You can download a PDF copy of "The Little Red Book" here
Socialism has never worked, wherever it has been tried.
The consequences have been broadly as harmful as the implementation has been faithful, with the very worst from Marxist and Stalinist communist regimes.
It has led to unspeakable human tragedy, with millions of lives lost under brutal dictatorships. It has bankrupted countries and paid scant regard for taxpayers.
One only has to look to Venezuela to see what hardline socialism is truly about, and how unattached it is from social democracy.
It is also plain to see when you compare a socialist country with its neighbours. Look at the wealth, prosperity and freedom of South Korea. Bright lights, positivity and a world-leading economy that embraces technology stands in stark contrast to North Korea.
But it’s not just other places that have felt the negative effects of socialism. British taxpayers who were around in the 1970s will remember all too well the damage caused to our own economy.
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, though, so today’s taxpayers should be mindful that the tax burden is the highest it has been for 50 years.
Taxpayers should never be used as the cash cows for failed social experiments.
Economic freedom is vital in promoting both personal and national prosperity. Many former
Soviet countries have successfully broken free of the shackles of communism. Lithuania and Estonia embrace low taxes and technology, and deliver first class public services as a result. We should learn from them.
We must make this case. And we must help usher in an era of respect for taxpayers.
Full list of sources
Page 2
Courtois, S., The Black Book of Communism, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1997,
https://archive.org/stream/TheBlackBookofCommunism10/the-black-book-of-communism-jean-louis-margolin-1999-communism_djvu.txt, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Page 3
Jisheng, Y., Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962, Farra, Straus & Giroux, 2013.
Mason, P., Yang Jisheng: The man who discovered 36 million dead, BBC, 20 November 2012, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20410424, (accessed 4 February 2019).
Page 4
Pipes, R., Death Solves All Problems - He Said, New York Times, 10 November 1991, https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/10/books/death-solves-all-problems-he-said.html, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Page 5
Werlau, M., Che Guevara Forgotten Victims, Free Society Project, 5 May 2011, http://cubaarchive.org/home/images/stories/che-guevara_interior-pages_en_final.pdf, (accessed 30 January 2019), p. 9.
Page 6
Stahl, J., Rent from the Land: A Political Ecology of Postsocialist Rural Transformation, Anthem, 2012, p. 17, https://lowtax.es/2tTYXXL.
Page 7
US Department of State, Office of the Historian, East German Uprising, 1953, 2019, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/east-german-uprising, (accessed 4 February 2019).
Page 8
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018: Cuba, 2018, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/cuba, (accessed 4 February 2019).
Page 9
https://stock.adobe.com/uk/images/planet-earth-east-asia-zone-usingsatellite-
imagery-nasa/86334904
Page 10
CIA, World Factbook: North Korea, 2019, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/korea-north/, (accessed 4 February 2019).
CIA, World Factbook: South Korea, 2019, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/korea-south/, (accessed 4 February 2019).
Page 11
CIA, World Factbook: North Korea, 2019, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/korea-north/, (accessed 4 February 2019).
CIA, World Factbook: South Korea, 2019, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/korea-south/, (accessed 4 February 2019).
Page 12
Holmes, F., New President Good News for Argentina And Latin America, Forbes, 1 December 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/12/01/new-president-good-news-for-argentina-and-latin-america/#3fe5f498e211, (accessed 6 February 2019).
News.com.au, Children of Venezuela’s elite including ex-leader Hugo Chavez’s daughter flaunt wealth, 2019, https://www.news.com.au/world/south-america/children-of-venezuelas-elite-including-exleader-hugo-chavezs-daughter-flaunt-wealth/news-story/22af92afbb1a12ec841fa36348748a1f, (accessed 5 February 2019).
Sequera, V., Venezuelans report big weight losses in 2017, Reuters, 21 February 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-food/venezuelans-report-big-weight-losses-in-2017-as-hunger-hits-idUSKCN1G52HA, (accessed 5 February 2019).
Page 13
CEPAZ, Complex Humanitarian Emergency in Venezuela, 11 October 2018, https://cepaz.org.ve/documentos_informes/complex-humanitarian-emergency-in-venezuela/, (accessed 5 February 2019).
Page 14
International Monetary Fund, Real GDP growth - Venezuela, 2019, https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/VEN, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Page 15
International Monetary Fund, Inflation rate, average consumer prices, 2019, https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PCPIPCH@WEO/WEOWORLD/VEN, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Page 16
Travis, A., National archives: Fear of fights at cemetery gates during 1979 winter of discontent, The Guardian, 30 December 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/dec/30/liverpool-gravedigger-strikes .
Page 17
BBC, 1979: Public sector strike paralyses country, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/22/newsid_2506000/2506715.stm, (accessed 8 February 2019).
Page 18
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The UK in the 1970s, 8 November 2010, https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/counterpoint/the-uk-in-the-1970s/2974294#transcript, (accessed 8 February 2019).
Page 19
Clark, T., & Dilnot, A., Long-term trends in British taxation and spending, Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2002, https://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn25.pdf, (accessed 8 February 2019).
Page 20
Allen, G., & Goulding., L., & O’Donoghue, J., Consumer Price Inflation since 1750, Office for National Statistics, March 2004, http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/cpi/consumer-price-indices/1750---2003/composite-consumer-price-index-with-description-and-assessment-of-source-data.pdf, (accessed 8 February 2019).
Office for National Statistics, CPIH Annual Rate 00: All items 2015=100, 13 February 2019, https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/l55o/mm23, (accessed 13 February 2019).
Page 21
TaxPayers’ Alliance, Briefing: five more years of historic-high tax burden, 3 December 2018, https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/tax_burden_at_a_50_year_high_finds_taxpayers_alliance, (accessed 5 February 2019).
Page 22
Mahoney, D., The cost of nationalisation, Centre for Policy Studies, 21 January 2018, https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/180123105636-TheCostofNationalisationMASTERPDF.pdf, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Page 23
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2019 Map, 2019, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2019/map, (accessed 11 February 2019).
Page 24
Heritage Foundation, 2019 Index of Economic Freedom, 2019, https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Page 25
Reporters Without Borders, 2018 World Press Freedom Index, 2019, https://rsf.org/en/ranking, (accessed 8 February 2019).
Page 26
World Bank, Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births), 2019, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=LT, (accessed 11 February 2019).
OECD, Table II.1. Statutory corporate income tax rate, 2019, https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLE_II1, (accessed 11 February 2019).
Wink, C., Yes, Lithuania might just be the mid-sized innovation cluster you’ve been looking for, 2 February 2018, Technical.ly, https://technical.ly/2018/02/02/lithuania-vilnius-innovation-tech-startup-cluster/, (accessed 8 February 2019).
Heritage Foundation, 2019 Index of Economic Freedom, 2019, https://www.heritage.org/index/excel/2019/index2019_data.xls, (accessed 11 February 2019).
Page 27
Rotten WiFi, What Countries have the Best Public WiFi?, 17 December 2014, http://blog.rottenwifi.com/countries-best-public-wifi/, (accessed 6 February 2019).
Schulze, E., How a tiny country bordering Russia became one of the most tech-savvy societies in the world, CNBC, 8 February 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/08/how-estonia-became-a-digital-society.html, (accessed 11 February 2019).
OECD, Table I.1. Central government personal income tax rates and thresholds, 2019, https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLE_I1, (accessed 11 February 2019).
IMF, Real GDP growth, 2019, https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDP_RPCH@WEO/EST, (accessed 12 February 2019).