Justin Timberlake brought sexy back. Sir Thomas Wyatt brought sonnets back. As of the Labour Party conference, Ed Miliband is ‘bringing socialism back’. For the third time, perhaps, it’s good news for Tories.
But is he? George W Bush’s economic advisor, David Frum, argues in his interview with The Progressive Conscience that conservatives in the modern political climate can no longer take for granted that parties of the left, whether in the UK or the US, are unacceptable to people of enterprise. Sure, it’s a relief for the Conservatives when the separate elements within our party can unite against something we all definitively loathe: socialism. Hence Chris Grayling’s intervention during the Labour conference, warning in The Telegraph that both Labour and the Lib Dems want to ‘penalise the wealth creators’. But as Frum suggests, wealth creators still don’t seem frightened enough of Miliband. He quacks like a socialist, but he walks like a man heavily backed by financial sector leaders such as Andrew Rosenfeld, the man who took Minerva plc from £70,200 to £600 million. Or Sir Charles Allen, one of our most influential gay businessmen, who manages to incorporate advising Goldman Sachs and chairing Labour’s Executive Board for him. And it’s hard to imagine Margaret Hodge sees him as a threat to her family’s steel trading fortune. This isn’t a story about hypocrites. It’s a story about people who are genuinely able to coexist as capitalists and Labour believers. This should worry Conservatives.
Conservatives still stand up for the private sector more than the Labour Party ever will. But we can’t fight on that front only and expect to win. Those who vote Labour, even against
their economic interests, do so because they still believe Tories are ‘the nasty party’ – and as Alex Massie notes on p 9, every time we cuddle up to UKIP we look nastier.
Modernisation has never been about abandoning traditional Tory values. It’s about making the case for traditional Tory values to people who worry that great Tory institutions like marriage, the army, even the City, exclude more people than they support. Britain has changed irrevocably since the 1950s and we don’t think we can turn back the clock. For more on what responding to modernity looks like in practice, and where it went wrong for Republicans, David Frum’s interview on p 18 is essential reading – even if it didn’t also include his frankest discussion yet on the reasoning behind the invasion of Iraq.
And as all Tories should, Bright Blue believes firmly in the value of Britain’s alliance with America. That’s why this edition of The Progressive Conscience takes ‘America’ as its theme. I’m particularly proud that Olympia Snowe has drawn on her long career as a deal-brokering Republican Senator to write for us on cross-party dialogue. Daniel Finkelstein, Stephen Pollard and Iain Martin lend us their expertise on lessons from recent American history, and from the other side of the pond, leading bloggers like James Poulos and Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry give us a taste of the American blogosphere.
And we’re proud to stand up for the values we share with America even when those values seem unfashionable. The Tory Party has always believed in universal principles, not the moral relativism that dismisses violence against women as ‘cultural’ and blinks at the use of chemical weapons against civilians. There’s nothing anti-Tory about querying the practical outcome of getting involved in a specific conflict. But it’s not just anti-Tory, but anti-British, to turn one’s back on the world by default. That’s why Bright Blue is calling for the Tory Party to commit again to humanitarian intervention, backed by force if necessary, when states commit crimes against humanity. And we’re delighted to have the backing of Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary, on this stance. As Dr Fox tells Bright Blue,
“In a complex and increasingly interconnected world, events in countries far from ours can soon land on our doorstep. This makes it more important than ever to take an active part in the world, and shirking our international responsibilities not only diminishes our standing in the world but also damages our own national security. We must involve ourselves fully lest we be left behind, reacting to the decisions that others have made but unable to influence them ourselves.”
Watching Miliband prevaricate over his response to Syria, it’s easy to share Dr Fox’s disquiet at the thought of a Labour government hobbling Britain on the world stage. Fortunately, public opinion isn’t moving Miliband’s way – and not just on intervention. As our Director Ryan Shorthouse notes on p 6, the British Social Attitudes Survey shows young British people are growing more economically and socially liberal. The battle over universal benefits has already been lost by the left, and Britain is feeling optimistic about the economy again. And we at Bright Blue are optimistic too – the relaunch of this magazine is just one part of a major development this year into larger, formally structured organisation, with an extension to our paid membership scheme. If you enjoy our magazine, check us out online and get involved in our national movement. We’re excited.
