BLUE LABOUR IS A SMART, INCISIVE political idea. It proposes that the British Left aligns itself with where the British people are: economically on the Left; moderately socially conservative and quietly patriotic.
In the context of state underinvestment in capital projects, family breakdown, a total loss of faith in policing and border control, Blue Labour offers a revival of state competence and civic-mindedness. It’s as urgently needed a diagnosis as any offered in living political memory. Unfortunately, standing in its way is almost the entirety of the Labour party.
Granted, Keir Starmer has made many Blue Labour noises. He has recognised the devastating impact of crime and antisocial behaviour, promising to make Labour “the party of law and order”. He has praised King and country and wrapped himself in the flag. He has suspended Jeremy Corbyn.
Predictably therefore, Starmer has been the target of furious denunciation in the left-wing press, typical of which, in which she despaired at his embrace of the “reactionary necropolitics” of “the most right-wing government in living memory”.
