Blue Labour

The challenge to conventional politics at the moment is the question of what the political world might look like if it tried to work with rather than against the grain of our humanity. from the Foreword by Rowan Williams

In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, and the worst recession for over seventy years, Britain has witnessed one of the most turbulent eras in politics since the Second World War. The dominant political and capitalistic system has come under close scrutiny; and the 2008 financial crash and urban riots of 2011 have cast serious doubt on the economic and social liberalism of both Thatcherism and Blairism. The Blue Labour movement addresses the fact that neither nationalisation nor privatisation has delivered lasting prosperity or stability. Critiquing the dominance in Britain of a social-cultural liberalism linked to the left and a free-market liberalism associated with the right, Blue Labour blends a progressive commitment to greater economic equality with a more conservative disposition emphasising personal loyalty, family, community and locality. Seeking to move beyond the centrist pragmatism of Blair and Cameron, this essential work speaks to the needs of diverse people and communities across the country. It is the programme of a vital new force in politics: one that could define the thinking of the next generation and beyond.

Ian Geary is an executive member of Christians on the Left and Co-Convenor of the Blue Labour Midlands Seminar; Adrian Pabst is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent and the author of Metaphysics: The Creation of Hierarchy (2012).

BlueLabour

Forging a New

Politics

Edited byIan Geary and

Adrian Pabst

BlueLabourForging a New Politics

Foreword by Rowan Williams

Edited by Ian Geary

and Adrian Pabst

Cover image: The Elizabeth Tower, Houses of Parliament, Westminster

(photo by Jon Arnold)Cover design: Chris Bromley

www.ibtauris.com

The most thoughtful attempt yet to help Ed Miliband devise an answer to a conundrum which no

twenty-first-century politician has yet been able to solve.

Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator, Daily Telegraph

Ably exposes the deficiencies of neo-liberalism and offers an inviting political agenda based

on a moral economy of mutual obligations.

Robert Skidelsky, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy,

University of Warwick

Offers a compelling critique of the Blair and Brown governments and a potential route to renewal.

Rafael Behr, Political Columnist, The Guardian

9 7 8 1 7 8 4 5 3 2 0 2 4

ISBN 978-1-78453-202-4

138mm22.25mm

216mm

138mm

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The Blue Labour movement has emerged as one of the mostinuential and controversial innovations of the British Left in ageneration. Rooted in a deep reading of Labour history and culture, itoffers a compelling critique of the Blair and Brown governments anda potential route to renewal revisiting the past so as better to face thechallenges of the future.

RAFAEL BEHR, Political Columnist, The Guardian

Something went horribly wrong with British politics in the 1990s.The modernisers drained the meaning out of political engagement byfocusing on strategy and presentation rather than substance. As aresult all British political parties are now facing mortal crisis. Thisbook on Blue Labour is the most thoughtful attempt yet to help EdMiliband devise an answer to a conundrum which no twenty-rst-century politician has yet been able to solve.

PETER OBORNE, Chief Political Commentator, Daily Telegraph

Anyone looking for an antidote to the stale and stultifying brand ofliberalism which has dominated British political discourse for far toolong will nd a refreshing and thought-provoking alternative in thecontributions to this timely volume.

MARK GARNETT, Senior Lecturer in British Politics,Lancaster University

Blue Labour ably exposes the deciencies of neo-liberalism and offersan inviting political agenda based on a moral economy of mutualobligations. With neo-liberalism discredited by predatory banking,and socialism by the collapse of the planned economies, the pathsback to a moral economy are well worth exploring. They are not theproperty of any political party, but will be of special interest to Laboursupporters trying to develop an alternative narrative to that of the freemarket and the centralized state.

ROBERT SKIDELSKY, FBA, Emeritus Professor ofPolitical Economy, University of Warwick

I.B.Tauris Blue Labour Data Standards Ltd, Frome, Somerset 6/2/2015 01 Blue Labour Prelims.3d Page 1 of 18

Blue Labour isnt, to me, about that rather glib little triad, Faith, Flagand Family. Its an attempt to reconnect the Labour Party with thevery people it was set up to protect and represent. And to devisemodern and imaginative policies so that this reconnection might bebest achieved.

ROD LIDDLE, Associate Editor, The Spectator

In calling for a post-liberal politics of the left, Blue Labour advocateshave put themselves in a very mixed company. Watching them seekout a virtuous path through the ambiguous legacies of nation,religion, family and other conservative themes is both fascinating andinstructive, challenging the presuppositions of any reader.

COLIN CROUCH, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Governance andPublic Management, University of Warwick


BLUE LABOURFORGING A NEW POLITICS

Edited by Ian Geary and Adrian Pabst



Published in 2015 byI.B.Tauris & Co. LtdLondon . New York

Copyright Editorial Selection, Introduction and Conclusion 2015 Ian Geary and Adrian Pabst.

Copyright Individual Chapters 2015 Luke Bretherton, Jon Cruddas, Rowenna Davis,Ruth Davis, Frank Field, Maurice Glasman, David Goodhart, Arnie Graf, David Lammy,Dave Landrum, Michael Merrick, John Milbank, Adrian Pabst, Tom Watson, Ed West,

Rowan Williams and Ruth Yeoman.

The right of Ian Geary and Adrian Pabst to be identied as the editors of this work has beenasserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof,may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

without the prior written permission of the publisher.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

The chapters in this volume comprise the individual views of their respective writers andshould not be read as an ofcial statement of policy or as an endorsement by the editors.

ISBN: 978 1 78453 202 4eISBN: 978 0 85773 781 6

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British LibraryA full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Typeset in MinionPro by Data Standards Ltd, Frome, SomersetPrinted and bound by Page Bros, Norwich


Contents

Foreword ixAcknowledgements xiiiContributors xv

Introduction: Blue Labour and the Politics of the CommonGood 1Adrian Pabst

PART ONE: NARRATIVE AND PROGRAMME

1. The Good Society, Catholic Social Thought and thePolitics of the Common Good 13Maurice Glasman

2. The Blue Labour Dream 27John Milbank

3. A Blue Labour Vision of the Common Good 51Frank Field

PART TWO: LABOUR PARTY AND POLITICS

4. Blue Labour: A Politics Centred on Relationships 63David Lammy

5. Community Organising and Blue Labour 71Arnie Graf

6. Blue Labour and the Trade Unions: Pro-Business andPro-Worker 79Tom Watson


PART THREE: POLITICAL ECONOMY

7. The Common Good in an Age of Austerity 87Jon Cruddas

8. Civil Economy: Blue Labours Alternative to Capitalism 97Adrian Pabst

9. Globalisation, Nation States and the Economics ofMigration 121David Goodhart

PART FOUR: ALTERNATIVE MODERNITY ON NATURE,PROGRESS AND WORK

10. Nature, Science and the Politics of the Common Good 143Ruth Davis

11. The Problem with Progress 155Dave Landrum

12. Meaningful Work: A Philosophy of Work and a Politicsof Meaningfulness 179Ruth Yeoman

PART FIVE: LABOURS RADICAL CONSERVATISM

13. Labours Conservative Tradition 195Rowenna Davis

14. The Gentle Society: What Blue Labour Can OfferConservatives 203Ed West

PART SIX: FAITH AND FAMILY

15. Vision, Virtue and Vocation: Notes on Blue Labour asa Practice of Politics 217Luke Bretherton

16. The Labour Family 235Michael Merrick

Conclusion: Blue Labour Principles, Policy Ideas andProspects 253Adrian Pabst

Index of Key Names 265Index of Key Subjects 267


Blue Labourviii

CHAPTER FOUR

Blue Labour: A Politics Centred onRelationships

David Lammy

INTRODUCTION

Blue Labour has been a source of controversy and renewal for theLabour Party in opposition. Maurice Glasman, who coined the term,describes it as a completely agitational idea to provoke a conversationabout what went wrong with the Blair project. For me this is the bestway to understand it. You do not have to like the term, or take aparticular stance on issues like immigration, to engage in theconversation that it has begun.That conversation, at heart, is about how we build a politics centred

on relationships. In a more individualistic society Blue Labour asks asimple question: how should we treat one another? Can we imagine asociety built on mutual respect and mutual responsibility? Can weforge a politics where people trust and listen to one another? Can werediscover the ethical instincts that make us good parents, goodneighbours and good colleagues?The context for this discussion is vital. Modern Britain has been

shaped by two social revolutions. The rst was cultural: the socialliberalism of the 1960s. The second was economic: the free marketrevolution of the 1980s. Together these two revolutions made Britaina wealthier and more tolerant nation. But they have come at a cost,combining to create a hyper-individualistic culture, in which we donot always treat each other well.The riots of 2011 were one expression of this culture. Many of

those who took part in the looting lacked decent jobs, good prospects

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or a realistic chance of owning their own home they had little stakein society. But they also demonstrated shockingly little regard forothers as they attacked police ofcers, burned down peoples homesand ransacked shops. The riots were the product of a me-rst, take-what-you-can culture.The nancial crisis was another expression of the same culture. Just

as the riots were caused by selshness and social breakdown, not justpoor policing, the nancial crisis was the product of greed, not justbad regulation. Of course the riots and the nancial crisis cannot becompared directly, but they were both driven by an ethic of personalgratication, not mutual respect and responsibility.It is this culture and Labours recent responses to it that Blue

Labour seeks to address. It argues that while Labour has been strongon promoting individual rights and defending the welfare state, it hasoften overlooked the importance of our relationships with oneanother in families, neighbourhoods, workplaces and so on.Because of this, Labour became too detached from peoples everydaylives and experiences while we were in government.Of course, no one need remind me of the value of individual

rights or a generous and supportive welfare state. My motherarrived in Britain in 1970. Just two years on from Enoch PowellsRivers of Blood speech, Britain was far from a picture of racialharmony. Nor were the odds stacked in favour of a woman enteringthe workforce without much in the way either of money or formalqualications. At a time when comics would routinely insult blackpeople on television, she relied on the left to help her stand up toracists and bigots. When my father left, she became responsible forlooking after ve children alone. The same people who foughtagainst racism were those who also spoke up for single mothers.They were the counterweight to Tory politicians and their friends inthe media.Meanwhile, there were bills to be paid. At times Mum did three

jobs to get by and was, of course, a beneciary of the Equal Pay Act,passed in the same year she arrived in Britain. Like countless others,she trusted socialists to stick up for her when the child benet wasfrozen. She relied on public libraries to nourish the minds of herchildren. She watched proudly as the rst generation in our familywas given the opportunity to go to university. Later in life she wascared for wonderfully by the NHS, which treated her with dignity andcompassion. No one in our family needs to be persuaded about the


Blue Labour64

value of individual rights, or that the state can be an enormous forcefor good.

LIBERTY, EQUALITY . . . FRATERNITY

But Blue Labour is a reminder that our party stands not just for libertyand equality, but also fraternity. Something important exists inbetween the state and the individual our relationships with oneanother.When my mother arrived in Britain it was not just the state that

stepped in to help her. A friendly trade union ofcial from NUPEhelped her into a course of learning that made it possible to nd workthat could provide for a family. The local church provided a sense offellowship and community. Friends and neighbours looked after herchildren while she juggled life as a single mother. When she was illdoctors in the NHS treated her illness, but Macmillan nurses alsoprovided invaluable care. As she grew older she relied more and moreon her children, just as we had once relied upon her. All theserelationships made the difference to her life. This is what Blue Labouris trying to get at.The focus on relationships explains why, despite the overlap with

strands of liberalism, Labour is not a liberal party. Unlike the LibDems we do not see people simply as free-oating individuals. Ourpolitics is not orientated towards an unrealisable version of freedomwhere we can each do whatever we please. Instead Labour politics isbuilt on the idea that people are social beings, dependent on oneanother. We are not born free, but dependent on our parents. As wegrow older, a good life depends in large part on family, friends,neighbours, colleagues and strangers. We never stop being mutuallydependent. How we treat each other matters.Because relationships are so important to peoples lives, they must

be important to our politics. Labour, for example, needs a story aboutthe family. Of course we care passionately about womens rights andchildrens rights but thats not the end of the story. We have toseriously raise the volume and the focus on the value of strongrelationships between adults, good parenting and care for the elderly.We are at our best when we speak to that ethic of care, as well as alanguage of liberation. We cant be satised by talking about childrenin care and retirement homes the workings of the state. There is justmore to it than that.


Blue Labour: A Politics Centred on Relationships 65

In the workplace there should be the same emphasis. Of course westand for workers rights on pay, on leave, on exible working andthe rest. But if the conversation between employers and employeesnever gets further than the right to strike versus the right to sack anemployee then we have big problems. The reason worker representa-tion on company boards is such a powerful idea is that it holds out thepromise of constructive, respectful relationships based on give andtake. Workers taking responsibility for the success of rms. Firmstaking responsibility for the well-being of workers. Again, its not justabout the state telling employers and employees what to do. Its alsoabout the quality of the relationships between employers andemployees within rms.In other areas of life, the same principle holds. We support free

speech but that doesnt mean we have given up on the idea of a societywith civility and mutual respect. We support personal and religiousfreedom but we also understand the importance of an integrated andharmonious society. Too easily a language of individual rights canregress into a shrill and anti-social individualism. Labour politics failswhen these ties we have to one another fray. If families disintegrate, ifworkers do not have a voice, if neighbourhoods are divided andstrangers fear and mistrust one another then our politics is stonedead. We end up willing the ends for social justice, but the means areimpossible. People retreat into their own lives and any sense of thecommon good disappears.Blue Labours insight is that solidarity is both important and

fragile. It must be constantly worked at. We cant just wag our ngerand demand that people be good to one another, we have to takeseriously the things that make mutual respect more difcult than itshould be. This means listening to people and what they tell us. Sowhen someone says that immigration is a problem in their area thenthe instant response cannot be to simply brand them a racist. Our jobis to question why neighbour is set against neighbour in the scramblefor scarce homes, jobs and services. Rather than judging people forairing their concerns we should be interested in how to ameliorate thethings that cause these tensions.Likewise when someone says that the family has come under

pressure since women have entered the workforce, we shouldntsimply shout them down. Rather, we should ask how we can helpfamilies adapt to a world in which women rightfully have the chanceto pursue their ambitions and earn a living. In particular, we might


Blue Labour66

consider how we help fathers take on more of the caring at a timewhen mothers do more of the earning. Feminism and the familydont have to be at odds. We often slip into the same trap where faithis concerned. When a person or an organisation draws their valuesfrom a particular faith then the reaction cannot simply be to dismissthem. People can disagree with faith groups on social and ethicalmatters but still join together to campaign for a cap on lending rates,or against the commercialisation of childhood.There is, of course, still racism, sexism and religious bigotry to be

found in Britain. The battles our party has fought againstdiscrimination of all kinds have been historic and hard won andthey are not over yet. But when we decline the opportunity to enterinto conversations about issues like the family, immigration or faithwe undermine our own political project. If Blue Labour reminds us ofthis then it has already achieved a great deal.

BIG SOCIETY . . . BIG BUSINESS

If one half of the coalition doesnt understand the importance offraternity, the other half forgets that it should apply in markets too.Part of the problem with the Big Society is that it does not understandthat the voluntary and public sectors often work in partnership.The other fundamental weakness of the Big Society is that it has

nothing to say about the marketplace. Big Society not BigGovernment, says David Cameron, leaving Big Business out of thepicture altogether. It leaves his government with little to say aboutethical consumerism, good work or responsible business practices.Blue Labour seeks to address this through making corporations moreaccountable to the society around them.Blue Labour stands opposed to anyone being used simply as a

means to an end. That explains why employers should not treat staffas commodities to be exploited, but rather human beings to berespected. People should have a voice at work and be paid a wage theycan live on. It explains the opposition to loan sharks who exploitpeoples poverty, enticing people into debt that they will never be ableto escape from. It explains the offence at companies who targetadvertising at other peoples children, manipulating young girls andboys. It explains why the public are so angry that the banks were ableto hold the country to ransom.



This is what the Tories do not understand when they talk aboutpeople making free choices in markets. A choice between evictionand a loan shark is no real choice. A choice between two bad jobs isno real choice. A choice about whether to let banks go down withmillions of peoples savings, or to bail out the richest people in thecountry is no real choice. None of these reect relationships built ongive and take: they are about the powerful bullying and exploiting thepowerless. Collective action is how we stand up to those who prot atthe expense of the rest of society. We do it together, through tradeunions, cooperatives, consumer movements, civil society campaignsand of course, government at national and international level.But collective action is not easy. Again we have to be careful how

we build the trust and the solidarity and the momentum to take onthose who abuse their power in the marketplace. Finger-wagging willnot work here either. We have to nd connections with peoples livesas they live them. There is a national campaign for a living wagebecause, rst of all, there was a specic, tangible campaign againstcertain rms in the City of London. Momentum grew from there aspeople joined the dots between excess in the City and poverty forthose who cleaned the ofces of the masters of the universe.Stella Creasy is running a brilliant campaign not just against loan

sharking in general, but also some credit companies in particular. Itgives the campaign a sense of vibrancy and a practical orientation,while the Tories have continued to vote measures down in the House.The Billingsgate campaign that Jon Cruddas has been involved in isanother good example. One response to the market porters would beto nod sagely and promise to do what we can at the next G20 summit.Another is to campaign for their cause at a local level, as well aspressing for international action.In my own constituency I have worked hard to prevent Tottenham

Hotspur from leaving the area. The more people get involved in thatcampaign, the more the momentum builds for proper representationof fans on the boards of all football clubs. In the local party we arecampaigning against betting shops swamping local high streets and,despite the Tories and Lib Dems voting down my amendments to theLocalism Act, building support for a change in the law. We are alsolooking at the dangers of xed-odds betting terminals in bookies thereal driver for the clustering of betting shops in high streets. These arenational issues, but they play out in different ways in ourneighbourhoods.


Blue Labour68

The point is that we shouldnt be afraid of the particular and thelocal. This is where people live their lives. It is when discussions aboutjustice and equality become abstracted from everyday life that theylose their persuasive power and political purchase. Labour wasfounded as a movement to civilise capitalism what Blue Labourreminds us is that this must take place in workplaces, inneighbourhoods and in civil society as well as rooms in Whitehall.

LABOUR TRADITIONS

Blue Labour is not a panacea. But the debate it has started is anopportunity to reconnect with some of the ideas our party wasfounded upon, after 13 years in government and a political projectthat challenged many of the partys traditions and shibboleths. Thedanger is that this introspection has almost exclusively focused on itscontroversy rather than its continuity. It has found itself portrayed asan appeaser of the English Defence League, willing dismantler ofAttlees welfare state and staunch believer in hierarchy and socialorder (particularly with regard to gender roles). Even its namesuggests a project advocating the last great New Labour triangulationto the right. In the minds of much of the wider Labour movement,Blue Labour has become a project bent more on rolling back thevictories of liberalism than building upon them.Many will say this doesnt matter. They will point to the Blue

Labour themes that are being weaved through Ed Milibands OneNation Labour project and brand it a success. It is of course cheering,but if Blue Labours ideas are to be the Labour Partys keystone thatbridges the gap between itself and the aspirations and values of theBritish people, it will need more than just the ear of a sympatheticleader. It needs grassroots support and organisation if it is to outlastthe immediate political moment. Yet until it can convincingly explainthe difference between being post-liberal and anti-liberal this isunfathomable.This is no pitch to recast Blue Labour in the philosophy of

individualism. There can be no straying from the fact that thechallenges of the future have emphatically collective solutions theconsequences of globalisation, climate change and an ageingpopulation will not be blunted by conferring more rights. But justbecause the great questions of the twenty-rst century will almostcertainly have post-liberal solutions does not mean we stop looking



for the answers to questions left over from the twentieth century. BlueLabour not only needs to acknowledge liberal triumphs againstsexism, racism and homophobia, but must be clear where it will standwhen those advances come under assault. It has to be clear that thereare still liberal battles to be won and it has to be unequivocal that itstands with the forces of progress.Beyond accusations of xenophobia and sexism, less withering

critiques include the suggestion that Blue Labour is overly nostalgicabout the past, rather than projecting something modern and forwardlooking. They believe it hankers for a world that has gone and isntcoming back. Others question whether it has enough to say aboutself-improvement that it gives the impression that people should besatised with their lot, rather than encouraged to strive for somethingbetter.These have to be taken seriously and worked through. But even

here we should be careful not to repeat some mistakes from ourrecent past. The Labour Party always needs a forward-lookingagenda, but we lose touch with people when we promote change forits own sake. When people see their job become more insecure, whenthey see their family less and when they feel they no longer know theirneighbours, this doesnt always feel like progress and Labour needsto show it understands that.We should take Blue Labours arguments on their merits, rather

than mistake it for something it is not, or dismiss it on the basis of anill-conceived name. The Labour Party has always been a coalition oftrade unionists, Fabians, Christian socialists, NGOs and localcommunity activists, human rights campaigners, environmentalists,feminists and anti-racists. These traditions compete and coalesce withone another, enriching our party in the process. Blue Labour hassomething important to offer, alongside our traditional defence ofindividual rights and a robust defence of the modern state. It shouldbe engaged with in that spirit.


Blue Labour70

The challenge to conventional politics at the moment is the question of what the political world might look like if it tried to work with rather than against the grain of our humanity. from the Foreword by Rowan Williams

In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, and the worst recession for over seventy years, Britain has witnessed one of the most turbulent eras in politics since the Second World War. The dominant political and capitalistic system has come under close scrutiny; and the 2008 financial crash and urban riots of 2011 have cast serious doubt on the economic and social liberalism of both Thatcherism and Blairism. The Blue Labour movement addresses the fact that neither nationalisation nor privatisation has delivered lasting prosperity or stability. Critiquing the dominance in Britain of a social-cultural liberalism linked to the left and a free-market liberalism associated with the right, Blue Labour blends a progressive commitment to greater economic equality with a more conservative disposition emphasising personal loyalty, family, community and locality. Seeking to move beyond the centrist pragmatism of Blair and Cameron, this essential work speaks to the needs of diverse people and communities across the country. It is the programme of a vital new force in politics: one that could define the thinking of the next generation and beyond.

Ian Geary is an executive member of Christians on the Left and Co-Convenor of the Blue Labour Midlands Seminar; Adrian Pabst is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent and the author of Metaphysics: The Creation of Hierarchy (2012).

BlueLabour

Forging a New

Politics

Edited byIan Geary and

Adrian Pabst

BlueLabourForging a New Politics


Edited by Ian Geary

and Adrian Pabst

Cover image: The Elizabeth Tower, Houses of Parliament, Westminster

(photo by Jon Arnold)Cover design: Chris Bromley

www.ibtauris.com

The most thoughtful attempt yet to help Ed Miliband devise an answer to a conundrum which no

twenty-first-century politician has yet been able to solve.

Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator, Daily Telegraph

Ably exposes the deficiencies of neo-liberalism and offers an inviting political agenda based

on a moral economy of mutual obligations.

Robert Skidelsky, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy,

University of Warwick

Offers a compelling critique of the Blair and Brown governments and a potential route to renewal.

Rafael Behr, Political Columnist, The Guardian

9 7 8 1 7 8 4 5 3 2 0 2 4

ISBN 978-1-78453-202-4

138mm22.25mm

216mm

138mm

BlueLabour_1.2.indd 1 06/02/2015 13:08

Front CoverFront MatterCopyrightContentsForewordContributorsIntroductionBodyIndexBack Cover

Blue Labour

Documents

political columnist

political world

blue labour movement

british politics

chief political commentator

inviting political agenda

social liberalism

conventional politics