'The soul of man under socialism'

For a long time I thought I was a socialist. Then when Tony Blair and New Labour rid the Labour party of "Clause 4" I thought perhaps it was time that I stopped simply thinking that being a socialist was synonymous with being left-wing and actually looked into what it meant.

I decided quite quickly that I was not a socialist but that didn't change my political views, which are founded pretty much entirely on the basis that we are all born equal and deserve support from our society that enables us to remain so. Which, fundamentally, means good public health care and education, delivered to everyone without favour or prejudice. (It also disregards any differences on the basis of gender, sexuality, race or religion.) (And is anti-monarchist.)

Lately, I've realised that my views do fall under the broader umbrella of Socialism whilst simultaneously appreciating how unimportant it is for me to label these beliefs. In one of my favourite books, 'Knowledge of Angels', an abbot (or bishop or something) realises how his academic treatises are nothing more than intellectual vanity. Similarly, I shouldn't waste time navel-gazing while the Tories rip apart the NHS.

I highly recommend that you read this beautifully written article about life before the NHS, that you bear in mind that a fifth of the people voting on the NHS bill have interests in private healthcare and understand that my passion on this subject is not entirely political; two of my children would have died without the NHS.

In his book, 'The soul of man under Socialism', which I've just started reading, Oscar Wilde writes "The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible." Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with that, I'd like to extend it to argue for a society in which inequality is impossible.