Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good

Labour has been on a wild ride over the past thirty years. New Labour argued that we had no choice but to accept a globalized free market economy in which the race was to the swift, the open, and the flexible. Corbynism reacted against this with a jumble of old-school statism and identity politics. Both ultimately failed.

A Bold Reimagining of Labour's Core

In this book, Maurice Glasman takes the axe to the soulless utilitarianism and ‘progressive’ intolerance of both Blair and Corbyn. He argues that human beings are not calculating machines, but faithful, relational beings who yearn for meaning and belonging. Rooted in their homes, families, and traditions, people seek to resist the revolutionary upheaval of markets and states—forces that try to commodify and dominate their lives—through the practice of:

• Democracy
• Mutuality
• Pluralism

This, Glasman contends, is the true Labour tradition: paradoxically both radical and conservative, and more relevant than ever in a post-COVID world.

A Love Letter to Left-Conservatism

This crisp statement of the real politics of Blue Labour—as opposed to the absurd caricatures of its detractors—is Glasman’s love letter to the left-conservatism that provides Labour’s best chance of moral—and indeed electoral—redemption.