Thursday, July 07, 2011
Patriotism - a dead-end solution to a non-problem posted by Richard Seymour
In which I micturate all over a couple of Blue Labourites from a great height:Don’t open the door, and definitely don’t answer the phone: it’s probably someone trying to sell you some ‘new patriotism’.
Its salespeople are Labour politicians. Its purpose is to enable Labour to ‘re-connect’ with lost voters. This disconnect is summarised by Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford thus:
“Labour is in a dangerous situation. Who listens to it today? When the crash came in 2008, the left thought its time had come. We were wrong. There is no liberal progressive majority in England or in any other nation of the UK. Across Europe, orthodox social democracy has been beaten.
“Labour is out of touch with the majority of people in this country. The left wants the New Labourites to admit they were wrong about Iraq, welfare reform, flexible labour markets. They did not understand the destructive capacity of neoliberal capitalism. But what did we on the left get wrong? Did we listen to people on crime, did we hear the widespread anger about a culture of entitlement and about immigration? Labour’s way back into power will mean navigating our way through these issues.”
This requires some unpacking...
Labels: blue labour, conservatism, immigration, labour, multiculturalism, multiculture, new labour, racism, reactionaries, socialism, welfare