Maybe Nanny does know best

Not least among the shivers down my spine as I listen to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng pump up the rhetoric on their economic revolution is the evocation of myself – myself when young.

Like Ms Truss, I too joined the Liberal party as an Oxbridge fresher. I too believed in the power of personal choice. I too had a dream of unhindered competition liberating the animal spirits of enterprise and individual genius. I too told myself that we liberals must grit our teeth and keep the faith when sink-or-swim left some to sink. I too thrilled to the metaphor of ‘tall trees’ being allowed unencumbered access to the light.

And when (as with Truss) it dawned on me that the Liberal party was not serious about power and I joined the Conservatives, I, like her, carried my liberalism into our new political home. We rallied to our leader, Margaret Thatcher, because we saw in her the faith that as long as some were able to outpace others, and prosper and achieve more than others, the whole of society would benefit.