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Britain has advanced more towards the totalitarian state, in the last twelve months than in the previous twelve years, and what do we see now? We see something like a disease spread across the country, with people clamouring on every side for state control. The same disease runs through every party political programme one picks up. Because many proposals are advocated under the guise of paternalism and "social justice" it does not alter the fact that it is authoritarianism. State paternalism leads to the adoration of the state and involves the subordination of the individual.

We still have an inequitable distribution of wealth in this country; we still have people richer than they should be, and people in unjust poverty. But instead of going to the root of things, the advocates of paternalism and controls come along with proposals to spend millions of pounds in welfare schemes, much of it coming out of the pockets of the recipients themselves by way of taxation, national insurance, increased contributions, and passed on "capital" taxes such as the selective employment tax. When these funds are exhausted the Government resorts to the printing press and dilutes our earnings and savings. What kind of welfare is this?

To create the impression that profiteers and land speculators are being soaked to pay the bill, the Government produces a Land Commission which only toys with the problem of land speculation and ties up the development industry with controls and disincentives. The way to deal with the land question is not by control but by taxing the unimproved value of the land.

We are now being told that for a man to be employed or not is the prerogative of the state. If we are to believe that there shall be no inherent right to give employment or to fix wages, then it necessarily follows that a man has no inherent right to take a job - except with the state.

Through all this state paternalism there runs the thread that Whitehall knows best about everything that concerns our daily fives. Thus Government by the elite is now recommended - not Government for the people by the people. It is no wonder that proportional representation is no longer discussed today. I am reminded of the old lady who asked her vicar if one would have to associate with the lower orders in Heaven. The vicar replied: "Madam so long as you feel like that about it the matter will not arise." So we ought to have government by the elite!

It is the ordinary man in this country who has made this country great, not the politicians, and the Government's only business in the economic life of the country is to see that he gets opportunity and liberty. Anybody who is going to take away the spirit of freedom by putting the people of this country in chains is going to do more than damage this country - he is going to damage the whole world, for this country has led the fight for liberty for all mankind.