Phillip Blond on 'Red Tory'

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Phillip Blond on 'Red Tory'

01 Apr 2010

Speakers: Phillip Blond

Phillip Blond explains why the current form of Conservatism in Britain – what he calls Red Tory – is the future form of 21st century politics. He argues that, despite the Tories' reputation for holding the poor in contempt and only being in interested in the top 10% of earners, there is a 'deep, radical, unknown, Conservative tradition', which is pro-poor and pro-society.

Blond provides a brief outline of politics in Britain from the eighteenth century to the present day, pointing out that, at the start of this period, the Tories were the great defenders of the poor, campaigning against slavery and taking a central role in the Great Awakening of the mid eighteenth century. Our current ills, he argues, derive ultimately from the 1945 settlement, which effectively nationalised British society. It was this which led to the New Left of the 1950s, with their politics of liberation. This formed the basis for the right's neo-liberal economics, which would eventually find expression in the 1975 settlement. The marred but inclusive combination of social liberalism on the Left and economic liberalism on the Right is what erased other political forms and led to the current hegemonic political model we have today.

Blond explains how, from the late 1970s onwards, capital has been centralised, draining from the rest of the country and flowing into the City of London. It has left Britain with debt of around 468% of GDP, clearly unsustainable, and instrumental to Britain's current economic woes. Blond's solution in addressing these social and economic problems is 'Red Toryism' - Tory because of its basis on group formation, and Red because of ambitions towards egalitarian help for the poor.