the Language of Progressive Politics in Modern Britain Emily Robinson The Language of Progressive Politics in Modern Britain Emily Robinson The Language of Progressive Politics in Modern Britain Emily Robinson Department of Politics University of Sussex Brighton, United Kingdom ISBN 978-1-137-50661-0 ISBN 978-1-137-50664-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50664-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016963256 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover Image: © maxstock / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom For Jon, at the start of a new chapter This book traces the word ‘progressive’ through modern British history, from the Enlightenment to Brexit. It explores the shifting meanings of this term and the contradictory political projects to which it has been attached. It also places this political language in its cultural context, asking how it relates to ideas about progressive social development, progressive business, and progressive rock music. ‘Progressive’ is often associated with a centre-left political tradition, but this book shows that this was only ever one use of the term—and one that was heavily contested even from its inception. The power of the term ‘progressive’ is that it appears to anticipate the future. This can be politically and culturally valuable, but it is also dangerous. The suggestion that there is only one way forward has led to fear and doubt, anger and apathy, even amongst those who would like to consider themselves ‘progressive people’. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I began this book during a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of East Anglia (UEA), carried out much of the research as an Advance Research Fellow in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, and completed it as a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sussex. I have been exceptionally well supported in each of these positions, and would like to thank all those who have acted as mentors along the way, particularly John Greenaway at UEA, Steve Fielding and Michael Freeden at Nottingham, and Claire Annesley and Paul Taggart at Sussex. All of them have gone far beyond the call of duty, and I am profoundly grateful to them. I am also lucky to have had won- derful colleagues at each of these institutions. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer and all those who read and commented on chapters: Hester Barron, Lawrence Black, Chris Brooke, Jon Croker, Kate Dommett, Cathy Elliott, Rhodri Hayward, Ben Jackson, Mike Kenny, Pete Kerr, Jim Martin, Charlotte Riley, Camilla Schofield, Julia Stapleton, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, Julian Wright, and Matt Worley. Their comments were immensely helpful and greatly improved the text. It goes without saying that they are not responsible for any remaining errors. In the six years since I began this research, I have benefitted from too many productive discussions, useful suggestions and insightful questions to acknowledge here, so, in addition to those listed above, I will simply mention Judi Atkins, Angela Bartie, Victoria Browne, Valentina Cardo, Gidon Cohen, Marcus Collins, Phil Cowley, Thomas Dixon, Elizabeth Evans, Alan Finlayson, Matthew Francis, Keith Gildart, Richard Grayson, ix x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Claire Langhamer, Jon Lawrence, Peter Mandler, Andrew Perchard, Lucy Robinson, and Natalie Thomlinson. I am particularly grateful to every- one who participated in the 2012 conference on ‘Progressivism: Past and Present’, and especially those who contributed to the subsequent special issue of Political Studies Review: David Blaazer, Michael Freeden, Simon Griffiths, Robert Page, Peter Sloman and Joe Twyman. The editorial work of Rene Bailey and Mark Wenman in seeing this to completion was invaluable. One of the pleasures of the past three years has been teaching at Sussex. I have been continually inspired and challenged by the enthusiasm of stu- dents. In particular, I would like to thank those who have taken my spe- cial subject on Ideas of Progress and Decline in Modern British Politics. Your dissertations have been a joy to read and pushed me to think about these questions from many different (and sometimes surprising) angles. Jake Watts’ doctoral research has given me a new perspective on tem- poral positioning within the Labour Party. And a final thank-you is due to all those who have helped to make Politics Wednesdays such a high- light of each week. Another recent pleasure has been spending time with Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson, rethinking the history and politics of the 1970s. The ideas we have dis- cussed together have shaped this book in innumerable ways. The Labour Party Archive, Conservative Party Archive Trust, Special Collections at the University of Bristol Arts and Social Sciences Library, Curtis Brown on behalf of the Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive, Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, and Sheffield Archives have kindly granted permission for quotations from archival sources. Andrew Riley at the Churchill Archives Centre was helpful, as always. An earlier version of Chap. 3 appeared as ‘Defining Progressive Politics: Municipal Socialism and Anti-Socialism in Contestation, 1889–1939’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 76:4 (2015), and sections of Chap. 7 were originally published as ‘Speaking at Cross Purposes? The Rhetorical Problems of “Progressive” Politics’, Political Studies Review 12:1 (2014), co-authored with Joe Twyman. I am grateful to the University of Pennsylvania Press and to Sage for permission to reproduce these pieces here, and to Joe Twyman for permission to use sections of our co-authored article, and particularly for producing the YouGov survey on which it was based. Emily Russell, Carmel Kennedy, Rowan Milligan, Angharad Bishop and Clare Mence at Palgrave have all been helpful and (perhaps more importantly) patient throughout the process. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi My family and friends have been understanding and tolerant through all my enthusiasms and crises—particularly my wonderful parents. I am sorry if the writing sometimes seemed to take priority over everything else. The book is dedicated to Jon Croker, who has (once again) inspired me with the energy with which he approaches his own work, while also showing great care and attention to mine. This has been particularly valu- able over the past few months, and I am thankful for all the ways in which he has created the space and time I needed. Finally, I owe a special debt to Wilbur Robinson Croker, whose increasingly insistent wriggling finally forced me to finish writing. Brighton, July 2016 CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Being Progressive 1 2 Two Natural and Inevitable Parties? 25 3 Municipal Enterprise: Contesting the Liberal Tradition 67 4 The Pageant of Parliament: Politics in the Time of Modernism 107 5 Puzzled People: Making Sense of Modernity 157 6 Party Games: Realignments and Revisionism 201 7 The Rhetoric of Change: Modernisation and Its Discontents 241 8 Conclusion: The Consequences of Progressive Thinking 285 Index 291 xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AIPWA All India Progressive Writers’ Association BUF British Union of Fascists BW British Weekly CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CPA Conservative Party Archive CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain DM Daily Mail ELP Emerson, Lake and Palmer EU European Union FPSI Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals GH Glasgow Herald ILN Illustrated London News ILP Independent Labour Party LCC London County Council LPP Labour Party Papers MG Manchester Guardian MT Marxism Today NBM New Britain Movement NEG New Europe Group NLC National Liberal Club PP Picture Post SA Sheffield Archives SCGPP Sheffield Citizens’ Group & Progressive Party SCUA Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association SDF Social Democratic Federation SDP Social Democratic Party SNP Scottish National Party xv xvi LIST OF Abbreviations UKIP United Kingdom Independence Party USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Being Progressive What does it mean to be progressive? Does it entail a set of recognisable political commitments, or a series of cultural assumptions? Is it a philo- sophical outlook, an active stance or even a personality trait? What about the claim to be progressive? What does that involve? And, more impor- tantly, what does it do? What does it make possible? And what does it preclude? There are three aspects to this discussion, which I want to examine in turn. First, the politics. How has the term ‘progressive’ functioned in British political discourse? What roles has it played and what effects has it had? Second, the temporal nature of the term.