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Home , Chris Christie, Conservative Future, Daniel Finkelstein, Godfrey Bloom, Isabel Hardman, Jesse Norman

DANIEL FINKELSTEIN celebrates the modern on what the Tories are of Martin doing wrong and Chris The Luther King Christie’s doing right Progressive Conscience Spotlight on America

Bush adviser issues a warning for Cameron and tells Bright Blue his regrets “Iraq: it’s on my mind all the time. Every day.”

senator olympia snowe | iain martin | | stephen pollard

J1025 The Progressive Conscience COVER.indd 1-2 23/09/2013 12:24 AMERICA BOOKS AND ARTS

Contents Opening an American mind Brooks Newmark, the American-born MP and kate maltby is the Editor of Contributors EditorialVice-President of the Harvard Alumni Association, The Progressive Conscience. NIGEL CAMERON is CEO of the tells British students to head to the Ivy League Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies Justin Timberlake brought sexy back. Sir Thomas Wyatt of The Progressive Conscience takes ‘America’ as its theme. ’m LUKE COFFEY is the Margaret brought sonnets back. As of the Labour Party conference, Ed particularly proud that Olympia Snowe has drawn on her long Thatcher Fellow at The Heritage course in Britain is generally broken This ultimately leads to a very P18 P29 P32 Foundation Miliband is ‘bringingBROOKS NEWMARK socialism has back’. served For the third time, per- career as a deal-brokering Republican Senator to write for us as a Government Whip, Lord down into three terms over a three year different undergraduate experience. OLIVER COOPER is the Chairman haps, it’s good news for Tories. on cross-party dialogue. Daniel Finkelstein, Stephen Pollard Commissioner HM Treasury, period – although Scottish courses tend I found the student bodies at both of Conservative Future But is he? George W Bush’s economic advisor, David Frum, and Iain Martin lend us their expertise on lessons from recent 03 Editorial 18 David Frum: After Bush and was a Member of the to involve a four year degree. It was the Harvard and Oxford to be very bright PASCAL-EMMANUEL GOBRY argues in his Treasuryinterview Select with Committee The Progressive Conscience that American history, and from the other side of the pond, leading Kate Maltby Interviewed by Kate Maltby breadth of education that lead me to and talented but at Harvard I found writes for Forbes and Atlantico conservatives in the modern political climate can no longer bloggers like James Poulos and Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry give bright blue politics 22 Can libertarian populism remake I was lucky enough to have had the go to the US to study and that is why there to be a much broader and more 05 My greatest regret the American right? DANIEL FINKELSTEIN is take for granted that parties of the left, whether in the UK or us a taste of the American blogosphere. Associate Editor of opportunity to attend both Harvard I encouraged my two eldest children diverse range of individuals from a the US, are unacceptable to people of enterprise. Sure, it’s a And we’re proud to stand up for the values we share with Douglas Hurd James Poulos and Oxford, so I feel well placed to to do likewise. variety of backgrounds who had done PETER HOSKIN is Associate relief for the Conservatives when the separate elements within America even when those values seem unfashionable. The Tory 06 Director’s note 23 America’s Big Society Editor of ConservativeHome compare and understand the best much more with their lives than just Ryan Shorthouse Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry our party can unite against something we all definitively Party has always believed in universal principles, not the moral DOUGLAS HURD was Foreign of America and Britain’s respective succeed in the classroom. Harvard did loathe: socialism. Hence ’s interventionAmerican during universities relativism that dismisses violence against women as ‘cultural’ 07 Why I’m a Bright Blue MP policy Secretary from 1989–95 education systems. not need to compromise standards 25 It’s the justice economy, stupid the Labour conference, warning in The Telegraph that both and blinks at the use of chemical weapons against civilians. SUNDER KATWALA is the Whilst many tertiary level academic offer that little bit more to get students from disadvantaged Labour and the Lib Dems want to ‘penalise the wealth cre- There’s nothing anti-Tory about querying the practical out- 08 What do the English want? Will Tanner Director of British Future institutions in both countries offer backgrounds, but nor did they compare ators’. But as Frum suggests, wealth creatorsat still undergraduate don’t seem come level of by getting involved in a specific conflict. But it’s not just Sunder Katwala 26 Junk science in Washington KATE MALTBY is the Editor of exceptionally high standards of like for like between students from the The Progressive Conscience frightened enough of Miliband. He quacks likeencouraging a socialist, but students anti-Tory, to study but anti-British, to turn one’s back on the world by 09 The dangerous Mr Bloom Nigel Cameron education, American universities offer fi nest private schools and those who IAIN MARTIN is widely published he walks like a man heavily backed by financial sector leaders default. That’s why Bright Blue is calling for the Tory Party to Alex Massie 27 Defence cuts, not caution on Syria, that little bit more at undergraduate a wide range of subjects went to poor state schools. journalist. His latest book such as Andrew Rosenfeld, the man who took Minerva plc commit again to humanitarian intervention, backed by force if 11 Centre-right abroad weaken our alliance level by encouraging students to study a Until recently, the disparity in Making It Happen is out now. from £70,200 to £600 million. Or Sir Charles Allen, one of our necessary, when states commit crimes against humanity. And Oliver Cooper Luke Coffey wide range of subjects, and offering the The admissions process between price between a British education and america 28 Republicans are wising up ALEX MASSIE writes a blog for most influential gay businessmen, who manages to incorpo- we’re delighted to have the backing of , the former and a fortnightly fl exibility to change the core subject of the two countries is also very different. an American one, meant that many rate advising Goldman Sachs and chairing Labour’s Executive Defence Secretary, on this stance. As Dr Fox tells Bright Blue, 12 Weasel words on immigration column for the Scottish edition your degree throughout your time there. Most US universities look at much British students were put off the idea of of The Times Board for him. And it’s hard to imagine sees “In a complex and increasingly interconnected world, Stephen Pollard Alex Nowrasteh Most American undergraduate more than your academic achievements studying overseas. However, the rise in him as a threat to her family’s steel trading fortune. This isn’t events in countries far from ours can soon land on our door- 13 America isn’t worried by 29 Civility has left the Senate LOUISE MENSCH is the former courses take place over a four year – in part, because the system depends UK tuition fees, in addition to the lure MP for a story about hypocrites. It’s a story about people who are step. This makes it more important than ever to take an active Miliband’s chicanery Olympia Snowe period with each year being split into on rounded individuals, who can adapt of generous scholarships in America books and arts is MP genuinely able to coexist as capitalists and Labour believers. part in the world, and shirking our international responsibil- Penny Mordaunt two semesters. During each semester to a broad range of thought. As a has made studying there more viable for North This should worry Conservatives. ities not only diminishes our standing in the world but also 14 The GOP needs to learn 31 Lincoln in the lense you will take four courses, half of Harvard Admissions offi cer once told than in previous years. According to the BROOKS NEWMARK is Conservatives still stand up for the private sector more than damages our own national security. We must involve ourselves from Cameron Peter Hoskin which will refl ect your Major, or core me, “we can fi ll Harvard eight times US-UK Fulbright Commission, Har- MP for Braintree the Labour Party ever will. But we can’t fight on that front fully lest we be left behind, reacting to the decisions that others Louise Mensch 32 Burke’s American Dream subject, while the other half are in over with kids who are straight As and vard saw a 45% increase in applications 16 The Fink on The King Jesse Norman JESSE NORMAN is only and expect to win. Those who vote Labour, even against have made but unable to influence them ourselves.” MP for and other subjects. At Harvard, I majored Valedictorian – we look for more than from British students between 2009/10 their economic interests, do so because they still believe Tories Watching Miliband prevaricate over his response to Syria, Daniel Finkelstein 35 Opening an American mind South in History for 50% of my time, but in that.” At Harvard you are assessed on a to 2011/12. Harvard Admissions is 17 Teddy, not FDR, knew how Brooks Newmark are ‘the nasty party’ – and as Alex Massie notes on p 9, every it’s easy to share Dr Fox’s disquiet at the thought of a Labour ALEX NOWRASTEH is an addition to History I studied everything combination of your academic perfor- need blind so your fi nancial aid is 100% time we cuddle up to UKIP we look nastier. government hobbling Britain on the world stage. Fortunately, to solve a recession immigration policy analyst from Italian, which fulfi lled a foreign mance over four years at High School, if your parents earn under $60,000 at the Modernisation has never been about abandoning traditional public opinion isn’t moving Miliband’s way – and not just on Iain Martin language requirement, to Astrophysics your performance on the standardized and there is a sliding scale of fi nancial STEPHEN POLLARD is Editor of Tory values. It’s about making the case for traditional Tory intervention. As our Director Ryan Shorthouse notes on p 6, and Socio Biology, to fulfi ll science Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), your support for parents earning up to values to people who worry that great Tory institutions like the British Social Attitudes Survey shows young British peo- requirements. There was even a required extracurricular activities (sport, music, $180,000 (taking into account how Bright Blue Bright Blue Executive Board: Jonathan Algar, JAMES POULOS is a contributor marriage, the army, even the City, exclude more people than ple are growing more economically and socially liberal. The course in Expository Writing, and the volunteer work etc), two teachers and many children your parents have, their Bright Blue is an independent pressure group campaigning Phil Clarke, Will Emkes, Tim Flagg, Alexandra Jezeph, to Forbes and VICE they support. Britain has changed irrevocably since the 1950s battle over universal benefits has already been lost by the left, chance to study an introductory course a headteacher’s recommendations – as income and their assets). for the Conservative Party to continue modernising and Kate Maltby, Sam Nassiri, Ryan Shorthouse, Guy Stagg, LAURA SANDYS is MP for and we don’t think we can turn back the clock. For more on and Britain is feeling optimistic about the economy again. And to adopt liberal and progressive policies. Our thinking Maria Strizzolo South Thanet in Economics with JK Galbraith, to well as your interview. I loved my time at both the draws on Conservative traditions of community, what responding to modernity looks like in practice, and where we at Bright Blue are optimistic too – the relaunch of this RYAN SHORTHOUSE is the fulfi ll my social science requirements. The data points you are assessed on institutions I studied at and made many entrepreneurialism, responsibility, liberty and fairness. [email protected] it went wrong for Republicans, David Frum’s interview on p 18 magazine is just one part of a major development this year into Director of Bright Blue The British education system, on are far broader than in the UK, where friends at both but if I had a choice We are passionate about sharing and championing new, www.brightblue.org.uk is essential reading – even if it didn’t also include his frankest larger, formally structured organisation, with an extension to original ideas that will improve the quality of life of the Editor: Kate Maltby OLYMPIA SNOWE was a United the other hand, tends to be focused on ultimately you are assessed on purely again I would still choose Harvard over discussion yet on the reasoning behind the invasion of Iraq. our paid membership scheme. If you enjoy our magazine, most vulnerable, in Britain and beyond. Printed by: PPC, www.ppcbristol.co.uk States Senator from 1995–2013 one subject with almost no fl exibility academic performance over a relatively Oxford for both its fl exible and broad Designed by: Soapbox, www.soapbox.co.uk And as all Tories should, Bright Blue believes firmly in the check us out online and get involved in our national move- WILL TANNER is a justice to change your degree once you are small exam period, with sometimes educational experience and the rich value of Britain’s alliance with America. That’s why this edition ment. We’re excited. policy expert accepted. An undergraduate degree an interview. variety of students I met there.

2 | The Progressive Conscience AutumnAutumn 2013 2013 | | 353

J1025 The Progressive Conscience COVER.indd 3-4 23/09/2013 12:24 BRIGHT BLUE POLITICS

COLUMNISTS MY Each issue, The Progressive Conscience asks a retired politician GREATEST to confess their greatest political regret. This edition Douglas REGRET Hurd talks of his failure to save the Royal Yacht

is consulted on royal matters such as farewell of a Royal Yacht which had baron hurd of westwell, this. Unfortunately, this was not done given her great pleasure. ch cbe pc was Foreign Secretary from 1989–95 and the Labour Opposition was taken None of this was inevitable – or by surprise. They reacted strongly as wise. As Foreign Secretary I had spent people do in such circumstances, and enough time on Britannia to understand The Royal Yacht Britannia has now in the General Election campaign when her full worth. I remember the come to rest in the harbour at Leith, was asked how he would anniversary of D-Day when the Queen, outside Edinburgh. Tourists are make ends meet if he won, he replied on Britannia, passed in review down encouraged to visit and I have been to “well, one thing we won’t do is spend a double line of allied ships, each one see the suite which my wife and I used to 60 million on a Royal Yacht”. This casting a tribute of flowers into the sea occupy on board. Suite is rather a grand always earned him a round of applause. in memory of dead comrades. I stood name for two small cabins, one of which by the Polish President, Lech Walesa, was organised as an office, with a third None of the new ministers had who could not hold back his tears as the room alongside for a private secretary. Polish destroyer dropped a wreath of The Britannia has been refurbished experience of Britannia. As a red and white in memory of the gallant since she left the service of the Queen result, they thought of her as dead. A few years later I watched the and they have done a good job on her. a royal plaything rather than Prince of take farewell of Hong Nevertheless I felt sad when I looked Kong, when we sailed on Britannia out at her, and remembered the many a national asset of that great harbour as it passed into happy days I had spent on her. There Chinese rule. is something melancholy about a ship The Royal Family was going 60 million pounds is a lot of which has been pensioned off and is no through a difficult time following the money even now, though trifling longer in service. As I walked around disastrous fire at Windsor Castle and compared to the much bigger sums her I wondered again whether, with what the Queen called her “annus which Government spends on more a little more effort, we could have horribilis”. Neither she nor any of trivial projects. Could we have saved provided her with a happier future. the Royal Family felt that they could, Britannia? Could we have devised a way The story has complicated moments against this background, make any of using a Royal Yacht which would but is in essence straight forward. request for a new Royal Yacht. None prove beyond doubt her usefulness? Towards the end of ’s of the ideas for prolonging the life I spent one cheerful day in the Conservative Government questions of the Britannia found favour. The harbour outside Bombay watching arose about the future of the Royal , which would carry the Indian businessmen come on board Yacht. Should she be refurbished, or initial capital cost, was to put it mildly, Britannia and sign hefty orders for should a new Royal Yacht be built? lukewarm. Labour won the Election, British goods. Could such varied uses The argument wandered to and fro and none of the new ministers had have been extended more widely so that in Whitehall as such arguments do. experience of Britannia. As a result, Britannia, or her successor, became It was brought to a head by the Prime they thought of her as a royal plaything identified not just with the Queen and Minister’s need to call a General rather than a national asset. the Royal Family, but with the Nation Election in 1997. The Defence Secretary So time passed and although there as a whole? I do not know if such was and he at once were schemes afoot for replacing efforts could have changed a announced that a new yacht would Britannia, no scheme ever found Government decision; what I do know be built for the Queen at a cost of favour with a Government which did is that the attempt was not made. And about 60 million pounds. It was not see the point. The years drifted so the Royal Yacht Britannia will eke a convention, which has certainly on; Britannia completed her schedule out her remaining days sadly in the proved its worth, that the Opposition of services and the Queen took a sad harbour at Leith.

Autumn 2013 | 5 BRIGHT BLUE POLITICS BRIGHT BLUE POLITICS

COLUMNISTS WHY I’M DIRECTOR’S The Conservative Party must be optimistic and Each issue, a Conservative MP tells us why they’re part of A BRIGHT NOTE open-minded. Bright Blue will be the champion the Bright Blue family. This issue, Laura Sandys, MP for South BLUE MP of this liberal Conservatism, says Ryan Shorthouse Thanet, tells us why she’s a Bright Blue parliamentary supporter

yes, but acknowledge that there is and reflect these trends: become the is imperative. It is an area of policy I have been working on, The Smarter

ryan shorthouse is the still much to learn. Different cultures, party for economic and social liberals, in which I believe the Conservatives Consumer Commission, will be laura sandys is Director of Bright Blue science and innovation, better policy, not malcontents and the privileged. MP for South Thanet should be leading the debate. It is not publishing a new set of metrics to help are all perpetually improving human As the General Election fast an elite or an exclusive agenda – we frame these economic policies. And I understanding, human progress. Accept approaches, the Tories will need to simply need to be visibly on the side am keen that we are all ambitious for Conservatism is at a crossroads. that, for most, life is getting better, from articulate their vision and offer to Politics is a reflection of the public. of consumers. That is why I want Britain – ambitious in wanting more Two schools of thought to guide the standards of living to levels of health Britain. Bright Blue wants to ensure As the public are dynamic and us to look again at regulators who markets open to us, like the US, while Conservative Party – to shape our and education. And the future could a liberal, optimistic Conservatism tri- innovative our politics must be too. don’t really ‘get’ the customer. We not leaving one of our largest markets: offer to the British public – are open even be more promising. umphs. Thanks to a talented, passionate Bright Blue is a movement that is must also expect ‘truth’ from retailers the EU. to us. No, not Wets versus Dries. Nor Conservatism is at its most inspiring executive – and our generous supporters constantly challenging and contesting and manufacturers – not expensive We need to reframe arguments traditionalists versus modernisers. On and inclusive when it places social – Bright Blue is now entering a new, our thinking, our actions and our strawberries or dodgy horsemeat. and capture the optimism around Europe, the public finances and the mobility at the core of its purpose: a mature organisational stage. Watch out ambitions, ensuring that the shadow What we need is redress that is simple our foreign engagements, believing need to appeal to aspirational voters, dream of a society where anyone, no for more opportunities to get involved in of complacency can never darken and straightforward. again that we can win abroad. This the Tory Party is more united than it matter their background or identity, can thinking and campaigning about liberal our doors. I am thrilled to be part We must also grip the fact that self-belief is already evident in what ever has been. The real dividing line is achieve a better life if they work hard Conservatism in the months ahead. of the Bright Blue family, looking replicating our old economy, cast in our party is doing globally and in between pessimists and optimists. and act responsibly. Macmillan led the optimistically at the future of our the 19th century, as we emerge from Europe. Reform is being proposed in The first school, pessimism, stems Tories to electoral victory by reminding This autumn, Bright Blue is launching party and of our country. our financial problems, is not going terms to build a confident, competitive from distress with the modern world us that Britain’s labourers “never had three new policies which we want the While Bright Blue has no to be good enough. We need to look Europe with the UK at the heart of its and seeks detachment from it. Too many it so good”; Thatcher captured the Conservative Party to adopt in the 2015 corner that it shies away from, my at a range of issues, including how we economic vision. immigrants. Homosexuality and work- aspirational classes with policies such as General Election Manifesto contribution is best focused on three use resources and how we measure Bright Blue offers an optimistic, ing women are destroying . the “Right to Buy”. key themes: the ‘low cost economy’ – the UK’s profitability, putting in place ambitious, outward looking, Atrocities in other countries are none This is a kinder, more hopeful Raise the national a retake on the low carbon economy; policies that enhance profits without conservative platform for us to stress of our bloody business. It combines Conservatism. It should be the future significantly and sensibly our role internationally, not least being captured by the obsession with test our new ideas, share views on long the worst of libertarianism – leaving of our party. Young people – energetic, Healthier economic times are returning, in Europe; and what the consumer top line sales – i.e. growth. We need term policy and together build a others alone, coldly, dogmatically – and dreamful, and Britain’s future – can but households on average have less should expect from the Conservatives. to be competitive and efficient. In the stronger Conservative proposition for social conservatism – judgemental and be attracted to this vision. Alongside money to spend because real incomes I believe rebooting consumer policy coming months a new Commission the election in 2015. sneering. It is ideological, rigid and this narrative, we should reach out are still falling. Employers should do close-minded. Sure, arrogant, that it is to them with strong policies. Indeed, more to tackle the growing problem right – and that others will bend to it, Bright Blue proposes this autumn of low pay in the UK, especially as >> Reduce stamp duty for less particular from downsizing. Stamp duty significant economic benefits to the UK eventually. UKIP tempts its adherents. three policies to help young people: the state is limited in what it can do to expensive properties should be reduced for less expensive and enhance the world-class reputation The Conservative Party should reducing stamp duty for less expensive help with the cost of living because of The huge cost of buying a house in properties and Government should of British universities. Although follow a different school: optimism. It properties; raising the minimum wage ongoing austerity. The Conservatives Britain means young families struggle instead look to revalue more expensive overseas student numbers have generally should champion a positive and inspiring significantly and sensibly; and taking should soon commit to significant to afford a house that is adequately properties for Council Tax. been rising in recent years and there story about the future for individuals and students out of the immigration cap. and sensible rises to the minimum sized. This is predominantly because is no limit on tier 4 applicants, there is our nation, differentiating itself from the The British Social Attitudes Survey wage, which could be varied according there are too few appropriate houses Remove international students from concern that students will be squeezed doomsayers in UKIP and Labour who broadly shows more Britons, especially to sector or region. There is now a being built. But government exacerbates the immigration cap in the future. This will damage Britain’s think our society and economy are going younger people, are becoming econom- strong academic consensus that a the problem by charging stamp duty Britons are deeply concerned about reputation as a destination for the in the wrong direction. In recent months, ically and socially liberal. They believe sensible minimum wage does not cause at different rates on the purchase of the number of immigrants coming to brightest and the best. The Government after all, several economic indicators have in self-sufficiency and are more sceptical unemployment. Firms adapt well: new homes above £125,000, with more the UK each year. The immigration should follow comparable countries and shown that Britain is on the verge of a of government support for individuals, reducing profits or pay differentials, people now being hit with the 3% duty cap introduced by the Coalition remove students from the measurement period of sustained growth. but are much more tolerant of homo- or boosting productivity. >> applied at homes above £250,000. This Government aims to reduce net of and cap on net migration. Tories should welcome new sexuality, immigrants and the role of Supported by: imposes a significant financial penalty immigration to below 100,000 a year Supported by: thinking. Respect the wealth of men and women in raising families. The Family and on young families wanting to upgrade by 2015, and the overall target includes Childcare Trust knowledge passed on through the ages, Conservative Party should champion Creating a family friendly UK and discourages older people in students. International students bring

6 | The Progressive Conscience The Family and Childcare Trust is Want to find out more? Autumn 2013 | 7 the charity created from a merger Call us of the Family and Parenting Institute 020 7940 7510 or and the Daycare Trust. 0845 872 6260 Together we bring over 40 years Visit our website of experience in campaigning www.familyandchildcaretrust.org and research into family life and childcare. Email us [email protected] The Family and Childcare Trust works to make the UK a better Follow us on place for families. Our vision is of @FamChildTrust a society where government, business and communities do all they can to support every family to thrive. Through our research, campaigning and practical support we are creating a more family friendly UK.

Registered charity number: 1077444 Registered company number: 3753345 Design by becolourful.co.uk Design by BRIGHT BLUE POLITICS BRIGHT BLUE POLITICS

What do the English want? The dangerous Mr Bloom Sunder Katwala looks ahead to one of the big questions of 2014 Alex Massie explains why flirting with UKIP could cost the Conservatives more than they think

sunder katwala is the is happening. By next summer, it will be sport, and voicing the range of ideas Director of British Future. clear that we can’t have the next round of , rural and urban, north He has worked as a journalist of debate about ’s aspirations, and south. alex massie writes a blog for on the right, too many Tories seem – these prejudices – have not ceased to and was general secretary of the inside or outside the Union, without Englishness remains almost invisible The Spectator and a fortnightly oblivious to the fact that bargaining with be true. Cuddling up to UKIP does not from 2003 to 2011 column for the Scottish edition finally taking the English question out of in our public life, beyond the cricket, of The Times. In 2012 he was UKIP costs the party support elsewhere. just cost the Tories votes at the next Englishness has now overtaken being the ‘too difficult to think about’ box. football and rugby teams, which now shortlisted for the Orwell Prize This is, in part, because some things election; it costs them votes at the next British as the primary official identity That doesn’t mean rushing to express a modern, civic and inclusive are more easily measured than others. several elections. Most of all it probably in England. In the 2011 census, 69% declare an answer to the ‘West Lothian’ English identity. Many cultural Like most normal people I had never It is easy to calculate how many seats costs them support in where, of people said they were English, and question. Issues like English votes for institutions, like the National Theatre, heard of Godfrey Bloom until recently. UKIP might notionally “cost” the should you need reminding, the Tories only 29% chose British. That dramatic English laws, an English parliament, or see their mission as British, though I don’t suppose many of his notional Conservatives at the next election but under-performed in 2010. The party statistic exaggerates the shift. Few a federal Union, should be considered, Scotland and Wales have their own constituents in Yorkshire and Northern rather more difficult to measure the won just 34% of the vote in London ticked two boxes on their census form, but it would miss the point to debate too. Symbolic measures like making as Lincolnshire could name their Member number of centre-ground votes will (as against nearly 40% in England but most still say both identities matter. constitutional fixes without genuine much of St George’s Day as St Patrick’s of the European Parliament either. The be lost by a closer association with as a whole). It needs to do better in What has changed is the realisation public engagement in what giving a Day, and sorting out the muddle over wages of political obscurity are paid in UKIPism. But those votes count too the capital. that they are not the same thing. greater voice to England should mean. national anthems, with a tune for public indifference. Even now I fancy and I wager they are more numerous Moreover, hugging UKIP tells the Scotland’s historic independence That popular conversation will be England than for Team GB, would help even politically-aware voters would be than some Tories think. electorate that Tory modernisation referendum on September 18th 2014 will as much about culture and identity – to signal that the debate is finally on. hard pressed to name Mr Bloom. If he As it is too many Conservatives is, in the end and at heart, a sham. accelerate this. Few in England outside about what makes us English, from So who will speak for England? is remembered at all he is surely only appear to think of UKIP as jovial rascals It counterfeits the entire purpose of the political class have yet noticed this language and literature, humour and It may be time to find out. known as the Bongo Bongo guy. Or, who may go a little too far sometimes ’s leadership. And so most lately, the slut guy. but whose hearts are essentially in the it costs the party support from people Ah yes, your average well-informed right place. What harm can there be in who might, in ordinary circumstances, voter will say, is he the UKIP fellow tacking to the right to reassure UKIP be happy to vote Conservative but Saturday who thinks we spend too much money voters – and those tempted by UKIP who have no desire to be associated England, My England on international development and aid – that, when all is said and done, the with a party that is in turn happy to 19 October to funny, fuzzy, types in Bongo Bongo Tories share their concerns and are, associate itself with people such as London College of Land? After all, everyone knows these broadly speaking, “on the same page”? Godfrey Bloom. A Festival of Englishness Communication, dusky thieves will only spend our Plenty. The Conservatives already Fraternising with extremists – London SE1 charity on Ferraris and apartments in have a problem with ethnic minority and most voters consider UKIP head- Featuring leading names Paris. Yes, he’s that guy. voters. This is, in part, a question banging fruit cakes – sends another What does English identity mean today and from politics, journalism, Bloom is an ass. But a useful one. of -dependency. Many Black message too: one that says the Tories sport and the arts. what are its implications for life in this country? Whether or not his recent suspension is and Asian Britons mistrust the have lost their nerve, their poise and Confirmed speakers so far permanent, his hijacking of the UKIP Conservatives because of the suspicion their ability to see what really matters. Englishness is on the rise, in many ways. Despite our diversity, if we live in England include Labour MP Jon we are increasingly identifying ourselves as English first and British second. Cruddas, Conservative MP conference ensured that after Nigel that the Tories do not see Black and It reveals a party unfit for government. , playwright Farage, his is the face most prominently Asian Britons as full and equal members Allowing the UKIP tail to wag the David Edgar, columnist and broadcaster Suzanne associated with the party. And his of the realm. All things being equal, Conservative dog is a sign of weakness Moore, Labour MP Tristram saloon-bar chauvinism comes with a these voters sense that many Tories that will not pass unnoticed. And nor Hunt, poet Daljit Nagra, health warning to which Conservatives would like there to be fewer Black should it. Which is why Godfrey Bloom FULL columnist and critic Pete DAY Find out more & book online Hoskin, comedian Shazia should pay attention. Too many or Asian Britons. And these voters is useful. TICKET www.IPPR.org/EnglandMyEngland Mirza, Spurs FC poet Sarah Conservatives appear to think flirting continue to believe these things because UKIP are toxic for the Tories and it £10£5 concession Wardle, editor Jason Cowley and with UKIP is a cost-free enterprise from they have learnt this from their parents. was decent – jolly decent – of Bloom to novelist Linda Grant. which no real harm can come. Bloom Many of them will continue to believe remind everyone why that is, and PRODUCED BY Plus, on the fringe, the is a reminder that this is not the case. these things even after they have ceased always will be, the case. If Tories wish Hackney Colliery Band UKIP are a threat to Tory fortunes at to be true. to cut their own throats with a UKIP Look out for Englishness and London Longsword festivals in Manchester and Academy. the next election but not in the way But, of course, flirting with a party razor that is, I suppose, their business Newcastle later this year! many Conservatives seem to think. that tolerated Godfrey Bloom for so but they cannot say they have not Obsessed with shoring up support long sends the message that these things been warned.

8 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 9 BRIGHT BLUE POLITICS

COLUMNISTS Political Books from Bite Back CENTRE

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www.bitebackpublishing.com • [email protected] • Tel: 020 7091 1260 Autumn 2013 | 11

BrightBlue 190913.indd 1 20/09/2013 09:28 AMERICA CONSERVATIVE LESSONS FROM AMERICA AMERICA CONSERVATIVE LESSONS FROM AMERICA

COLUMNISTS WEASEL Each issue of The Progressive Conscience, a Fleet Street WORDS America isn’t worried by Miliband’s chicanery editor looks at the uses and abuses of political terminology. Penny Mordaunt MP draws on her American experience to ask Stephen Pollard explores the meaning of the word ‘neocon’ if the Special Relationship has been damaged by the vote on Syria

as Daniel Bell, Daniel Patrick Moyni- But the battle within the Democratic penny mordaunt is MP for ‘calm and measured response’. Unfortu- besmirched by low political cunning, we Portsmouth North. In 2000 she stephen pollard is Editor han and as ‘Neo-Con- party was lost. Indeed, it was only with nately, Mr Miliband’s public utterances would have sent a cautious but resolute of the Jewish Chronicle was Head of Foreign Press on servatives’. From his perspective, he was Clinton’s nomination in 1992, as an George W Bush’s presidential since the vote could only be considered message of our preparedness to act, but right. They were certainly no longer avowedly New Democrat, that the party election campaign and is as ‘calm and measured’ in so far has not precipitately and only after the UN part of the new Democrats, exem- genuinely returned to the mainstream. Chairman of Conservative he has spoken very slowly. One might report and a second vote. At the time of It’s time once again for that oh-so-fun plified by George McGovern’s 1972 The most pithy explanation of Friends of America imagine that his private remarks have writing, the votes in Congress are yet to game. It’s the perennial favourite that presidential nomination. Having spent – by the late 1970s the been rather more fraught with anxiety, come and there is great uncertainty about requires not a moment’s thought. Yes, their youth and early adulthood on the insult had been claimed as a label by its The short and obvious answer is ‘no’. for his own ‘sequential roadmap’ is in their outcomes, especially as they have it’s time for Neocon Bingo. And this mainstream and sometimes Trotskyite victims – is Irving Kristol’s phrase that The relationship enjoyed by Britain and tatters. Miliband and a majority of his been postponed in light of discussions time the focus is Syria. left, in the 1960s they rejected the blind a neoconservative is “a liberal who has America is not between a president and MPs wanted a second vote, but because on international supervision of Syrian You win a point for each mention of alley of New Left thinking taken by mugged by reality”. a prime minister, or a congress and a they failed to support the Government’s chemical weapons, discussions which the word ‘neocon’. As for a prize: well, much of the Democrat Party. And they Those last two words matter. It’s parliament, but between two peoples. motion there will not be one. Some have been prompted by the possibility there isn’t one really. Perhaps a dose of saw the counterculture activists who often misquoted as simply a liberal who Certainly the course of that relationship MPs’ votes against the Government of military action. Yet whatever the final depression at the inability of so many demonstrated against involvement in the has been mugged, as if it’s somehow is eased when there is personal and were influenced by conscience; Mili- outcome, there is no uncertainty that people to engage any part of their brain Vietnam War as being, in their own way, atavistic and simply about base human political accord between the nations’ band’s was moved by calculation. The Britain and the US will work closely before opening their mouth. as anti-American as the Soviet fellow nature. But the key point is that neo- leaders, but it is not contingent on the only cross-Atlantic damage which has together to tackle that which follows. The game started in 2003, when the travellers who were anathema to them. conservatism distances itself from pure avoidance of any divergence in policy. been inflicted is on the Labour leader’s Beyond the immediate circumstances US and co. decided to liberate Iraq from Although most were originally ideology – of left or right – precisely was right about that, but I own prime ministerial credentials, such of our position on Syria, the future Saddam. My mistake. It started in 2001, supporters of LBJ’s Great Society, by because it is a temperament rather than suspect that I am right to think that the as they are. There have always been alliance of Great Britain and the United when the US and co. decided to liberate the 1970s they had started to see its a set of beliefs, that is based on the real President, members of Congress and people who thought Ed Miliband not States is assured. We should not fear the Afghanistan from the Taliban. Oops. unintended consequences. Welfare was world rather than theory and dogma. any of the presidential aspirants will be up to the job of Prime Minister, it was so-called ‘reorientation’ of US focus to Wrong again. It actually started in… all well and good, for instance, but That helps to explain the relative ease as able to recognise political chicanery just not apparent until recently that Ed the Pacific, for we look to the four Do you see what I’m doing here? welfare dependency seemed to be an with which the neocons became allies, when they see it as we are here. Miliband was one of them. corners of the world ourselves, and For every tendentiously incorrect use inevitable and dangerous consequence. if not yet an integral part, of the right. The Leader of the Opposition The Prime Minister’s decision to put while we will exploit our Common- of the word neocon, I can come back And after Nixon’s détente, which ’s 1980 campaign worked was afforded every courtesy to allow his case to the House of Commons has wealth and other unique relationships, with some equally stupid suggestion. accepted the outrages of the Soviet for them on both levels. It confronted Parliament to come to a consensus on had a positive influence in Washington, we never think that this turns us away Because yes, I know that the US didn’t Union and Warsaw Pact as inevitable, Soviet expansionism and it promised to Syria; the Prime Minister was happy President Obama feeling obliged to from America. Indeed, Britain and invade Iraq just to remove Saddam. was followed by Carter’s disastrous for- reverse the domestic decline of the 1970s. to accede to his request for an explicit follow suit. Just as I found when I America are committed to work That was a welcome by-product, eign policy, it was equally clear that the Which, skipping a few decades, clause on the necessity of a second vote worked on the first Bush campaign, together on nuclear deterrence and our just as liberation from the Taliban Democrats had lost the ability or even brings us to now. There’s a word I on military action and yet still Miliband notice is being taken of the arguments carrier strike regeneration will be was a by-product of the invasion of the wish to stand up for US interests haven’t used yet in explaining the decided to table an amendment. One made in our Parliament and the opinions facilitated by training our pilots with Afghanistan. But you know what? If abroad. But they weren’t – yet – con- origins of the neocons. The J word. can only conclude that he desperately of the , both by Congress the US forces. Most importantly, there you’re going to throw around idiotic servative, either. They still maintained Many – not all – emerged from wanted to create a division, to appear to and the American people. Yet had the is no appetite to devalue or undermine a simplicities then why can’t I join in? that the left had left them, rather than the Jewish milieu. That be the voice of reason and caution – to motion been passed our influence would relationship which is so emphatically in The word neocon has a specific and vice versa, and worked to bring it back is significant and deserves an essay provide what he has been wont to call a have been all the greater. Instead of a vote our mutual best interests. clear meaning and it’s not what’s meant to the electoral mainstream. to itself (it’s had many). But the real when ‘the neocons’ are accused of being They coalesced around the 1972 and significance today is that it has led to behind every foreign policy move of the 1976 campaigns for the Democratic the abuse of the word neocon so far >> such clarity of expression isn’t So this autumn, the idea of military isn’t that obviously a Jew is irrelevant. past two decades. Although just about Presidential nomination of the Wash- from any meaning based on its history permitted, because it reveals a latent action against a dictator who gasses He’s fallen under their (sorry, the the only thing the origin of the word ington Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, and the thinking of the neocons. which is no longer thought 1400 of his own citizens is dismissed as neocons’) influence. has in common with current parlance is among whose former employees were This generation’s neocon bingo is advisable to reveal. So instead, ‘neocon being a ‘neocon war’ because it’s the And there you have it. The catch-all that it was coined as an insult. the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, Doug not about neoconservatism. It’s based war’ (and its variations) is used as an Jews behind it, but you can’t actually explanation, based on ignorance and In 1973, Michael Harrington, the US Feith, and Richard Perle. The Henry on using the word as shorthand for acceptable way of saying ‘war fought for say that or the Jews will get you. prejudice, and couched in the language socialist, labelled renegade lefties such Jackson Society is named in his honour. Imperialist Jew. In today’s world, >> Jews’ or ‘war fought for ’. The fact that President Obama of insight.

12 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 13 AMERICA CONSERVATIVE LESSONS FROM AMERICA AMERICA CONSERVATIVE LESSONS FROM AMERICA

fighting to win my own marginal seat I was supremely grateful Registering, involving and staking out a new generation to our activists and members, but aiming to appeal to a wider, of Conservatives cannot be done the old fashioned stubs and The GOP needs to greater group. The party should rethink membership, with its dinners way. It is not that we should abandon traditional fees and off-putting structure. If I were CCHQ, membership supporters, we should thank and embrace them. But every prices would be slashed to the bone and free for members of Conservative PPC and MP must remember that it is not the learn from Cameron the Armed Forces. Activists and supporters would be digitally seventy people in their Conservative Clubs who elected them, louise mensch is the targeted. I would look to leverage the kind of data that tech but seventy-five thousand voters in their seats. former MP for Corby companies use. And I would campaign virally. As a techie, I always encourage sites to have “low entry Louise Mensch writes from New York barriers”. We need to go for Registered Conservatives and on what she’s heard about Hillary and why Every Conservative PPC and MP must count them as our members. We need to reform selection and the tiny clique that controls the candidates’ list. We need a Cameron should keep faith with remember that it is not the seventy people in central, national party, and a huge database of phone numbers their Conservative Clubs who elected them, but and emails. We need single-click Twitter ads that capture an seventy-five thousand voters in their seats email upon tapping. But most of all we need to remember that It’s strange watching the parallels develop. After the disaster Schwarzenegger won in California because he was ready to for all those who loathed equal marriage and want out of the of the McCain-Palin campaign (think Hague as leader), the detoxify the Republican brand: with magnetism, humour and EU yesterday (and I myself want total reform à la Norway) – GOP at least was respectable under Romney (think Michael fame, yes, but also with initiatives for after-school programmes Furthermore, I would allow national membership as that to win we must appeal to ex Labour, ex Lib Dem, ex Howard). But they are now where Howard was – no hope of and green energy. He was a Tory they could vote for. well as by constituency. Many people are put off by a local Green voters. We must be Schwarzenegger, Cameron and victory, with no light in sight down a long, dark tunnel and the party geared to quizzes and bridge nights; students and Christie, Martinez and Rubio. We must fight in the centre. need for major reform. The GOP needs to follow the model of red twenty-somethings are debating on Twitter, reading Guido Because that is where America is heading – and where Britain The GOP needs to learn the lessons of Nate Silver and actu- Fawkes and staying away from the formal Ya-hoo nature of has already arrived. Cameron’s huskies bought Osborne’s ally read the polls. The Romney campaign was not bullshitting governors who win blue states – because the Conservative Future and Young Conservatives (a perennial chance for true . Even James Delingpole us – they just had horrible numbers. The true numbers would USA today is itself a blue state party embarrassment). should recognise that. have told Mitt he never stood a chance. And the numbers would also tell GOP believers that they need to understand that the ground has decisively shifted away is definitely running. I know this because from them. Hispanics are no longer voting for them. Women she said so to somebody I know in the Hamptons this summer. are not voting for them. Terrifyingly, young people actually I am honestly not sure she is beatable. But the best chance the SAVE THE CHILDREN are voting. The last election saw a surge in the youth vote, and GOP has of beating her is a candidate who will fight the General CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE 2013 that almost never happens. The GOP cannot win if it becomes Election, not the primary. That candidate is Governor Christie, the party of Todd Aiken, of white males. There are not enough of – the big man who’s socially liberal, for civil of those to get anywhere near the White House. unions, who took on the teaching unions and won, who co-op- “Ah,” cries the blogosphere, “but we nominated liberals erated with Obama and ripped the hell out of a Republican Speakers will include: in McCain and Romney and look what happened!” Yes, well, Congress on behalf of his state. Like Schwarzenegger, he Save the Children The Rt Hon MP the terminally dull Romney got the nod because no other pitches himself as post-partisan. Socially liberal enough that and ConservativeHome Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs candidate worth anything wanted to chance his arm against centrists can vote for him. Blue collar enough to win in Ohio the guy who got Bin Laden. And McCain, despite his unique (neither McCain nor Romney had that). He likely brings New Evening Reception ConservativeHome status as a legendary American war hero and political maver- Jersey, which changes the electoral map. Richard Taylor ick, cannot speak well; and this is the television age. Without He will need a woman as running mate. And I know Tuesday 1 October, 9.30 –11pm Morrisons a TelePrompTer, as we saw at the G20, Mr. Obama tends to exactly whom he should pick. Governor Susana Martinez The Petersfield Suite, The Midland Hotel Justin Forsyth fumble the ball. But with one, he is unstoppable; he has bril- of New Mexico. A former Dem who joined the GOP over Save the Children liant speechwriters and can deliver lines superbly. No amount economics, Martinez is pro-choice, pro-gun (Christie is mostly Refreshments will be provided of “town hall meetings” can stop a talented demagogue. So the pro-life, anti-gun), a Republican from a small blue swing state post hoc ergo propter hoc error is to assume that in tacking to (5 electoral votes), a competent woman, as witness her speech the right, America will elect the GOP again. It is becoming at Romney’s convention, and most importantly, a non-Cuban RSVP to [email protected] more British; it is becoming more centrist. may Hispanic. Non-Cuban matters to the majority of Hispanic savethechildren.org.uk/conference2013 get the firebrands going, but immigration reform is hugely voters outside of Florida. Women will demand a woman on popular in America. The GOP needs to make a list: “popular that ticket and Martinez covers a ton of ground. things” – and ask itself why it is against them. In these days of Osborne’s economic triumph it is hard in association It needs to follow the model of the red governors who to recall that there is also a story about plummeting Tory with Registered charity England and Wales (213890) Scotland (SC039570) win blue states – because the USA today is itself a blue membership. Of course; because Cameron has reached out state. And failing to recognize that shift means obsoleteness. to a far, far larger constituency, Tory voters. I know that in

14 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 15 AMERICA LESSONS FROM HISTORY AMERICA LESSONS FROM HISTORY

The Fink on The King Teddy, not FDR, knew how to solve a recession Daniel Finkelstein, now Lord Fink to the likes of us, Iain Martin on why economists should look to tells Bright Blue why Martin Luther King is a model for Teddy Roosevelt’s attack on crony capitalism modernising Conservatives on both sides of rather than FDR’s spending impetus

daniel finkelstein is a through with racial politics. It is easy from, other things that educate. iain martin is a journalist. wider record is usually overlooked. As President he was prepared to take weekly columnist, leader for a British observer to miss the The first is about the nature of non- His latest book Making it In the current climate – of big finance on powerful vested interests. writer and Associate Editor nuances. What happened in the New violence. The discipline of the civil Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS getting even bigger, and technology The parallels with today are of The Times. He is also the and the Men Who Blew Up the Chairman of Orleans floods was about race as much rights movement was really quite British Economy is out now companies accumulating extraordinary not exact. Some of the latest large as water damage. What is happening extraordinary. The training that went power – the Roosevelt approach has concentrations of interests are not The crowd was tired, a little restless, in Detroit is about race as much as the in to being a successful activist was When the financial crisis hit and much to commend it, especially to those old-fashioned monopolies, although maybe even a tiny bit bored and Martin declining car industry. impressive. It was forbidden even to the economy went into a tail-spin, of us who want a reformed capitalism to they are very large indeed and they face Luther King Jr did something he hadn’t So is there anything that can be bring a pencil on a march, lest it be there was briefly a renewed interest flourish. Conservatives and Republicans only limited competition. But Google is planned to. He used his familiar riff learnt from Martin Luther King? viewed as a possible weapon. in several giants of the 20th century should look to Teddy. so dominant in search and Amazon in about having a dream. His aides sighed, Besides the obvious stuff, I mean. It’s in Yet in the end, non-violence was whose reputations were forged in the Roosevelt was a trust-buster as retail that surely, eventually, someone fed up to hear all that old stuff again, English and iconic but, in truth, is it all only able to prevail because the federal aftermath of the economic disaster of President, someone who used the will start asking proper questions. unaware until later that they were too American to be relevant? state protected it, at least to some the early 1930s. After our own financial available legislation to challenge and Huge amounts of information are hearing one of the greatest political extent. Left entirely defenceless against crisis and sustained slump, some on the break-up some of the great monopolies collected, traded and exploited by the speeches of the last century. Modernity in this country violent authorities, King’s strategy centre-left argued that Keynes had all that dominated American industry and tech giants. The level of control and They were also present at a seminal would surely have failed. Non-violence the answers. Others pointed to FDR, commerce. It was done in the name of power they have in the marketplace moment in American politics. Fifty meant an assault on class was uplifiting but only a partial citing him as the President who had defending the consumer from cartels and in our daily lives should, by now, years ago in Britain, privilege, and an emphasis strategy. Nelson Mandela reached the shown how to deliver a stimulus, in and protecting the public realm. be troubling conservatives who believe delivered his famous speech about on opportunity. In America same conclusion, as he lucidly explains the the form of public works and the The original J.P. Morgan was in competition and liberty. Instead, forging a new Britain in the white in his memoirs. rest. This rather overlooked the fact targeted in 1902. Along with James Hill too often politicians have crawled to heat of technology. Modernity in it meant an assault on racial I have also always been fascinated that many of the President’s efforts on and Edward Harriman the plutocrat the new giants of the information age, this country meant an assault on prejudice. This difference by the contrast between King and the stimulus front were a failure. Of had formed the Northern Securities hoping that some of their Silicon Valley class privilege, and an emphasis on Malcolm X. The rage of Malcolm X more value was his effort to stabilise the Company, a vehicle for combining cool will rub off. opportunity. In America it meant still distinguishes British against American racial injustice was collapsing banking system and restore secretly their railroad interests into a Not everything Roosevelt did an assault on racial prejudice. This and American debates understandable, so too his rejection some calm. giant holding trust. Roosevelt sued. worked or would be appropriate now. difference still distinguishes British of integration. Yet understandable But the other Roosevelt, a much Morgan was so shocked by this assault His critics say he vested too much and American debates. Well, first, let’s not dismiss the though it was, it was also wrong and earlier President and distant cousin that he hurried to the White House power in government and regulation. When – after the water cannons obvious stuff too quickly. The great a failure. Despite his status, Malcolm of FDR, was barely mentioned in to see the President. “If we have done But his world-view, his attitude to in , after King’s liberal case for racial equality is clearly X contributed little that endured to the post-crash search for answers. anything wrong,” said Morgan, “send concentrations of power, his under- speech, after the murder of John relevant here, even if the situation is the civil rights struggle. He didn’t Although he is still celebrated in Ameri- your man to my man and they can fix standing that capitalism requires Kennedy – Lyndon Johnson passed different and the politics less fraught. die King’s martyr’s death. He died as can popular culture, as the rough-riding it up.” Roosevelt was unmoved by consent if it is to function at its best, and signed the civil rights act, the King still inspires. part of a sordid internal row with his warrior and early conservationist, his Morgan’s corporatist special pleading. all that is worth rediscovering. new President remarked as he put And then there is his courage. former allies. pen to paper that he was signing over Watch the footage. See how young King, by contrast, showed the the South to the Republicans for a he is. When he made his speech King power of moderation. He worked >> who showed what politicians of the church and is to its great credit. American Southerners who persuaded generation. And he was right. Indeed was only 34 years old and he must patiently to achieve change, keeping can achieve. As well as being a constant reminder of themselves that there was an intellectual it was more than a generation before have known he would never see 40. the federal authorites with him, And then there is religion. The what moral teaching should be about. justification for their oppression. It is a Northern liberal Democrat regained Which he did not. King is a man for the showing restraint, breaking state civil rights movement arose out of More broadly, King’s religious impossible to read about King’s life and the White House. ages, and for the world, because of his laws only when they were at variance the church. It is notable that great affiliation confirms the conservative hs death without being inspired. But Race didn’t only change the terms of moral and physical courage above all with the most basic human rights. He Conservative reformers in this country instinct about there being a link equally impossible to do so without party politics, it is part of the context of other things. achieved solid, real, enduring change. – those who ended the slave trade, those between moral thought, great deeds and realising that people can persuade all American social policy discussions. So there’s the obvious stuff. But He wasn’t a saint. Very far from it. He who supported the factory acts – came the institutions that sustain them.But I themselves of anything. And that while Welfare reform, crime policy, urban hidden in his story I think there was very human. He was a politician from the evangelical tradition too. It am afraid there is one other thing to they can, the battle for human dignity flight, all these US debates are shot are less obvious things to learn in the end. But a very great one, >> shows the power of the moral teaching learn. It is about all the intelligent and civil rights will never be over.

16 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 17 AMERICA INTERVIEW AMERICA INTERVIEW

And I believe George W Bush does too. I think George W. demobilised issue of participation in democratic societies. But David Frum: After Bush does a very good imitation of a man with no inner life. But it’s this is not, this is not the activity of health, this is the activity not true. of fever. And they push it in ways that make you ever less I don’t have an abrupt 180 degree turn on it. It is frightening electable and you mistake the signs of intensifying illness for The man behind the phrase ‘Axis of Evil’ talks to think what Saddam Hussein would have done with a high oil the signs of gathering health. And that has been the story of to Kate Maltby about his regrets over Iraq and price. The price of oil was low when Saddam was overthrown: the Republican Party since 2008. And that was the story of the it then proceeded to rise, not because of the Iraq war. The price Reform Party in the 1990s. his warnings for David Cameron of oil was driven by Chinese and Indian economic growth. So Sure, you can bleed from the right, that’s what destroyed it was on the cards that the price of oil would rise. And then the elder George Bush in 1992. 4/5 of people who turned to This is an edited transcript of a two-hour conversation you have to ask well what would Saddam Hussein be like with Perot had voted for George Bush in 1988. But you can also $50, $80, even $100 a barrel oil? Extremely dangerous. sink the ship by overcorrecting. The danger the Conservatives KM: How does modernisation differ from centrism? So modernisation recognises that your principles don’t But it’s on my mind all the time. Every day. now face is they’re so mesmerised by the fear of losing 3–4% Every modern has a party that speaks enthusiasti- change but the question to which your principles are the of votes to the right that they end up overbalancing and losing cally for the public sector. And every democracy needs a party answer keep changing. KM: Many UK Conservatives look to the merger that created 8, 10, 12 points to the left. This is the story of the Republican that speaks enthusiastically for the private sector. In Britain the Conservative Party in Canada as a model for reuniting with Party since 2008. The party now thinks impulsively. It has that party is the Conservatives. In the United States that party KM: When did you personally decide that ‘modernisation’ had to UKIP. Was this a shift of the moderates to the right, or as Alex conceded so much power to its most militant believers. I think is the Republicans. Conservative modernisers are clearly on happen? Your 2000 book ‘How We Got Here: The 70s’, seems to Massie has argued, an absorption of the right by the moderates? this will go on for a generation. And I think the Republican the right of that dividing line. preach that the rot set in with modernity in the 70s. I was very close to what happened in Canada with the crack- Party has now moved farther away from centre ground than To champion enterprise effectively we have to understand I was driven to it by three forces. My job at the White House up of the Conservatives. It is more of a warning to Britain than Labour was in the early 1980s in Britain. that the terms of debate have changed in the last 30 years. If was to write about the administration’s economic policy. By it is an example. What shattered the unity of the old Conserv- one talks about the challenges enterprise faced 30 years ago the election of 2004, the peak of the Bush economic expansion, ative Party in 1993 was a neglect of regional interests. The old When you lean to your base you produce a one isn’t going to do a very good job of speaking for enterprise it was undeniable that this expansion, although real, was not conservatives had governed, as Canada had historically been today. And modernisation means taking on board some of the benefiting the great majority of the American population. The governed, as an Ontario-Québec coalition with not a lot of burst of activist support, but this is not the genuine concerns that arise in the 21st century because of great majority were getting into deeper trouble because they respect for the interests of Western Canada, which has the fast- activity of health, this is the activity of fever enterprise. The environmental problems that we face in the were sustaining their standard of living by taking on increased est population of the country. That part of the country would 21st century are very different from those we saw in the 1970s debt. This had been a problem in the 1980s and 1990s and it always vote conservative. It saw a relatively few rewards. and 1980s. Then, the environmental problem was a series became a visibly acute problem in 2005–2006. The issues that destroyed the Conservative Party were No political party should win every re-election. But there of separate problems: clean water, clean air, preservation of American conservatives needed a new approach to eco- issues of the regional balance. They were not ideological issues does seem to be a tendency where parties lose, they recoil upon endangered species. It was not a systematic problem about the nomic policy to make sure the benefits of growth were broadly as people in Britain would understand. So the breakaway their base vote. It happened to Labour after 1979, it happened impact of human activity on the climate. So we have to think shared the way they had been in the 1950s and 1960s. This isn’t party, Reform, made tremendous gains in the West. It never to the Democrats after 1968. It happened to the German Social differently. Not necessarily endorse a specific remedy but at about egalitarianism: if all the benefits are going to a very few made much in the way of gains in Ontario. Democrats after Helmut Schmidt lost power. least be aware that’s where the debate is happening. people then the great achievement of the postwar These were people who were not ideologically different but The longer I spend around politics the more I realise you stops being true: the creation of free-market societies which are who maintained an inherited blood feud for more than a dec- can get away with disagreeing with people, provided you’ve I think about Iraq literally every day. I believe not egalitarian but in which the outcomes are broadly accepted ade, allowing the Liberal Party to win majority governments convinced them that you have listened to them respectfully because they’re good for everybody. If that stops being true with 37–38% of the vote, three in a row. enough. A big part of the Conservative approach to UKIP Bush does too. He does a very good imitation you have real questions about the stability of the social order. And when the merger came it changed both parties. The should be sitting down and showing respect. And this is true of a man with no inner life. But it’s not true The second thing that drove me was the experience of Steve Harper government is much more sensitive and attuned of all kinds of groups in society. You can say “no” to people. my children growing up into teenagers. I always think that one’s to Western concerns. He is from Calgary, whereas Brian People will accept “no” if it’s a “no” after a hearing, a fair hear- children are ambassadors from the future and you should listen Mulroney [Prime Minister from 1984 –1993] was from Québec. ing. What they won’t accept is outright dismissal. People who In the 1970s and the 1980s, especially in Europe, we were to them. So if they ask you a question and you muster all your But it has also governed in ways that look a lot like ways pro- were right about the Euro feel they never got enough credit. opposing people for whom central planning remained not quite best arguments and they’re still unconvinced, then if you vincial conservative governments in Ontario governed. That doesn’t mean Europe has to be the key issue now. a dead idea. One of the things that has changed compared to the respect them you have to think: ‘maybe it’s possible that they’re One of the great insights of the modernisers back in 2005 1980s is parties of the left in the English-speaking world are less not convinced because my arguments aren’t convincing’. And KM: How can the Conservative Party make peace with its base? and 2006 in the UK was you get these polls that showed unacceptable to business people today than they were 30 years maybe these aren’t arguments, they’re just prejudices. Here’s the real warning to those who think a UKIP merger people agreed with Conservatives on many of the issues that ago. Whereas we on the right are championing free enterprise Then the last thing is the aftermath of Iraq. It’s difficult for has the answer. So long as a is in power, were most important to the party hard-line. They agreed on in an environment where it’s clear that the modern economy me to talk about … but it is a subject I think about every day. whether it’s Republicans or British Conservatives, it deals with immigration, they agreed on Europe, they agreed on crime. concentrates its rewards on people with very specific kind of People often ask of me, “Do you have any regrets?” it would the realities of government. But when defeated it can be very They didn’t like the Conservative label, but even more they skills and has dealt harshly with many people, especially boys be egomaniacal for me to have regrets because it would imply tempting to lean to your base. It happened to the Republi- didn’t like the Conservative list of priorities. This is what most and men, who lack those skills. The prospects of those millions that I was somebody who was important, which I wasn’t, but cans after 2008, it happened to the Canadian Conservatives in polls were not picking up. The voter agrees with the party on of boys and men are highly relevant to the party of enterprise’s I was there and I played my part and it didn’t go very well. 1993. When you do that you can produce a tremendous burst crime. But the party thinks it’s issue number one and the voter very traditional concern for strong families as a way to provide And, that’s putting it mildly, and it’s a subject I think about of activist support. More people show up to your meetings thinks it’s issue number four or five. The voter agrees about people with support without depending on the state. literally every day. than ever before, especially against the context of the larger Europe. But thinks it’s issue number ten.

18 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 19 AMERICA INTERVIEW

Cameron’s great insight was that people need to believe that are probably not going to earn much money in the modern your priorities are the same as theirs. It’s not enough to have economy vote for what’s good for them. Why shouldn’t they? the same answers. You must have the same priorities. And if The Republican goal must be to achieve a reasonable you have the same priorities you can have different, or even portion of a Hispanic vote. The question is not why does a unpopular answers so long as people believe you have the Guatemalan immigrant gardener making $27,000 a year with a same priorities. grade school education, why does he vote Democrat? The hard question is why does an Indian American who owns twelve A big part of the Conservative approach motels, why does he vote Democrat? Why does a Japanese- American psychiatrist who’s married to a professional woman, to UKIP should be showing respect who earns a substantial income and has two kids in college, why does he vote Democrat? The danger will be that if the Conservatives lose and you The modernization project is not to persuade people to turn to the right you will go back to the days where your vote against their economic interests, it’s to remove cultural priorities are not those of the British nation as a whole. impediments that prevent people who ought to vote for the party of enterprise and private initiative. There are some KM: Will the GOP pick a Tea Party candidate? groups in society that will oppose the Conservative party. But There’s a saying of Benjamin Franklin: “Experience is a hard you don’t have to make them fear and revile you. master, but fools will have no other.” I can’t tell you how often I had the following conversation in 2011–2012: They’d say, “We KM: How do we find more ethnic minority and female MPs? lost in 2008 to moderate John McCain. And we won in 2010 I am a huge believer in very intense affirmative action by polit- with the hard Tea Party message.” And I said, “Could we please ical parties. There are some institutions in society where meri- pay attention to the turnout in those two years?” It’s true if you tocracy as judged by numerical test scores must prevail. If you have an electorate of 40% of the country heavily filtered to the want to be accepted into the Caltech physics program, they old, the white and the affluent that message will work [because simply take the top physics test scorers in the country. And if it’s not a Presidential election]. But you’re not going to have that they turn out to be all of one certain group or one certain gen- electorate in 2012. The same electorate that showed up in 2008 der so be it. But if we are recruiting a police force to patrol a to vote for President is going to show up in 2012. troubled, a troubled and recently riot torn neighbourhood, hav- And people would not absorb that fact. They insisted on ing an affinity with the people you’re policing is a bona fide job pretending that what had changed between 2008 and 2010 was qualification. It means you’re less likely to face a riot next time. not the electorate but the country. Then when the big elec- And there’s no test scores proving you’re a good police officer. torate showed up in 2012, guess what, history repeated itself. Politics is not a subject where your aptitude can be measured The Republicans will probably have a reasonably good year on a test score. And what do we call the people we elect? We call in 2014, not as good as 2010, that’s not possible. But hard-line them representatives. In the 1950s, in the United States when conservatives could do well in 2014 because it will be a small a president put together a cabinet he made sure that there was electorate and they’ll say, “See it works.” And then the big, representation from North and South, made sure there was moderate electorate will show up in 2016 – surprise! representation from employers and labour, made sure there Ideologically committed people do not believe that mere were Catholics, Protestants and a Jew. He made the cabinet rep- failure, even repeated failure disproves their idea. I call this the resentative within the kind of political definition of that time. ham and eggs theory of politics. If people refuse ham and eggs Of course you do the same thing today. That’s part of the job. it’s because they wanted double ham and double eggs. KM: Which cabinet ministers could make it in America? KM: You’ve called Hispanic Americans ‘natural Democrats’, They just would have to learn to play a different game. A Brit- arguing that they are less socially conservative than the GOP ish cabinet minister is a politician first and foremost whereas hopes. So, how can the GOP win them? an American cabinet secretary is an administrator first and The first lesson from 2012 is: insult fewer people next time. foremost. But is a great administrator, George Recognise that everyone has the right to vote because of their Osborne is a great administrator. own economic interest, as well as social identity. One of the things that was obnoxious about the Romney campaign in KM: And you swear that your new novel, Patriot, isn’t about you? 2012 was that he continually implied there’s something illegiti- Not at all. But bear in mind that the more improbable an anec- mate about poorer people voting with their pocketbook while dote about Washington is, the more historically accurate it is. it was completely reasonable for richer people to do so. I don’t And the more preposterous any of the dialogue is the more complain when people who have low levels of education and likely it is to be taken verbatim from a transcript somewhere.

20 | The Progressive Conscience AMERICA SLICE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE AMERICA SLICE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

Can libertarian populism remake the American right? America’s Big Society One of America’s leading bloggers, and founder of the Culture 11 Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry on why addressing inequality with website, James Poulos argues that the GOP needs to take a class family policy is the biggest problem for the American Right in anthropology to find its guiding spirit and the best Cameroon idea that Cameron dropped

james puolos is a writer and prominent newspaper columnists (like being, experienced. Even fewer suggest Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is more important over the long term. that hold up society – and that by musician living in Los Angeles. A ’ Ross Douthat). that the anthropological divides in a Forbes contributor and writes contributor to VICE and Forbes This problem is that, by performing strengthening these institutions, we can But however welcome their America at large are strangely mirrored regularly for The American and has recently hosted and Scene, The Atlantic, The Daily various social welfare functions, the find a healthier balance between statism produced video for HuffPost Live conceptual shift may be, it isn’t on the political right itself, where you Beast and welfare state inevitably comes into and totalising capitalism. radical enough to offer a new birth of will get at least five different answers – competition with other social institu- As David Frum notes in interview Although has Republican freedom from the post-Bush sometimes incommensurable ones – to The central challenge of political tions for our allegiance. The welfare in this magazine, the chief way that free finally begun to learn for himself just years. Republicans must really be “born the question of what being human is economy in the rich world since state comes to replace institutions such markets make themselves politically how disappointing a second term can again” – not merely changing, but all about. the Industrial Revolution has been as churches, community groups, and unsustainable is by creating inequality. be, Republicans have little reason to transforming – to move majorities to the Yet, while the right squabbles, the to make free-market capitalism even the family as a body from which People have strongly held notions of celebrate. They have not recovered from polls. And much as a person who strikes left has little trouble connecting with politically sustainable. we draw sustenance and meaning. fairness, and they cannot long abide the trauma of the Bush years. The party’s themselves as “broken” can never make Americans on an anthropological level. Free markets create wealth and Think of all the ways that extended a society where the rich “pull away” shell-shocked effort to reboot, rebrand, themselves feel “fixed,” friends of liberty The case for liberty is easily recast as a prosperity. But they also create churn kinship ties served as a safety net from the rest and start to look like a and reform its way out from under W’s must abandon the whole framework case for selfishness. In 2012, Democrats and disruption, big winners yet also big for individuals, in a way that is no plutocratic class of their own. legacy ranks as one of the great bores of of “improvement” and “repair” – just successfully portrayed both moderate losers, and thus undermine their own longer true for most people in modern The United States has been Ground American politics. The prevailing fear those categories of thought that “public Republicans like and the political sustainability, as populations countries. Regardless of whether this Zero for this phenomenon, which is the GOP suffers from a wonk gap, or policy” and “political science” propose Tea Party libertarians who kicked off see their way of life disrupted and rebel development is, on balance, good or for the past decades has affected all a data gap, or a diversity gap, or some to let dominate our mind. the GOP’s convention floor as acolytes against the whole idea. not, it is certainly underappreciated. wealthy nations, and there is a growing supremely disheartening combo of all This is easier said than done. Fortu- of the same politics of greed. The best way we’ve found so far to Within this context – sketched consensus among the smartest thinkers three. Meanwhile, the animating fears of nately, there’s a clear path to accessing The key to their success, ironically, thread the needle has been the welfare with necessarily broad strokes – it is on the American Right that the most grassroots “rubes,” though frequently a political transformation that can get is that they, too, take the self too state. But the welfare state has a few easy to understand why the vision of underrated factor causing this increase borne out in jawdropping style by results. Rather than policy, those on the seriously. Anthropological theorists like problems. The first and obvious one is a “Big Society” that the Conservative in inequality has been the collapse both parties in Washington, are deemed right should take anthropology as their Rousseau, Tocqueville, Wittgenstein, that by increasing levels of government Party promoted with its 2010 election of the traditional two-parent family. by the establishment too coarse, too point of departure. An anthropological Hayek, and (perhaps surprisingly) spending, and consequent taxation and platform has been so appealing to those Now almost half of first births in the divisive, and too impractical to work a attitude toward democracy submits Werner Erhard and Helen Keller centralised control of our activities, it of us who seek a response to the welfare US occur outside of wedlock, with positive change in Republican fortunes. that no degree of wonkish virtuosity help us consider that, in democratic threatens to kill the goose that lays the state that is not just about cutting. these numbers much higher in the There is, however, one new strain of or policy chops can save a political times, we experience “selfhood” in golden eggs. This is what happened It shows an understanding that, working class. And for all the cries thought on the right that has livened up movement. Rather, participants win the a disempowering way that Hobbes to Britain in the 1970s, and it took while some sort of safety net is indeed that marriage ‘is just a piece of paper’, this grim procedural. Coming, predict- language game of politics when they would recognise. We feel enclosed all the energy of Margaret Thatcher’s necessary, the problem of the welfare parents in America who are married ably, from the relative margins of the connect with fellow humans in the realm within fate but always, to the core of government to reverse the trend. state isn’t just that it’s expensive but are much more likely to stay together. establishment, a boomlet of “libertarian of what being human is all about. The our identity, insecure. To be sure, our But there is a second problem, more also that, along with capitalism, it If you doubt it, go read Rachel M. populists” threatens to remake the American left operates fairly well today animal brains naturally fabricate a sense subtle, less recognised, but perhaps undermines the other social institutions Shattuck and Rose M. Kreider’s >> GOP landscape by reorienting policy on this level. That’s why, even though of the self by interpreting experience in an explicit way against corporatism, president Obama has disillusioned many, in accordance with its deeply flawed the corruptive alliance between big the Democrats’ base is growing while patterns of imitation and memory. But >> those patterns, freeing ourselves but inevitably will occur. course, because in that realm the power business and big government so patently the Republicans’ is shrinking. in a democratic regime, denied both the from the big corrupt bureaucracies in That’s the powerful, selfless vision of transformation reliably tempts us to to blame for so many of the power The interminable lament that pride-civilising order of aristocracy and our minds that have constructed the that Republicans must invite Americans tyranny. But the political applications elite’s sweeping bipartisan during the Americans can’t come together echoes the pride-erasing totality of Leviathan, “self.” Radically freed from fear in this to consider in order to reverse their of a “free radical” anthropology can long decade since 9/11. “LibPop” from Capitol Hill to Main Street. Many we are ruled by envy and fear so deep way, we may recognise the courage fortunes. As conservatives’ love of hold a deep and salutary appeal on the advocates and sympathisers now range blame this on the ongoing “culture that no egotism can master it. involved in regarding how free we Christianity has long underscored, the right – not incidentally because from movement influentials (likeThe war.” Few consider that beneath any Yet amidst this disarray, we can always already are – free to the point right’s imagination is often captured by Republicans will never rack up Federalist’s Ben Domenech) to muck- culture war is a seemingly insuperable notice our folly in action by describing of being free from the self, free to cultures of transfiguration. Conserva- legitimate victories unless they can raking journalists (like The Washington divide among groups of Americans over it to others. And we can choose, live life as a site where transfiguring tives are instinctively suspicious of pledge their fidelity to a shared Examiner’s Timothy Carney) to anthropological matters – over human through mutual declaration, to break >> relationships and choices unpredictably transferring this energy to politics, of articulation of our shared ontology.

22 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 23 AMERICA SLICE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE AMERICA POLICY

>> comprehensive study of unwed to equality is a hard sell in the Ameri- We don’t want to go back to those mothers, at the US Census Bureau. can political sphere. The Left refuses to times. But we need to recognise people It’s the justice economy, stupid It seems hard to overstate what criticise any lifestyle choice, even when didn’t get married more because they damage has been wrought on the family the least among us bear the brunt. And were more virtuous, or more religious, Will Tanner takes a look at the Republicans who are applying in American society, particularly in the Right refuses to acknowledge that or more in love, but because they had fiscal responsibility to America’s unsustainable prison population – the non-college-educated segments of inequality can ever be a problem, even more incentive. and calls on Tories to copy them society, and in turn the damage that when it threatens to destroy the things France’s tax sliding scale which gives this fraying has caused on society at we want to protect. you a deduction for getting married and large. The evidence is overwhelming The American Right has talked a further deductions for having children; that children who do not grow up in good game about “the family” for the in the US Ramesh Ponnuru has The results have confounded critics. to shamefully high reoffending rates. two-parent families face much longer past few decades, but only recently proposed expanding the child . will tanner is a justice Between 2006 and 2011, the Texas Ministers have successfully cut crime odds in life, and that people who find have the smartest voices – writers The economic policy of the future, policy expert and writes in prison population fell by 7%, a far in a time of fiscal restraint. Yet Michael a personal capacity a way to get married and stay married such as Ross Douthat, Reihan Salam therefore, is the one that recognises the cry from the 9% increase projected Howard’s 1993 “prison works” speech have much better chances of building a and Ramesh Ponnuru – recognised key importance of the family to previously. Juvenile incarceration has still resonates for many on the right good life. that the breakdown of the family is economic life, to social mobility, to America has long been the poster fallen 52% in the last 5 years. Contrary and the biggest justice reforms of this The family is indeed the incubator an economic and not just a moral well-being and to human welfare. One child for lock ‘em up justice. The to expectations, crime has not skyrock- Parliament have eschewed alternatives of society – where, to use unromantic problem, requiring therefore an that recognises that it is our most US imprisons more people in both eted. In 2011 violent crime fell by more to custody in favour of payment by economic terms, we acquire the human economic response. ancient and most useful bulwark against proportionate and absolute terms than double the national average and results and harder prison regimes. and social capital which actually matters In the pre-modern world, the the overexpansion of both the market than any country on Earth. The Land property crime more than ten times the Further, the US experience shows more to our collective well-being incentives to get married and have a and the state. One, therefore, that of the Free holds 5% of the world’s national rate. that smart on crime policies can also than learning multiplication tables or family were obvious, not only because recognises that sound economic policy population and 25% of its prisoners. be smart politics: in 2010, a poll by computer programming. pre-marital sex was widely discouraged, starts with rewarding citizens for Decades of prison-happy policies at After decades of heightened the Pew Centre found that 87% of This insight that the breakdown of but moreover because the family was starting families, keeping them together, both state and federal level made jail Americans supported reducing the use the family is the most damaging trend the main social safety net that existed. and raising children. the default rather than the last resort: rhetoric on crime, and in of prison for non-violent offenders in between 1990 and 2005 the prison particular drugs policy, the favour of less expensive alternatives. population doubled even as crime once unthinkable prospect Cheerleaders are already agitating fell by nearly a third. The Republican for a similar strategy in the UK. The heartlands, from Texas to Oklahoma, of bilateral reform is fast Conservative MP for Ipswich, Ben were the worst offenders. becoming a reality Gummer called for a British Right on Yet as austerity has bitten, it is not Crime campaign in The Telegraph last reformist Democrats but the Red States year, praising “the Right in America of the right which have broken the Blindsided on penal reform, Dem- that has been questioning the wisdom cycle of imprisonment. ocrats are now playing catch up. Last of imprisoning a huge numbers of In 2007, the Texas State Legislature month, Attorney General Eric Holder people at enormous cost and negligible Becoming a member of Bright Blue enables you to support and was faced with a $523 million bill relaxed sentencing guidance to curb the return”. Cross-party consensus might partake in the modernisation of the Conservative Party. to build and operate the 17,000 new use of federal prison for non-violent even emerge. The Shadow Justice prison places needed to meet rising offenders, declaring that “too many Secretary, , last year called Help us create and promote ideas that ensure Conservatism today draws on our best demand – on top of the existing $2 Americans go to too many prisons for the shifts in the US criminal justice traditions to be optimistic, inspiring and transformational in British politics. billion budget. In an unprecedented far too long and for no truly good law debate “a watershed” moment and move, tough fiscal reality beat tough enforcement reason” and branding hailed the Youth Justice Board’s work Join today and receive:- on crime ideology. Lawmakers voted America’s levels of imprisonment to reduce the juvenile prison population down the proposals and instead intro- “ineffective and unsustainable”. After in the UK. The groundwork has already A special members pass for the annual Bright Blue Conference duced radical reforms: drug-related decades of heightened rhetoric on crime, been laid. offenders were diverted into healthcare and in particular drugs policy, the once America may seem an unlikely case treatment, alternatives to custody were unthinkable prospect of bilateral reform study in effective justice reform. But Hard copies of all our books and magazines introduced for non-violent prisoners is fast becoming a reality. modern Republicans have shown that www.brightblue.org.uk/join and the future savings reinvested in This seismic shift has profound les- fiscal pressure can prompt smarter specialist courts and mentoring pro- sons for Conservatives this side of the policies that cut prison places, crime and grammes. Similar reforms, trumpeted pond. This Government, particularly budgets at the same time. If Conserva- by the high profile campaign, Right on through the former Justice Secretary, tives this side of the Atlantic are serious Crime, have flourished in Republican Ken Clarke, has made great strides in about modernising the justice system, states elsewhere. championing rehabilitation in response they should follow suit.

24 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 25 AMERICA POLICY AMERICA POLICY

Bright Blue has been building relationships with thinktanks Defence cuts, not caution on Syria, weaken our alliance across the pond. Over these pages, four experts tell us what without an Empire, Britain maintains not been shaped by the Cold War and Tory policy can learn from their research luke coffey is the Margaret Thatcher Fellow at The its global interests. Comparatively, it the closeness to the U.S. which that era Heritage Foundation and lacks the resources to safeguard those brought. The government today is the former SPAD to Liam Fox at interests. So the Special Relationship first true post-Cold War government. Junk science in Washington the Ministry of Defence should be a top priority for British There is a risk that the importance of The day after the House of Commons politicians: it is an enabler and defender NATO or the Special Relationship

nigel cameron is President Science Foundation. The House of the Gathering Storm. In practical terms voted against military involvement in of British influence and interests is eroding with each new generation and CEO of the Center Representatives’ science committee is the discussion is centered around the Syria, front cover splashed around the world. It allows the UK to of politician. for Policy on Emerging taking fresh interest in the kind of pro- significance of innovation (a term with a “death notice” for the Special have an otherwise impossible global This is, however, a two way street. Technologies jects on which money is being spent, much-discussed in Washington though Relationship. “The funeral will role. After all, the U.S. – not Russia or As the Margaret Thatcher Center at the Once upon a time, before George and there are reports that this has led hardly evidenced in its political culture), be held at the French Embassy… China – is the only major power which Heritage Foundation regularly points W. Bush, before George H.W. Bush, to the National Science Foundation and the core place of STEM education. no flowers please.” shares Britain’s vision of the world. out, Obama has hardly been a close there was Vannevar Bush. Roosevelt’s ceasing to fund political science. That is, science, technology, engineer- Depending on one’s view, the recent America’s superpower status, Britain’s friend of the UK and his administration wartime science advisor, Bush, V., Not that anyone is arguing we ing, mathematics. As in the UK, the US Commons vote was either a victory for global interests, and their shared view rarely considers Europe in its foreign helped shape not just American should stop funding basic science. has for a generation been breast-beating common sense or a tragedy for Britain’s of the world make the Anglo-American policy formulation. The so-called but global approaches to the public But the bipartisan consensus built in as public education keeps failing to role in the world. Either way it is not relationship a very natural one. ‘pivot’ to Asia has left many in Europe funding of science. His 1945 report Vannevar Bush’s vision – that federal deliver either competitive global scores the end, or even the beginning of the Like all relationships, the scratching their heads. The ‘reset’ with Science, The Endless Frontier, dollars get pumped in and are then or an end to the underclass. end, of the Special Relationship. Anglo-American relationship needs Russia – which has been an unmitigated remains relevant and readable. Read doled out by peer review, by scientists Put all these pieces together, and But the reaction to the vote did nurturing by both parties. It should not foreign policy failure – has led many of it antiphonally with his somewhat themselves, – is developing cracks. we do have quite a tizzy. demonstrate one key point – that be taken for granted by either London America’s Eastern European partners unnerving prophecy in Atlantic of the If this looks more like a laundry-list the British people are instinctively or Washington DC. As the core of the to question U.S. commitment to the World Wide Web – as a technology Neither left nor right, they sit than facets of a single entity, we supportive of the Special Relationship relationship is first and foremost about region. Many in the UK must be evolved from microfiche. should not be surprised. There’s little and care about its wellbeing. There was defence cooperation, declining British disappointed by the Obama Admin- As Americans are too fond of on no-one’s list of hot issues coherence in Washington’s grasp of no discussion about the vote’s impact defence spending presents the biggest istration’s insistence on negotiations saying, that was then, and this is now. the science and technology question on the 2010 UK-France Defence Treaty immediate threat to the relationship. with Argentina over the future of the For tech observers, emerging from That’s not all, of course. We have in 2013. or London’s relations with the EU. Without capabilities like top tier Special Falklands. Eurosceptics in Britain can Washington is either a storm system climate, which is now a highly political Why so? One taproot, ironically, is The focus was almost exclusively on Forces, a nuclear deterrent, or expedi- only be puzzled by the Administration’s in a teacup, or, just perhaps, a perfect question. It’s one of those subjects on the failure of science and technology to Britain’s relationship with America. tionary warfare capability the UK will insistence on the UK staying in the EU. storm actually worthy of name. First which it is hard to say anything without find lodgment anywhere in particular The logic is simple. The U.S. and be seen by many Americans as no better The Special Relationship has survived we have the “sequester,” which is adding a string of footnotes. Let this on the political spectrum. Neither left the UK are liberal democracies which than other European countries. To be its fair share of trials in the past and will Washington-speak for a brutal cut suffice: we face discrete though not nor right, they sit on no-one’s list of value human rights at a time when many America’s top partner Britain must bring continue to do so in the future. The Suez in federal budgets, mandated by a un-related issues, on each of which hot issues. Another lies in the short- regimes around the world reject those real military capability to the table. crisis, Vietnam, and the U.S. invasion of committee set up to resolve budget reasonable people can disagree with term focus – of pols and corporate values. Each shares a common history Britain also needs to ensure that Grenada were supposed to doom the issues which in turn decided to varying degrees of consensus/certainty. lobbyists alike, for whom the next and culture. Both advocate the free-mar- NATO maintains its primacy over the Special Relationship but never did. The design cuts so nasty that both sides (Is climate changing? Did we cause it? election defines the horizon. Solution? ket and promote economic freedom. EU on all things regarding transatlantic real threats to the Special Relationship would presumably have to agree on a Can we do anything about it? If we Whether the recent foray into DC by Both face the same global security security. The ideas that NATO stood do not come from votes in Parliament on compromise. But they didn’t, so we can, what?) But these have become one Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, perhaps our most challenges: continued international for during the Cold War need to be rein- issues like Syria. The end of the Special have the cuts. Then there’s a broader coagulate mass – and up for merely successful new economy tech entrepre- terrorism, increasing cyber-attacks, vigorated today. Younger politicians in Relationship will come from a Britain discontent with science funding, which binary decision. Because Washington neur, to buy will nuclear proliferation in and growing Britain, with no recollection of the Cold that slashes its defence capabilities and comes and goes with each media exposé does love binary. lead to a healthier framing of the instability in the Middle East. Britain’s War, seem to appreciate institutions like looks toward Europe for its global of what seem (and sometimes are) And then we have a deep-seated science question remains to be seen. deadliest single terrorist attack was also NATO less than their older colleagues. interests. This might work well for foolish projects. Research on the effect unease, driven by data as well as But some of us press the longer term America’s: 67 Britons died on 9/11. David Cameron, , and Labour or the Liberal Democrats, but it of Farmville on relationships, and how sentiment, that the historic American as key to both company success and Britain faces a peculiar challenge – key members of the goes against everything Conservatives quickly parents respond to trendy dominance of global science and political strategy; and technology as that makes the Special Relationship National Security Council – all entered believe in. Tories should stand up for the baby names. Senator , technology is in jeopardy. This case was tomorrow’s question. If you notice the just as important as it ever was. During Parliament after the end of the Cold Special Relationship and implement indefatigable and independent-minded powerfully made a few years back by Land of the Free disappearing down a the days of Empire, Britain had global War. William Hague entered Parliament policies that will strengthen – not Republican maverick, highlighted some the National Academies in a document sinkhole, that will be your clue that interests and was able to conserve only months before the Berlin Wall fell. weaken – the Anglo-American alliance. in a scathing report on the National with the foreboding title Rising above we have failed. them because it had global reach. Even Their formative years in politics have It is in to do so.

26 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 27 AMERICA POLICY AMERICA POLICY

Republicans are wising up on immigration Civility has left the Senate

alex nowrasteh is the Even odder, FAIR, CIS, and immutable characteristic of modern olympia snowe was a disappointment with my decision not to the least productive since 1947! immigration policy analyst NumbersUSA were founded, funded, nation-states. Welfare benefits granted United States Senator from run for a fourth term in the Senate, and Clearly, then, we are missing what at the Cato Institute’s and mostly staffed by pro-population by the government can be withdrawn 1995–2013. She now heads how fed up and angry they are about the is the second key component to civility Center for Global Liberty Olympia’s List, a consensus- and Prosperity control environmentalists. They or altered by the government, especially building thinktank harsh rhetoric and the partisan bickering in politics – and that is a willingness opposed immigration on the grounds to non-citizens. that’s fueling legislative deadlock in to listen to and work with those with American conservatives have always it damages the natural environment to The United States limited welfare Several months ago, I was grateful for Washington, D.C.. These individuals I’ve whom we disagree, and to respect been of two minds about immigration. pull immigrants out of poverty and thus access to immigrants in its 1996 Welfare the opportunity to deliver a major encountered are fearful that the current differing views; to acknowledge you The first instinct extols the virtues and increase their environmental impact. Reform law. Unlawful immigrants address in Stamford, Connecticut, dysfunction that’s preventing Wash- don’t have a monopoly on all of the benefits of immigration – a process Mario Lopez’s exposé, “Hijacking can never access public benefits and just outside New York City, on the ington from solving America’s most good ideas; and to accept that you that makes America wealthier and Immigration?” in the Human Life legal non-citizens cannot access public enormous consequence of the current challenging problems will continue as a won’t typically get 100% of what you more culturally prosperous, as well as Review reveals how pro-population benefits for their first five years of lack of civility in politics and its permanent culture. They ask me, why is seek, and therefore attempt to work being consistent with our old historical control environmentalists “whose work residency. The only exception is impact on consensus-building and it so bad in Washington? How did it get through the differences. roots. The second is concerned is ultimately diametrically opposed to emergency medical care in hospitals. problem-solving. My remarks were this way? And can it be fixed? As I’ve told people, I didn’t leave the that immigrants make America less the right to life”, a right so important to Since 1996, some of the bill’s welfare part of a speaker series exploring the Regrettably, we’ve reached a point Senate because I know longer love it, but American – less prosperous, less free, the conservative movement, gained so restrictions have been repealed but most importance of civility in multiple where it seems the campaigning never precisely because I do. I want to bring and less culturally familiar. much influence. still stand. spheres of American life. It was 5:30 in stops, and the governing never begins. my insiders experience and knowledge In line with the second instinct, Still, immigrants in the U.S. underuse the afternoon, at a public library, and And that reality is not lost on the to bear as a megaphone for those on the Republicans are typically more opposed Immigration might be the welfare compared to similarly poor close to 300 people showed up – which American people, who have assigned outside who are thirsting for a voice to immigration than Democrats are, native born Americans. Immigrants are speaks volumes about the dimension Congress an all-time, record low to coalesce their frustration, and a plan but this is a recent phenomenon. In the only way to sustain the welfare less likely to consume cash assistance, of despair Americans feel about the approval rating – begging the question, on how to change the system so it can 1980s, Republican President Ronald state just a little longer food-stamps, and Medicaid than poor direction of their government. as one of my former colleagues asked, achieve the extraordinary potential the Reagan supported amnesty for unlawful Americans. When they do receive In my remarks, I asked the question, who exactly is the roughly 10% who American Founding Fathers envisioned. immigrants and went further, famously benefits, they are often for a lower cash what exactly is significant with respect to believe Congress is actually doing a Civility, above all, is the one, stating in his farewell address that Amer- Many conservatives resisted the value than the U.S.-born receive. If the the concept of “civility” in politics – and good job? essential mechanism for distilling the ica was a city on a hill, “and if there had anti-immigration campaign. Many, like U.S.-born poor used Medicaid as little as why is it indispensable in restoring our So indisputably, words are a critical vast diversity of ideologies and opinions to be city walls, the walls had doors and Representatives (R-WI), poor immigrants do, that pricey welfare political institutions? To begin with, component of civility. Indeed, every in modern America, Britain and around the doors were open to anyone with the Raul Labrador (R-ID), and Senator program would cost 42% less. unequivocally and absolutely, our use day in the , we the world, so that we might arrive at will and heart to get here.” (R-FL), support increas- Paradoxically, immigration might of words can be powerful and critically address each other as “my good solutions to the challenges we face. And In the 1960s, it was the Democrats ing legal immigration and legalising be the only way to sustain the welfare important in setting the tone for our friend”… or “my esteemed colleague” that is the standard to which we must and their labour union allies who killed some current unauthorized immigrants. state just a little longer. The Journal of national discourse. I can’t tell you how – and that’s a worthy practice. And hold elected officials accountable if they the last large scale guest worker visa With those and other exceptions, Health Affairs found that immigrants many people who approached me from yet, for all of these apparent niceties, are to produce the kind of results we program, to protect organized labour. conservatives are generally more paid $13.8 billion more into Medicare all over America have expressed their Congress has still proceeded to become expect, and deserve. In the early 20th century, labour skeptical of the benefits of immigration Part A than they received in benefits in unions, eugenicists and their left-wing and frequently voice their concerns. 2009. By contrast, U.S.-born Americans supporters pushed for virtually ending One concern is that immigrants withdrew $30.9 billion more from the >> on the public purse. In May of shall not use a static economic model to how it is portrayed. immigration while the free-marketeers will use and abuse the welfare system than they contributed. If this this year,the conservative Heritage predict changes in dynamic economy. The United States had a virtually of the day wanted to keep the doors state – hurting American taxpayers. rate continues as expected, Medicare Foundation produced a report arguing Due to immigrant productivity and open-borders immigration policy wide open. Beginning in the 1990s, Immigration critic Senator Part A will be bankrupt in 2024. that immigration reform would cost the the spill-over effects of having more from the Founding until 1880, then something began to change in the (R-AL) said this April, “once granted Increasing legal immigration will not U.S. taxpayers $6.3 trillion over 50 years. workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs shifted gradually toward closed borders conservative movement. green cards and ultimately citizenship, save America’s bankrupt entitlement That report was criticized by scholars complementary to current Americans, by 1930. Centuries of mass-immigration Anti-immigration organizations illegal immigrants will be able to access programs, but it can give policy makers at virtually every other libertarian, the economy is likely to grow faster has produced one of the most ethnically, such as the Federation for American all public benefit programs at a great a few more years of financial breathing free-market, and conservative think-tank as a result of immigration reform, thus racially, and religiously diverse societies Immigration Reform (FAIR), the cost to taxpayers.” Concern about space to reform them. in Washington D.C. for, among other boosting tax revenue over time. in the world. The sooner American Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), immigrant use of benefits is rational, Related to welfare is a concern about things, assuming that the economy Conservative skepticism of conservatives shed the influence of and NumbersUSA infiltrated the but it is easier to alter welfare policy immigration’s impact on the budget would not change in response to immigration reform is vaguely related anti-immigration groups wielding conservative movement and convinced than centrally plan the population in the deficit. Most immigrants are poorer and increased lawful immigration. In essence, to reasonable concerns about fiscal and faux-conservative arguments, the sooner many that opposing immigration was hope of decreasing welfare dependency. less skilled than most Americans, so that report violated a central precept of economic effects, but the actual impact they’ll realize that immigration is a the conservative American position. The welfare state is not an many assume they will be a burden >> American free-market thought: Thou of immigration is very different from traditional source of prosperity.

28 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 29 AMERICA BOOKS AND ARTS

BOOKS & ARTS

Lincoln in the lense Peter Hoskin on his favourite political film

peter hoskin is Associate outlines his political principles, but unhurried thoughtfulness about it. Editor of ConservativeHome he comes across stilted and awkward: It isn’t the first Ford film that could and former Online Editor of The Spectator “I’m in favour of a national bank, of be called “great” – Stagecoach (1939) the internal improvement system and preceded it, for one – but it could be the Sorry to spoil it for you, but at the end high protective tariff.” The Gettysburg first that is as poetic as it is entertaining. of this year’s White House Down Jamie Address is a long way off. And do you know what? There’s Foxx’s President Sawyer isn’t actually Young Mr. Lincoln himself is played something of America itself in that shot dead – you’re just made to think he by Henry Fonda, in the first of seven poetry. As much as this is a film about is. What saves his life is an old pocket- pictures he made with Ford. It was a one individual, it’s also about the watch inscribed to Abraham Lincoln fortunate bit of casting for both men. individuals who come across Lincoln’s from his wife Mary Todd, which stops Fonda would later say that this was path: some drunken and dissolute, some the bullet. “Abe took a second bullet the film he most enjoyed making in his noble and good-natured, some who are for me,” deadpans Sawyer as he raises entire career, whilst Ford had struck a mix of those things and more. Which himself from the ground. For that line, on one of the few actors, with the right is why, when I said that there’s not and even worse infractions against taste, alchemical blend of gentleness, strength, much conventional politics in Young Mr. you wish Abe hadn’t bothered. intelligence and aw-shucks likeability for Lincoln, I didn’t mean that there is no Thankfully, cinema hasn’t always this version of Lincoln. The script sees politics at all. What this film shows us is treated Lincoln so cheaply. Directors Fonda not just grappling with Black- the birth pool of American democracy: from D.W. Griffith to Steven Spielberg stone’s Commentaries on the Laws of the townships and the homesteads, with ERS at Conference have had their turns at commemorating England – “By jing, that’s all there is to all the messy bits attached. It’s what folk the great man, but my own favourite is it! Right and wrong.” – but also placating as varied as Alexis de Tocqueville, Laura Monday 30 September Tuesday 1st October John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). a baying mob and judging a pie-cooking Ingalls Wilder and Walt Whitman wrote 19:30-19:00 19.30 - 21.00 In fact, along with A Face in the Crowd contest. He’s meditator, mediator and about. It’s where Lincoln, in both a (1957), it’s probably my favourite masticator, and much else besides. literal and a figurative sense, came from. Electoral Reform Society and British Influence Electoral Reform Society and Bright Blue American political film. In fact, the whole film is Of all Ford’s films, it’s surelyThe Which is strange, in a way, because multifaceted – not just our hero’s Searchers that has the most famous final Conservatism Divided? The EU and Lessons Can England ever love coalitions? there’s actually not much politics in character. It contains some of the most shot: John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, the from 1975 Young Mr. Lincoln – at least not of delicate scenes in Ford’s entire body eternal outsider, framed by a doorway, Midland Hotel – Derby Suite the conventional, Grand Old Party of work, as when Lincoln visits the walking off into the desert. But the one sort. This is, as the title suggests, a grave of his first love, Ann Rutledge, that closes Young Mr. Lincoln is just as Manchester Central, Exchange 4 & 5 film about Lincoln before he became down by a snow-banked river. And satisfying. His case completed, Lincoln Speakers: … well, Lincoln. It conflates his early it also contains some of the busiest, strides to the top of a hill as a storm sets Speakers: to mid-twenties, when he moved including a town carnival in which the in. The wind buffets him, lightning Ryan Shorthouse (Chair) from being a store owner to a junior pie-cooking contest features alongside flashes up ahead, but instead of turning Peter Wilding (Chair) lawyer, then embellishes them with the a tug o’ war and an immense bonfire. back towards town, he pauses, looks into case of two men wrongly accused of What keeps it all together, apart from the distance, and then keeps on going. Robert Buckland MP murder that featured later in his life. Fonda’s performance, is the calmness This is American iconography, plain and Tom Spencer Peter Bone MP There is one brief scene in which Abe, of the direction. Much like its central simple – an art form that has had few Matthew Elliott Prof Tim Bale running for the legislature as a Whig, character, Young Mr. Lincoln has an better practitioners than Mr Ford. Nick Tyrone

Autumn 2013 | 31 AMERICA BOOKS AND ARTS AMERICA BOOKS AND ARTS

As so often, the thought of offers a salutary juridical determination of perplexing questions … It is simple contrast. Burke never visited the American colonies, but he was peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. Burke’s American Dream for a period the London agent of the state of New York, co-au- It is peace sought in the spirit of peace.” thored a widely circulated history of the European colonies in Why conciliation? Because of America’s rapidly expanding America, and cut his political teeth as a young MP in the debate population, because of its growing commercial strength, but Jesse Norman MP tells Bright Blue why his hero jesse norman is MP over the Stamp Act in 1765. As a result, he was an exceptionally most of all because of the American spirit itself. “In this char- for Hereford and South acute analyst of colonial discontents – and, as far as domestic acter of the Americans a love of freedom is the predominating Edmund Burke would have been cautious about Herefordshire. He is the author of Edmund Burke: Philosopher, politics allowed, an admirer of the Americans themselves. feature … This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English Lords Reform and the modernising temper Politician, Prophet colonies, probably, than in any other people of the earth … We Most vital of all, genuine party politics cannot falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins As last year’s fiscal cliff crisis reminded us, American politics fact it also contains vital measures to restrain the direct expres- demands that those who are elected act as the blood of freedom circulates … your speech would betray has rarely been more polarised than it is today. Many Demo- sion of the popular will and inhibit partisanship. The genius representatives, not as delegates acting under you. An Englishman is the unfittest person on earth to argue crats rage with disappointment at a President for whom they of the American founders, and above all of James Madison, instructions from their constituents another Englishman into .” had cherished wildly unrealistic hopes; while the Republican was to engineer a constitution that deliberately constrained The Speech on Conciliation retains its power to this day. party is pulled ever further apart by a toxic combination of and fragmented the power of government between state and Part poem, part sermon, part homily, it is a stylistic hybrid. personal rivalry and ideological zeal. The result is rancour, leg- federal levels; between executive, legislature and judiciary; Burke’s great Speech on Conciliation gives some flavour of Again and again Burke shows his extraordinary ability to islative gridlock and fragmentation. and between House of Representatives and Senate. Each was his feelings. The time is March 1775, and the American colonies swoop from specific detail to timeless Olympian general- And temporarily at least, American conservatism seems thereby placed as a check and balance to another, forcing all are in uproar over the hated tea tax and the high-handedness of ization: “A nation is not governed which is perpetually to to have all but lost its way. Just as the failure of communism into debate both as to the issues of the day, and as to the proper Lord North’s administration. Burke makes one last despairing be conquered” is one such. Or this: “Genuine simplicity of removed a great enemy which served to unite the political scope and limits of government itself. attempt to bring Parliament to its senses. heart is an healing and cementing principle … Magnanimity in parties, so it has allowed American conservatism to collapse These measures preceded the creation of party politics in His message is plain and bold: “The proposition is peace. politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire inwards under the competing pressures and ideologies of America, led in the 1790s by Thomas Jefferson with Madison Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted and little minds go ill together.” neocons and theocons, palaeos and Tea-Partiers. alongside him, and extended in the age of Andrew Jackson through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not Yet Burke was not merely an admirer of the Americans, A modern Rip van Winkle might awaken after a sleep of and Martin Van Buren. But political parties developed in the peace to arise out of universal discord … [or] to depend on the and an advocate of greater mutual understanding and trust several decades, with dim memories of what it meant to be a US over the following two hundred years as the only mass conservative: to believe in , in respect for institutions founded on the idea of citizenship itself. states’ rights, in a strong nation, in fiscal discipline, in free The two main parties were historically broad and weak; and trade and individual liberty. this was their strength. Through them different interests could be brought forward to political debate, and a broad consensus As the American experience of Tea Party could be maintained. While never contemplated within the US constitution, parties are now essential to its effective opera- radicalism shows, the need for constitutional tion. They are not purely private institutions; all Americans mechanisms like the Lords is stronger now have a stake in their success, and a two-party system needs than ever both parties fully at the table in order to flourish. Yet ironically, if American parties have their origins in Jefferson’s thought, so too does modern Tea-Partyism. For He would be astounded to see present day American Jefferson was an Enlightenment radical, who believed that polit- conservatives defending federal intervention in local schools, ical parties should be the direct expression of the popular will. the massive ramp-up in federal spending after 2000, the use For him elected politicians are delegates receiving instruc- of the military not to fight wars but for nation-building, the tions from the people, instructions which are ratified and imposition of tariffs on trade, and – as the Edward Snowden authorised through elections. Parties are the instruments of case highlights – numerous intrusions small and large on the majority rule, working strictly through the rules and pro- freedom of the citizen. cedures laid down in the constitution. It is then but a short Moderate positions have been abandoned, and com- step to the beliefs that the constitution should be read entirely mon-sense ones spurned. Hostility to illegal immigrants, to literally; that the electorate issues authoritative instructions; gay couples, to contraception. A constitutional amendment that a congressman who does not obey the electorate’s instruc- against . After brutal massacres of children, a proposal tions should be deselected; and that certain positions are to be to put yet more guns in schools, while refusing modest con- taken as litmus tests of ideological soundness and solidarity. trols on assault weapons, or even background checks. The result is extremism, division and factional conflict – and a How has this happened? The US constitution is often deep tension with the consensus-building incentives contained lauded as the greatest expression of popular democracy. But in within the US constitution itself. Thomas Jefferson, the 1790s’ answer to

32 | The Progressive Conscience Autumn 2013 | 33 AMERICA BOOKS AND ARTS AMERICA BOOKS AND ARTS

between Britain and the thirteen colonies. Writing two decades to exercise and to control together is contradictory and impos- beforeContents Jefferson, he was also the first framer of the modern sible.” Sovereignty in Britain thus resides not in the people, but Opening an American mind conceptions of a political party and of political representation, in that great composite authority, the Queen-in-Parliament. as well as being a principal architect of the Rockingham Whigs, And Parliament includes the . The Lords is Brooks Newmark, the American-born MP and the first proto-political party. So – to return to our main theme a far from perfect institution, and thoughtfulContributors recent measures Vice-President of the Harvard Alumni Association, – it is no surprise that for Burke the answer to factionalism lies to reform it by reducing the numbers and removing those with NIGEL CAMERON is CEO of the tells British students to head to the Ivy League within political parties themselves. criminal records are highly welcome.Center But for Policyas the on AmericanEmerging For Burke, a party is “a body of men united for promoting experience of Tea Party radicalism Technologiesshows, the need for consti- by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some tutional mechanisms like the LordsLUKE – able COFFEY to bringis the Margaret expertise, particular principle in which they are all agreed”. Unlike reflection, diverse opinions and Thatchera long-term Fellow perspectiveat The Heritage to course in Britain is generally broken This ultimately leads to a very P18 P29 P32 Foundation BROOKS NEWMARK has served political factions, parties do not disintegrate when they lose politics – is stronger now than ever. as a Government Whip, Lord down into three terms over a three year different undergraduate experience. OLIVER COOPER is the Chairman power. They remain true to a core of principles, and continue Burke’s anti-radicalism is thus anof expression Conservative of Future his conserv- Commissioner HM Treasury, period – although Scottish courses tend I found the student bodies at both to03 makeEditorial the case for those principles even when out18 of Davidoffice. Frum: atism; After it springs Bush from his desire to preserve the social order as and was a Member of the to involve a four year degree. It was the Harvard and Oxford to be very bright Kate Maltby Interviewed by Kate Maltby PASCAL-EMMANUEL GOBRY Treasury Select Committee They are an institutional corrective to personal, arbitrary or a trust, and to prevent society fromwrites being for theForbes creature and Atlantico of any breadth of education that lead me to and talented but at Harvard I found capricious bright government. blue politics 22 Can libertarianindividual, populism any sect remake or section, or any particular generation. I was lucky enough to have had the go to the US to study and that is why there to be a much broader and more 05 My greatest regret the American right? DANIEL FINKELSTEIN is In his view, perfection is not givenAssociate to man, Editor and of so The politics Times is opportunity to attend both Harvard I encouraged my two eldest children diverse range of individuals from a Douglas Hurd James Poulos It is only when modernisation means an intrinsically messy business, in whichPETER any HOSKIN large is decisionAssociate risks and Oxford, so I feel well placed to to do likewise. variety of backgrounds who had done 06 Director’s note 23 America’sdoing Big Society damage to the innumerableEditor private of ConservativeHome arrangements and compare and understand the best much more with their lives than just Ryan Shorthouse Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry conservative reform that we can be sure it understandings that make up the socialDOUGLAS fabric. HURD People was Foreign naturally of America and Britain’s respective succeed in the classroom. Harvard did policy American universities reflects07 Why the I’m thoughta Bright Blue and MP spirit of Burke himself aspire to support themselves and theirSecretary families, from to 1989–95 exercise their education systems. not need to compromise standards Laura Sandys 25 It’s the justice economy, stupid personal freedoms and capacities, andSUNDER to acquire KATWALA property is the and Whilst many tertiary level academic offer that little bit more to get students from disadvantaged Will Tanner Director of British Future 08 What do the English want? status. The function of politics, then, is one of reconciliation institutions in both countries offer at undergraduate level by backgrounds, but nor did they compare Properly Sunder functioning Katwala parties are thus the antidote26 Junkto fac science- and in enablement: Washington to provide a forumKATE and MALTBY a framework is the Editor of of law exceptionally high standards of like for like between students from the The Progressive Conscience encouraging students to study tional09 Thepolitics. dangerous They foster Mr Bloom stability, allowing an orderly Nigel and Cameron and practice within which individual differences and grievances education, American universities offer fi nest private schools and those who IAIN MARTIN is widely published peaceful Alex transfer Massie of political power after general27 elections. Defence cuts,can be not redressed, caution individualon Syria, freedom can be reconciled with the that little bit more at undergraduate a wide range of subjects went to poor state schools. 11 Centre-right abroad weaken our alliance journalist. His latest book Because they must debate and publicly defend collective prin- demands of the social order, and publicMaking deliberation It Happen is outextended now. level by encouraging students to study a Until recently, the disparity in ciples Oliverand policy, Cooper they bring a degree of openness and a Luke focus Coffey via man’s inherent capacity for self-government. wide range of subjects, and offering the The admissions process between price between a British education and america 28 Republicans are wising up ALEX MASSIE writes a blog for on the national interest. They remove the need for political The corollary of this emphasis onThe custom Spectator and and apractice fortnightly is a fl exibility to change the core subject of the two countries is also very different. an American one, meant that many superheroes,12 Weasel allowingwords people of normal decency and onability immigration highly distinctive conception of politicalcolumn leadership. for the Scottish For edition Burke your degree throughout your time there. Most US universities look at much British students were put off the idea of of The Times to play Stephen a role Pollardin politics, and act as valuable recruiting Alex and Nowrasteh government is not merely about passing laws or aggressive law Most American undergraduate more than your academic achievements studying overseas. However, the rise in training13 America grounds isn’t for newworried talent. by 29 Civility hasenforcement, left the Senate for “nations are notLOUISE primarily MENSCH ruled is the byformer laws: courses take place over a four year – in part, because the system depends UK tuition fees, in addition to the lure MP for Corby MostMiliband’s vital of chicaneryall, genuine party politics demands Olympia that Snoweless by violence … Nations are governed by the same meth- period with each year being split into on rounded individuals, who can adapt of generous scholarships in America Penny Mordaunt books and arts PENNY MORDAUNT is MP those who are elected act as representatives, not as delegates ods … by which an individual withoutfor Portsmouth authority North is often able two semesters. During each semester to a broad range of thought. As a has made studying there more viable acting14 Theunder GOP instructions needs to fromlearn their constituents.31 As LincolnBurke into the govern lense … his equals and his superiors; by a knowledge of you will take four courses, half of Harvard Admissions offi cer once told than in previous years. According to the from Cameron Peter Hoskin BROOKS NEWMARK is memorably proclaimed in his Speech to the Electors of Bristol their temper, and by a judicious managementMP for Braintree of it.” Again and which will refl ect your Major, or core me, “we can fi ll Harvard eight times US-UK Fulbright Commission, Har- in 1774, Louise a representative’s Mensch “unbiased opinion,32 his mature Burke’s Americanagain, Burke Dream returns in his writings and speeches to the idea of subject, while the other half are in over with kids who are straight As and vard saw a 45% increase in applications 16 The Fink on The King Jesse Norman JESSE NORMAN is judgement, his enlightened conscience” he should not sacrifice governing “with the temper of the people”,MP for Hereford insisting and that “The other subjects. At Harvard, I majored Valedictorian – we look for more than from British students between 2009/10 to his Danielconstituents. Finkelstein 35 Opening antemper American of the peoplemind amongst whomSouth he presidesHerefordshire ought … to be in History for 50% of my time, but in that.” At Harvard you are assessed on a to 2011/12. Harvard Admissions is 17 Teddy, not FDR, knew how Brooks Newmark Burke thus avoids the political traps created by Jeffersonian the first study of a statesman”. ALEX NOWRASTEH is an addition to History I studied everything combination of your academic perfor- need blind so your fi nancial aid is 100% radicalism.to solve But a hisrecession views also suit the British constitutional Arguably, one measure of the Americanimmigration and policy British analyst consti - from Italian, which fulfi lled a foreign mance over four years at High School, if your parents earn under $60,000 at the Cato Institute tradition. Iain For, Martin as in America, there are two vital countervailing tutions is that in their different ways they encourage political language requirement, to Astrophysics your performance on the standardized and there is a sliding scale of fi nancial STEPHEN POLLARD is Editor of principles within the British constitution too. The first is what leaders to consult and govern with The“the Jewish temper Chronicle of the people”. and Socio Biology, to fulfi ll science Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), your support for parents earning up to we would now call a democratic principle: that political control But temper is not opinion, and Burke’s thought also raises a requirements. There was even a required extracurricular activities (sport, music, $180,000 (taking into account how Bright Blue Bright Blue Executive Board: Jonathan Algar, JAMES POULOS is a contributor ultimately derives from the consent of the governed, as renewed question about the very idea of “modernisation” itself. Burke course in Expository Writing, and the many children your parents have, their Bright Blue is an independent pressure group campaigning Phil Clarke, Will Emkes, Tim Flagg, Alexandra Jezeph, to Forbes and VICE volunteer work etc), two teachers and atfor generalthe Conservative elections. Party toThe continue second modernising is a constitutional and Kate principle:Maltby, Sam Nassiri,is sometimes Ryan Shorthouse, claimed Guy as Stagg, an ally of politicalLAURA SANDYS modernisation. is MP for But chance to study an introductory course a headteacher’s recommendations – as income and their assets). thatto adopt the liberal popular and progressive will should policies. be moderated Our thinking throughMaria longer-term Strizzolo if modernisation is conceived as an Southattempt Thanet to impose a certain in Economics with JK Galbraith, to well as your interview. I loved my time at both the draws on Conservative traditions of community, institutions which are not tied to the electoral cycle, but which idea of modernity onto a society, RYANor to SHORTHOUSE align current is the policy fulfi ll my social science requirements. The data points you are assessed on institutions I studied at and made many entrepreneurialism, responsibility, liberty and fairness. [email protected] Director of Bright Blue reflectWe are passionate other aboutperspectives, sharing and other championing interests new, and otherwww.brightblue.org.uk values, and directly with current popular opinion, or to amend political The British education system, on are far broader than in the UK, where friends at both but if I had a choice whichoriginal ideaspermit that andwill improve encourage the quality collective of life of vision. the Editor: Kate Maltby principle to suit present circumstance,OLYMPIA then SNOWE there was can a Unitedbe little the other hand, tends to be focused on ultimately you are assessed on purely again I would still choose Harvard over mostAs vulnerable, Burke putin Britain it, “No and beyond. legislator, at any period ofPrinted the by:world, PPC, www.ppcbristol.co.ukdoubt that Burke would have rejectedStates it. Senator It is only from when 1995–2013 mod- one subject with almost no fl exibility academic performance over a relatively Oxford for both its fl exible and broad Designed by: Soapbox, www.soapbox.co.uk has willingly placed the seat of active power in the hands of the ernisation means conservative reformWILL thatTANNER we is can a justice be sure it to change your degree once you are small exam period, with sometimes educational experience and the rich multitude. The people are the natural control on authority; but reflects the thought and the spirit policyof Burke expert himself. accepted. An undergraduate degree an interview. variety of students I met there.

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J1025 The Progressive Conscience COVER.indd 3-4 23/09/2013 12:24 DANIEL FINKELSTEIN LOUISE MENSCH celebrates the modern on what the Tories are conservatism of Martin doing wrong and Chris The Luther King Christie’s doing right Progressive Conscience Spotlight on America

Bush adviser David Frum issues a warning for Cameron and tells Bright Blue his regrets “Iraq: it’s on my mind all the time. Every day.”

senator olympia snowe | iain martin | jesse norman | stephen pollard

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