| Summary/Abstract |
writing recently in this journal, Jon Bloomfield presents an interesting critique of the ‘Blue Labour’ school of thought on Britain’s centre‐left.1 His thesis is that while ‘the social alliances that sustained progressive politics for a century are disintegrating’, the emergence of the Blue Labour tendency is riddled with ‘fallacies and dangers’. He argues that against the backdrop of the post‐2008 financial crisis a ‘nationalist right’ has surged, redefining politics around issues of nation, culture and identity. Furthermore, ‘influential voices across the centre and left of politics’—including ourselves—‘have accepted much of this far‐right analysis and adopted its language and terminology’. In the aftermath of Brexit, these trends—Bloomfield argues—‘have crystallised in the UK around the label of ‘Blue Labour’.
|