A Left Turn Worth Taking

Patrick J. Deneen writes:

If only such voices as that of Lord Maurice Glasman received a hearing in today’s Democratic Party. According to this remarkable article in the Guardian, Glasman has the ear of Labour’s leader Ed Miliband in urging an alternative direction for Britain’s Left – one that he calls “radically traditionalist.” According to the article, Glasman “is making a plea for rootedness, an organic rather than an atomised society, the reassertion of place and identity, and the re-creation of a society founded on stable work, or as he prefers to call it ‘vocation’ – a key word in his lexicon.”

He is urging adoption of significant reductions of immigration (which he believes suppresses the wages of lower income workers and which he understands to be a policy of “the bosses’ agenda that overwhelmingly benefits the highest earners).” More broadly, he seeks to recommend policy that places a central focus on “rootedness” – particularly the contributions of those seeking stable work in support of families and communities – and not itinerancy, as current policy throughout the West now favors. In his critique of the free market ideology that pervades the thinking of today’s elites – whether on the Left or Right – one hears distinct and definite echoes of G. K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc.

What’s all the more striking is how similar many of Glasman’s arguments are to those of Phillip Blond. While Blond has the ear of Tory’s PM Cameron (now in a bit of trouble), Glasman is the “conversation partner” of Labour’s Miliband. If the spectrum of political possibilities in England looks more attractive than that in the U.S. today, perhaps there is yet hope for the FPR agenda on this side of the pond.