03 Dec ‘Think communitarian’: Forget aping the Right or indulging the Left – Labour must unite the quiet mainstream
Right-wing populists have upended British politics. The movement’s appeal has been driven by a backlash against an era of globalisation and passive governance which led to mass immigration without democratic consent, the offshoring of working-class jobs that gutted many industrial towns of pride and prosperity, and a London-centric political economy that was too slow to react to growing resentment beyond the capital.
For a generation our prime ministers have been inert and weak, failing to shape markets to serve workers, or to stand up to vested interests – such as the social media behemoths, porn barons and gambling tycoons who have declined to mitigate the harm they’ve caused to a generation of young people. Politicians and big business alike have hidden behind liberal individualism, failing to take their social responsibility to the next generation seriously.
Now the threats to our society are on turbo-charge, with Donald Trump’s re-election and Reform’s emergence from the shadows serving to catapult the debates and divisions rife in America into the heart of our own culture – as many observers feared they would, and too many others assumed they wouldn’t.
Now no topic is off limits. Mass deportations was once a conversation reserved for BNP rallies, anti-vaxxers used to hide away under tin foil hats, and political careers would have been ended by rubbing shoulders with anti-abortion crusaders. Meanwhile, the Left cries ‘foul’ and seeks societal change at an unpopular pace – emulating the failings of American Democrats. The culture war will spawn further skirmishes.
All the while the centre-left – far too slow to gage the temperature on issues such as immigration, gender identity and grooming gangs – seems devoid of a political project, with the Labour Government buffeted from crisis to crisis.
Labour – and the wider centre-left – must now be far bolder in carving out its own political philosophy and narrative about why it exists, and how it plans to shape Britain’s future. The bear traps are that neither progressive liberals – with their insatiable thirst for social upheaval – nor ethno-conservatives – with their instinctive aversion to all change and modernity – offer a pathway forward. Aping the Right, indulging the Left, or defending the failures of market liberalism will each lead to a slightly different version of defeat for the Labour government.
Yet there is still a path to victory, and sustained relevance for the centre-left.
This involves uniting the ‘quiet mainstream’, who are neither socially regressive nor radically progressive, but instinctively ‘communitarian’ in their values. They are concerned not solely with their pay packets, but with how the fabric of society and the changing world directly affect their families, communities and country.
These core communitarian values can be found in the moderates on each side of the Brexit debate, as well as those of different ages, ethnicity and education levels:e:
- a belief in hard work and contribution, reward and reciprocity;
- A belief that shared values and responsibilities – more so than rights-based individualism – hold society together and support us each to thrive.
- an instinctive sense of national identity – and that elected national governments should be the primary source of power and accountability – not lawyers, nor the EU, or tax-avoiding multi-nationals.
- a belief that our leaders should be driven by honesty, purpose and moral conviction;
- instinctive support for smart, affordable investment in industry, public services and their local community;
- a hunger for change that will benefit working people and wider society, welcoming many advancements but experiencing other upheaval as loss – such as the manufacturing job losses suffered by working class men.
Beyond our own research, these values crop up in other studies – including in Labour Together’s elections analysis, in some of the ‘seven segments of British society’ identified by More in Common, and within the ‘hero voters’ Labour targeted in opposition. ‘Think communitarian’ to unite voters and win trust was one of nine recommendations we presented to Keir Starmer’s leadership team in opposition.
Starmer ‘spoke communitarian’ in his impressive recent conference speech in Liverpool, where he presented Labour as a patriotic party of the working class, promising Technical Excellence Colleges and investment in defence and energy jobs. Yet the moral purpose behind his welfare-to-work policies – which are rooted in the communitarian principle that contribution and reward are good for both society and the individual – were lost under the Treasury’s mission to cut spending. A similar fate may yet befall his asylum policies.
This means that, to win again, Labour leaders at all levels must start to ‘think communitarian’ when approaching thorny political issues – resisting the instinctive slip into rights-based individualism. From free movement to gender identity, to the grooming gangs, too often ‘progressives’ have been snookered by their own hyper-liberal instincts.
Only the centre-left can deliver a unifying, communitarian agenda. The Radical Left demand more rights without duties, squirm at patriotism, and want a society based on universal income and welfare. The Populist Right feast on ethno-nationalism and division, talk Britain down, and – despite their cosplay – will always jump into bed with big business over workers.
The extremes of each are apologists for dictators, denigrate NATO and undermine our security. And each – along with the centre-right market liberals – are in their own ways obsessively self-involved when they should be focused on healing our society and delivering prosperity for future generations.
Labour and the centre-left must now stand up and talk the language of civic patriotism, moral standards, and earning rights through obligations.
There is such thing as society – and there is a real opportunity to unite it in the face of the populist right, but only if centre-left politicians can ‘think communitarian’.
Joe Jervis, Director of Renaissance