Absolutely excellent analysis as always. I am not a Labour voter but have long admired and agreed with Lord Glasman - and you, Paul!
The current Labour Party in government has drifted so far away from the majority of voters I can’t see a way back for it, unless a new Leader and PM with a new Cabinet drawn from Blue Labour supporters was able to take a completely different direction. This, however, looks very unlikely, so I imagine we will just bump along with people feeling more and more disenfranchised and demoralised until the Government is finally put out of its misery.
Yes couldn’t agree more Paul. I listened to Maurice talking to Jonny Ball on an UnHerd podcast at the conference and as you rightly say the zeitgeist appears to be shifting towards blue labour. What is always striking though is how politicians shift and squirm towards whatever will get them elected. Alistair Cambell mode if you like. Badenoch’s latest shift!!
However I have no faith the existing shower of labour politicians will become blue labour but I’m pretty sure they will adopt or steal some of your ideas (even if they don’t believe in them) just to try and reinvent themselves. Once the job is done they can carry on with their progressive liberal agenda. The electorate is not that stupid anymore though.
Great analysis Paul. When I watched those excerpts of the Labour conference I could stomach, I realised too that members of our government are so out of step with normal peoplea d their worries, as to sound outer planetary. Absent too were speakers able to inspire or express views in a way that reflects the beauty and depth of the English language. So I was left with the impression that we are being ruled, for now, by morons who are espouse ideologies that belong in 1970s. They preached about division and yet many in their number, each week, chant hateful words and fly foreign flags in support of Islamist terror groups. In the face of such pressing societal and economical problems here at home, the elevation of such low calibre people makes our predicament all the more alarming.
Paul, like you I welcome the direction of travel. The 2018 Conference, and the policies that came out of it were disastrous. It would be nice to believe that there has been a real change of heart and an acceptance of the concerns of working people. However, a quick look at the people at the top of the party and some of the big trade unions, and the views they have expressed for decades, suggest to me a large dose of electoral opportunism. The waving of the handed out national flags at Kier Starmer's speech made me cringe. I am willing to bet most of them were in the bins once the cameras were turned off.
It seems to the objective observer that all parties are busy copying Reform policies, there's only one way this is going-landslide for Reform and finally we get our beloved Country back.
Whether this is in 3-4 years time or sooner we shall see !
Since Blair took us into an illegal war in Iraq killing our troops, thousands of Iraqi's and setting the scene for the mess we are in now Labour have not been a party for the 'workers'. I doubt they have even been for Britain!
For the whole of Sunak's time in No10 not a single credible alternative has left the lips of any Labour Minrster in way of policy. The last 18months have seen them flounderoing like fish out of water from one blunder to the next all the while proclaiming 'its part of the long plan'. They haven't a clue! The sheer venom coming from labour when in opposition during PM's Q's to Cameron and Sunak was disgusting, remember the 'You're all scum' coming from the arch blagger herself Rayner? Pot calling kettle I'd say.
Lack of any action STILL when told to conduct a fully public enquiry into the rape gangs. Never going to get goiung when that elitist Cooper was Home Secretary now a myth under the Islamist Mahmood, no way will that specimen rat out her bretheren. That disgusting individual alone has been party to and part of the drive to anti Jewish hate in this country the second she Aboot and other Labour Minsiers attended any one of the weekly anti Jew hate protests.
All endorsed by a dispicable racist Lammy and Starmer utterly weak (non) Leadership resulting in recognising that Jihad training ground Palistine as a state and the accepting of Pali students on uni grants. You must be kidding me, may aswell turn Buckinham Palace into an asylum hotel and set up a terror recruitment program there.
Sorry Paul but Labour are disgusting, they have done absolutely nothing to reduce the rising anti jewish hate in this country, promote British patriotism, keep the rise of Islam in this our Christian contry down, have not listened to ordinary people raging about the fear of their daughters and wives etc from rape by undocumented mostly muslin illegals. On top of that they have done NOTHING to stop the boats which is pretty easy to do.
Nah! What they've done is to brand everyone who does not agree with their globalist Fabian drive as racist far rightist and as such subkect to the most ridiculous of censorship, arrest, punishment and jail time.
Latest, 700 odd arrests at yet another Anti Jew Protest in London. Wheres your man Starmer, Lammy or Mahmood's public statement threatening the fastest and harshest of punishments!
It’s a shame that the conversation you refer to wasn’t recorded Paul. Ideas travel more quickly than people….
The issue for Labour is simple: its leaders and membership are overwhelmingly signed up to liberalism and high status values. Signed up intellectually and emotionally, sure it might now recognise that some of this stuff in problematic, but throw the liberal baby out with the bath water? Never!
Politically, this now manifests itself in ideas from a bygone age. A retro act where globalisation is the future and the solution and not just a failed experiment.
One where the working class should have shuffled off the stage of history by now to be replaced by a rainbow coalition of ‘anywhere’ graduates and identity concerns.
One where America policed the rules based order rather than formally signalling it was over.
I wish Blue Labour all the best. I agree with many of its ideas. It alone in Labour understands the moment that we are in. But its problem is that the party (and those in it) it organises in seem to me incapable of grasping what is happening. To misquote Frederic Jamieson ‘for them it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of middle class liberalism’
I'd say I share a lot, probably most of what you describe as 'Blue Labour' values.
So, I fully agree with the idea of a robust social-democratic approach to our economy - strong action and planning to reboost our own industry, cut imports, and renationalise key utilities.
Like you, I'm another member of the pro-Labour and pro-Brexit minority. I do think we need to really stop the small boats - humanely but firmly - and do our best to win the hearts and minds of our Scottish, Welsh and Irish brothers and sisters to keep our UK together.
But perhaps I do also agree with the broad thrust of the equality agenda - with the exception of the trans-ideology insanity of course - and I consider myself to be socially progressive as well.
I'm not sure that one can fully separate the two. Our greatest Labour leaders - Clement Atlee and Harold Wilson - were both socially as well as economically progressive. It was under Wilson's administration that homosexuality was legalised, race discrimination was outlawed and sex equality at work laws came in. It was under Attlee that our former colonies gained their independence and the Commonwealth replaced the Empire. (Also, in his later years after leaving Parliament, Attlee was a campaigner for homosexual law reform.)
The other aspect where I'm not sure about 'Blue Labour' is frankly, the name. While I'm sure it isn't the intention, the name does bring to mind Conservatism and implies/suggests to the unaware that it's a Labour group pressing to make Labour a bit close to the Tories.
Absolutely excellent analysis as always. I am not a Labour voter but have long admired and agreed with Lord Glasman - and you, Paul!
The current Labour Party in government has drifted so far away from the majority of voters I can’t see a way back for it, unless a new Leader and PM with a new Cabinet drawn from Blue Labour supporters was able to take a completely different direction. This, however, looks very unlikely, so I imagine we will just bump along with people feeling more and more disenfranchised and demoralised until the Government is finally put out of its misery.
Yes couldn’t agree more Paul. I listened to Maurice talking to Jonny Ball on an UnHerd podcast at the conference and as you rightly say the zeitgeist appears to be shifting towards blue labour. What is always striking though is how politicians shift and squirm towards whatever will get them elected. Alistair Cambell mode if you like. Badenoch’s latest shift!!
However I have no faith the existing shower of labour politicians will become blue labour but I’m pretty sure they will adopt or steal some of your ideas (even if they don’t believe in them) just to try and reinvent themselves. Once the job is done they can carry on with their progressive liberal agenda. The electorate is not that stupid anymore though.
Hopefully!
Great analysis Paul. When I watched those excerpts of the Labour conference I could stomach, I realised too that members of our government are so out of step with normal peoplea d their worries, as to sound outer planetary. Absent too were speakers able to inspire or express views in a way that reflects the beauty and depth of the English language. So I was left with the impression that we are being ruled, for now, by morons who are espouse ideologies that belong in 1970s. They preached about division and yet many in their number, each week, chant hateful words and fly foreign flags in support of Islamist terror groups. In the face of such pressing societal and economical problems here at home, the elevation of such low calibre people makes our predicament all the more alarming.
Paul, like you I welcome the direction of travel. The 2018 Conference, and the policies that came out of it were disastrous. It would be nice to believe that there has been a real change of heart and an acceptance of the concerns of working people. However, a quick look at the people at the top of the party and some of the big trade unions, and the views they have expressed for decades, suggest to me a large dose of electoral opportunism. The waving of the handed out national flags at Kier Starmer's speech made me cringe. I am willing to bet most of them were in the bins once the cameras were turned off.
Great work Paul.
It seems to the objective observer that all parties are busy copying Reform policies, there's only one way this is going-landslide for Reform and finally we get our beloved Country back.
Whether this is in 3-4 years time or sooner we shall see !
Since Blair took us into an illegal war in Iraq killing our troops, thousands of Iraqi's and setting the scene for the mess we are in now Labour have not been a party for the 'workers'. I doubt they have even been for Britain!
For the whole of Sunak's time in No10 not a single credible alternative has left the lips of any Labour Minrster in way of policy. The last 18months have seen them flounderoing like fish out of water from one blunder to the next all the while proclaiming 'its part of the long plan'. They haven't a clue! The sheer venom coming from labour when in opposition during PM's Q's to Cameron and Sunak was disgusting, remember the 'You're all scum' coming from the arch blagger herself Rayner? Pot calling kettle I'd say.
Lack of any action STILL when told to conduct a fully public enquiry into the rape gangs. Never going to get goiung when that elitist Cooper was Home Secretary now a myth under the Islamist Mahmood, no way will that specimen rat out her bretheren. That disgusting individual alone has been party to and part of the drive to anti Jewish hate in this country the second she Aboot and other Labour Minsiers attended any one of the weekly anti Jew hate protests.
All endorsed by a dispicable racist Lammy and Starmer utterly weak (non) Leadership resulting in recognising that Jihad training ground Palistine as a state and the accepting of Pali students on uni grants. You must be kidding me, may aswell turn Buckinham Palace into an asylum hotel and set up a terror recruitment program there.
Sorry Paul but Labour are disgusting, they have done absolutely nothing to reduce the rising anti jewish hate in this country, promote British patriotism, keep the rise of Islam in this our Christian contry down, have not listened to ordinary people raging about the fear of their daughters and wives etc from rape by undocumented mostly muslin illegals. On top of that they have done NOTHING to stop the boats which is pretty easy to do.
Nah! What they've done is to brand everyone who does not agree with their globalist Fabian drive as racist far rightist and as such subkect to the most ridiculous of censorship, arrest, punishment and jail time.
Latest, 700 odd arrests at yet another Anti Jew Protest in London. Wheres your man Starmer, Lammy or Mahmood's public statement threatening the fastest and harshest of punishments!
It’s a shame that the conversation you refer to wasn’t recorded Paul. Ideas travel more quickly than people….
The issue for Labour is simple: its leaders and membership are overwhelmingly signed up to liberalism and high status values. Signed up intellectually and emotionally, sure it might now recognise that some of this stuff in problematic, but throw the liberal baby out with the bath water? Never!
Politically, this now manifests itself in ideas from a bygone age. A retro act where globalisation is the future and the solution and not just a failed experiment.
One where the working class should have shuffled off the stage of history by now to be replaced by a rainbow coalition of ‘anywhere’ graduates and identity concerns.
One where America policed the rules based order rather than formally signalling it was over.
I wish Blue Labour all the best. I agree with many of its ideas. It alone in Labour understands the moment that we are in. But its problem is that the party (and those in it) it organises in seem to me incapable of grasping what is happening. To misquote Frederic Jamieson ‘for them it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of middle class liberalism’
Interesting, thanks.
It would take a seismic shift though for labour to realise and see the sense in ‘Blue’ thinking.
Here’s hoping🙏
I'd say I share a lot, probably most of what you describe as 'Blue Labour' values.
So, I fully agree with the idea of a robust social-democratic approach to our economy - strong action and planning to reboost our own industry, cut imports, and renationalise key utilities.
Like you, I'm another member of the pro-Labour and pro-Brexit minority. I do think we need to really stop the small boats - humanely but firmly - and do our best to win the hearts and minds of our Scottish, Welsh and Irish brothers and sisters to keep our UK together.
But perhaps I do also agree with the broad thrust of the equality agenda - with the exception of the trans-ideology insanity of course - and I consider myself to be socially progressive as well.
I'm not sure that one can fully separate the two. Our greatest Labour leaders - Clement Atlee and Harold Wilson - were both socially as well as economically progressive. It was under Wilson's administration that homosexuality was legalised, race discrimination was outlawed and sex equality at work laws came in. It was under Attlee that our former colonies gained their independence and the Commonwealth replaced the Empire. (Also, in his later years after leaving Parliament, Attlee was a campaigner for homosexual law reform.)
The other aspect where I'm not sure about 'Blue Labour' is frankly, the name. While I'm sure it isn't the intention, the name does bring to mind Conservatism and implies/suggests to the unaware that it's a Labour group pressing to make Labour a bit close to the Tories.
Paul, where can I watch the discussion with Maurice Glasman?