Trumpism is considerably more niche than Corbynism in Britain. The right will be in trouble if it does not realise that. The idea of a social democratic coalition founded on Trump/Bannon/Musk is simply absurd. It would be esp bizarre for communitarianism to propose an external + rootless import - ThreadSky

sundersays.bsky.social • 15 days ago

Trumpism is considerably more niche than Corbynism in Britain. The right will be in trouble if it does not realise that. The idea of a social democratic coalition founded on Trump/Bannon/Musk is simply absurd. It would be esp bizarre for communitarianism to propose an external + rootless import

Reposted from Renewal

If all the important conversations are happening within Trumpism, why should we be interested in your views on Labour?

@dmk1793.bsky.social and @morganj0nes.bsky.social on the recent political interventions of Lord Glasman:

renewal.org.uk/2025/02/16/t...

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sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

There has always been an important potential space for what I have called "sensible blue Labour": a communitarian project able to check liberal progressive blindspots. There is no potential in the fantasy of a social democratic coalition that expels all the liberals & progressives as green hippies

lines.snail.skin•15 days ago

This has kind of always been my suspicion with actually existing Blue Labour - that they didn't actually want to work productively with liberals and progressives (I am sympathetic to working with Sensible Blue Labour as you describe them but I'm not sure they're there in practice.)

sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

Daft to celebrate multiethnic Trumpism while ignoring racist foundations of > half of the movement. Its also weird to criticise progressives for importing US race politics to a v different UK context (accurate) and then to do *exactly* that with the identity politics of the US white backlash right

sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

See June 2011 discussion of Blue Labour - Jon Cruddas, Jesse Norman, Daniel Finkeksteim & myself. One of the last things I did at Fabians. Partly about whether Blue Labour could mature beyond what Cruddas called the "hand grenade" phase of what it was agin to what its for
https://youtu.be/SCykaQJesHs?si=t4pgvtrcG9Tob-C7

sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

Fabian mum emasculating working-class Dad metaphor has obvs problems but I commend Josh Westerling for proposing to blue labour a relational communitarian dialogue - equal voice across generations & genders where all do get heard, inc cons communitarians. Not "pick a tribe"
https://bsky.app/profile/joshwesterling.bsky.social/post/3liafrtv22s2v

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•15 days ago

The family metaphor is problematic because it personifies aspects of the party which intensify emotion and grievance.

sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

Yes

sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/renewaljournal.bsky.social/post/3lia5w6sofs2i

julialamberth.bsky.social•15 days ago

It absolutely has the feel of student politics with its spirit of death to hippies & a luta continua type nonsense. Presume these would have been Stalin apologists as well?Amazing how populist dogma is basically devoid of politics & is mainly just vitriol & why they all agree on their superiority

richardparkin.bsky.social•15 days ago

How do you check a blind spot? With a system of mirrors? Do you get your partner to take a look? What?

sundersays.bsky.social•15 days ago

This metaphor would indeed involve remembering to look in the mirror & over your shoulder to see if there may something important behind you that may not be in your line of sight at the front windscreen

ajpendleton.bsky.social•15 days ago

not least because labour is as squeezed on the left flank as it is on the right and more comprehensively in terms of geography.

davegearing.bsky.social•15 days ago

Isn’t anything remotely approaching a real social democratic coalition now, even w/out all libs/progressives not yet having gone. Lab under Glassman & McSwinney is already a right wing Party. However, lib/progressive voters will have deserted big time by next GE if Lab continue on their current road

mrsblocking.bsky.social•15 days ago

Wow. Why not a nazistic democratic red coalition?

davegearing.bsky.social•15 days ago

It won’t be the right who are in trouble, it will be the left/centre if they haven’t yet realised that majority of the UK right aren’t remotely interested in forming social democratic coalitions. And also haven’t realised that far right policies in UK are now more mainstream than Corbyn’ism ever was

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