Right to view all gov't spending as waste. Well, change the word to "wasteful" and that view is anything but addlebrained. It is simply true: whether building a superior fighter, tank, fighting WWII, or creating yet another boondoggle of a welfare/education program.. ALL GOV'T SPENDING IS, BY DEFINITION (indeed by our very human nature) wasteful.

Perhaps Mr Crook would do well to immerse himself in the libertarian free market ideology that he implicitly scorns. He might be surprised to learn that, throughout Western history, that's pretty much all that has worked over the only time frame that matters…over the course of generations.

David Fuller's view Thanks for a robust response to an interesting debate. As I said in my brief comment yesterday, 'the devil is in the detail' so we do not know the specifics behind Clive Crook's article. I too do not favour wealth redistribution but if Congressman Paul Ryan's plans to simplify US taxation are to have real credibility and appeal, he will have to remove loopholes which have corrupted the system.

"Intelligent discrimination" could turn out to be a partisan canard in the wrong hands, or something constructive such as seed capital for cutting edge technologies and biotechnologies at universities.

I regard the NHS as an essential pillar of communitarian social solidarity, despite all its bureaucratic inefficiencies and waste.