The state cannot step in to legislate on everything that assails our economy One reason for the emergence of our new corporatist ruling ideology - to adapt Marx's terminology - is the heterogeneous nature of the Coalition and the need for it to try to find common ground; the fiscal situation, which means that rival budgetary plans are far more similar than they seem, is another. But equally important are George Osborne and David Cameron's long-standing lack of interest in either economic policy or political philosophy and their refusal to campaign consistently for free enterprise solutions to our economic and social problems. This absence of principles and the intellectual vacuum at the top of the modern Tory party has allowed the debate to drift Leftwards in almost all areas, with the notable exceptions of education and welfare reform. Take price controls. The Tories have now adopted Labour's policy to cap payday loan rates (even though some financially troubled folk will now be pushed into the arms of illegal loan sharks); they support limits on pension fees (which were not the best way to tackle the problem); they are seeking to buck the market by lowering the cost of risky mortgage loans through funding for lending and Help to Buy (which will take house prices to dangerously unsustainable levels); they want the Bank of England to fix interest rates at an excessively cheap rate for as long as possible (at the risk of causing bubbles and keeping productivity-destroying zombie firms alive); they back a tax on plastic bags (hitting the poor hardest and promoting the re-use of unhygienic, dirty bags); and they support drastic interventions in pay contracts in boardroom and trading floor alike (which in some cases will actually make the financial system riskier). Price controls for alcohol were only reluctantly dropped; it is just a matter of time before they and many other similar paternalistic policies - such as, perhaps, taxes on fatty foods - will make it back on to the agenda. On top of all of the above, Labour wants to fix energy prices, a policy that will lead to a drop in investment and fails to address the real causes of rocketing prices. There is also growing support across the political spectrum for much higher minimum wages, which is another kind of price-fixing. Of course, it is right to worry about the devastating cost-of-living crisis facing the working poor; but anyone who believes that the minimum wage could be hiked by 35pc with no consequence on the unemployment rate of the young and the less skilled is tragically deluded. Bizarrely, when it's Labour that is calling for price caps, the Coalition cries blue murder; but when the Government does it, it's all about fighting for the little guy. The real way to help the disadvantaged is to tackle the underlying causes of the problem, not to indulge in grandstanding about its consequences. Instead, for every question, and every problem, the answer from Left and Right increasingly seems to be for the state to step in. Water prices increasing too much? Let's cap them. Banks charging too much? Let's legislate, the cry goes out. People unable to earn enough? Let's pass a law to fix it - and damn the unintended consequences, the collapse in supply, the increase in unemployment or whatever else happens each time the market is not allowed to adjust freely. People earning "too much" in boardrooms or in banks? Let's regulate pay structures. Rents too high? Let's introduce rent controls, many Labour MPs argue. Not enough new homes? Rather than reforming the planning system to allow the private sector to build more and better houses, let's produce more council homes - or so even many Tories now argue. It is much easier to focus on the facile than to address the root causes of a problem, such as insufficient competition, falling productivity, anti-consumer green rules, an antiquated planning system or a silly, costly bureaucracy. Or take the lack of support for traditional profit-making corporates, and the belief that mutuals are usually best. By aping Labour, the Coalition has become embroiled in the Co-op row; at the time, Osborne even welcomed its ill-fated bid for Lloyds branches. The Chancellor kept trying to promote a so-called John Lewis economy, to appear cuddly and distance himself from tooth-and-claw capitalism; the end result was his idiotic rights for shares policy. As to industrial policy, all three parties are now convinced they can pick winning sectors, if not the actual companies. Perhaps most worrying of all, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and even many Tories back a so-called mansion tax, which would confiscate wealth and dramatically undermine the sanctity of property rights, one of Britain's last advantages when compared to Singapore or Hong Kong. Bizarrely, given the row about the cost of living, the political establishment has also gone soft on inflation; what matters now is cheap credit at all costs. Yet inflation in the UK is only now slowing down, after several years of overshooting targets and topping the EU league tables for price rises. Its effect on savers and investors continues to be devastating, especially when combined with ultra-low rates and the fact that capital gains tax is no longer indexed. Sound money was one of the great rallying cries of the economic counter-revolution of the 1980s; today, the establishment no longer cares. As to the public, it is in two minds about capitalism: on the one hand, we have become a nation of aspiring individualistic entrepreneurs; on the other, we want the Government to control prices and nationalise utilities. The answer, as so often, is political leadership: until the Tories rediscover their erstwhile support for free enterprise, and are prepared to invest years campaigning to make the case for an alternative vision of society, Britain will continue its inexorable, depressing slide ever deeper into the corporatist mire. Allister Heath is editor of City AM and was named Business Commentator of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards