Thomas Hogg says people want connection - and that's the Left's biggest advantage.
It has been almost a decade of Tory rule. We have been through cuts to government services, major changes to the benefits system and an increase in the number of food banks.
And now, after all this time, the Conservative position has just got a lot stronger: triumphing with a majority of Blair-sized proportions. Everyone on the Left knows a change of direction is needed, but the question is, which one?
Labour’s policies in the 1970s led to Margaret Thatcher. Labour’s hard-left response led to more Thatcher rule. Tony Blair won with his Third Way, which was politically successful, but which, in carrying on Thatcher’s neo-liberal agenda, felt like an empty victory for many on the Left.
Ed Miliband moved the party back leftwards, with little success, until Corbyn went all the way to international pseudo-Marxism. That too didn’t work. So, where next?
Sometimes it takes an outsider to see where your greatest strengths lie. Labour could ease to a landslide, but first it must look again at its core mission – look again at why they believe what they do.
To me, the Left in Britain, at its core, has always been about one very simple and beautiful concept: You’ll never walk alone.
Lord knows how tough life can be, and having to fight alone is toughest of all. But with a strong community supporting you, though, you can get through almost anything. When I watched Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old, it struck me how men reacted to the war’s end.
Traumatised and exhausted, they still said they had found a family in their band of brothers; that they had a place they were valued. When they re-joined civilian life, many felt unvalued and lonely. It was hard to find a job and hard to find their place in society. To me, this really brought home just how important having a strong community is to people’s welfare.
This basic human need for connection can be found in drug addicts too. While there are clearly strong elements of physical addiction to some drugs, the evidence is growing that there is a major social side too. The idea is this: the opposite of addiction is connection, and you can see this with the effectiveness of groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, who use the power of connection and community to overcome addiction.
This one mission: You’ll never walk alone – this is the Left’s greatest strength. There has been so much focus on political theory, that this prime directive has been forgotten.
It’s not about whether to shift Leftwards or Rightwards; it’s not about theories like Socialism; it’s about All for one and one for all. Behind all the theory, the Left must always reflect on how to bring people together, make sure no-one is left behind, and that we are a close-knit group.
When Thatcher closed the mines, whole communities lost their ecosystem and collapsed. Replacing these jobs, and the pride that went with them, with call centre jobs and similarly empty work, was no substitute, and Britain lost a part of her lifeblood.
Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the free market couldn’t help these communities, and neither would Tebbit’s blunt instruction to “get on your bike”. Individualism has always been the Left’s criticism of Thatcherism, and its why the Blair years felt so empty – a feeling crystalised by the Blair-era comedy show Monkey Dust.
To answer the calling of this main mission, the Left has been looking in the wrong place. Socialism will never bring communities together: a faceless, distant State bureaucracy, nationalisation of industries and increasing centralised control over people’s lives is no help at all to a community spirit.
Members of a community need to feel motivated to care for each other. They need to feel connection and empathy towards one another. This is how we can crush the loneliness and isolation epidemic in this country.
The State has a clear role to play in that, but this should be a supporting one, rather than an imposing one. This article isn’t the place for solutions, but they do lie in the realms of social science and should be explored. This is where political success lies for the Left.
On a national level, the sense of community feeling is known as patriotism. In the minds of many on the Left, patriotism is linked with the Right, with jingoism and nostalgia. But patriotism is actually one of the Left’s best friends, because it is all about shared identity and connection.
This identity can cross ethnic and class boundaries and is one of the most important tools in making sure people care about each other. As Thatcher’s individualism, global capitalism and migration have increased, so too has people’s sense of loneliness.
A great anecdote of the power of patriotism is Churchill’s escape from the Boers. There was a massive manhunt underway and a large reward for his re-capture. Along the way, Brits hid him and smuggled him across borders at great danger to themselves, and when he reached the British consulate in a neutral State, local British volunteers protected him, waiting to escort him to British territory.
If ever there was a tale of You’ll never walk alone, this was it. The main lesson of patriotism is simple: we should be there for one another, before all others, because life is tough and we are family.
Politics has become debased over the last several years, and that is the fault of us all. We prioritise short-term winning over the moral fabric of our nation.
So that is why I am writing this article: because although I am a Conservative, I know that Britain needs the Left.
When at its best, the Left brings empathy that the Right sometimes lacks. It speaks for the vulnerable and those on the breadline.
It is an important part of our society. Never has it been more important for the next leader of the Labour Party to show the Right how to be graceful, to shun ideology in favour of the prime directive, to stop the short-term point scoring, and bring our four nations and disparate communities together through a single British identity. For the Left to return to power, these are the steps it needs to take.
Thomas Hogg is a Conservative Party member, innovation professional and former social science academic, focusing on the Welfare State at Bristol University.
14 Responses to “Patriotism and ‘you’ll never walk alone’ – a Tory member on what the Left must do to win again”
Michael Fitchett
This chap might be a Conservative, and I am a member the Labour Party, but I agree with him.. It all about thinking that what unites us is more important than what divides us.
John Pearson
It is time for the LibDems and Greens to join the Labour Party and pressurise from within – whether for a truly Green party or for their social democratic principles. We must beat the two party system at its own game : with a less ideologically “constipated” Centre-left party. Without it, the Tories and the right-wing press will continue to lie, divide and rule…
Adam Cooper
Hi Thomas
Hats off to you. Reading this makes me wonder why you class yourself as a conservative if you can see and value these elements of the Labour position. I agree with what you say – indeed I think the goal over the next year is to set out a new Third Way. For me this is not a revisionist Giddensian sociology but a stepping back from “spectrum” politics (far left to far right) and starting from a different point of departure.
Cole
It’s worth remembering that the 1945 Labour manifesto – which led to the creation of the NHS and much else – only mentioned socialism three times. The Labour programme was presented as a national, patriotic project.
Mick
You do know Thomas is pissing up your back?