Thin Economics, Thick Moralising
Red Toryism and the Politics of Nostalgia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v40i1.004Keywords:
Religion, Politics, Red Toryism, UKAbstract
Locality, family, moral economy, virtuous elites, common popular customs – these are the buzzwords of what has come to be known as red toryism, which seeks to breath life into the conservative project in the UK. It valorises the local over the global, family over its discontents (gays, single parents, promiscuity), virtue over cynicism, common custom over bland commercial labels; in short, a return to the progressive, communal values of conservatism. The name most usually associated with red toryism – also known as communitarian civic conservatism – is Phillip Blond. Our brief in this paper is not a treatment of the whole red tory doctrine, but a critical examination of its economic policies and how they relate to theology, via morality.
References
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Blond, Phillip.2005.“The Politics of the Eye: Toward a Theological Materialism.” Theology and the Political: The New Debate, edited by ICreston Davis, John Milbank and Slavoj Žižek, 429-62. Durham, N.C.: DUnited Kingdome University Press.
———. 2008a“Allow Me to Suggest, George.” Guardian, 27 September. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2008/sep/27/conservatives.Toryconference.
———/. 2008b “David Cameron Needs a Fourth Way.” The First Post , 7 May . http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/33518,news-comment,news-politics,cameron-needs-a-fourth-way.
———. 2008c “A Deeper Shade of Blue.” Guardian . 21 August. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/aug/21/conservatives.economy.
———. 2008d “Labour's Right-Wing Immigration Policy.” The First Post. 1 April. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/26488,news-comment,news-politics,labours-right-wing-immigration-policy.
———. 2008e “Medieval Thinking.” Guardian, 30 September. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/Toryconference.conservatives.
———. 2008f “A New Political Landscape: A Winning Formula for the Next Election.” The First Post. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/44918,news-comment,news-politics,a-new-political-landscape.
———. 2008g “On the Right Road.” Guardian (6 October). http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/oct/06/conservatives.labour.
———. 2008h “Red Tory.” In Is the Future Conservative?, edited by Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford, 79-90. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
———. 2008i “Start of a Beautiful Friendship?” The First Post, 14 January. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/12287,news-comment,news-politics,europe-and-the-us-must-unite-or-be-hisTorys-losers.
———. 2008j “Thatcher is Back.” Guardian, 20 November. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/nov/20/comment-thatcher-economics-conservatives-spending.
———. 2008k “The True Tory Progressives.” Guardian, 30 May. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/may/30/davidcameron.welfare.
———. 2008l “What Would the Tories Do?” Guardian, 19 September. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/economics.marketturmoil.
———. 2008m “Why David Davis is a Hero.” The First Post,13 July. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/41929,news-comment,news-politics,why-david-davis-is-a-hero.
———. 2009a “Let's Get Local.” Guardian, 30 January. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/belief/2009/jan/30/davos-religion.
———. 2009b “The New Conservatism Can Create a Capitalism That Works for the Poor.” Guardian, 2 July. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2009/jul/02/new-conservatism-cameron.
———. 2009c “We Are the New Radicals.” The Daily Mail, 21 August. http://www.dailymail.co.United Kingdom/debate/article-1206855/PHILLIP-BLOND-We-new-radicals.html.
———. 2009d “Without a Concept of Virtue Our Banks Are Doomed.” Guardian (1 June). www.independent.co.United Kingdom/opinion/commentators/phillip-blond-without-a-concept-of-virtue-our-politics-and-our-banks-are-doomed-1693855.html.
———/.2010 Red Tory: How Left and Right Have Broken Britain and How We Can Fix It. London: Faber and Faber.
Blond, Phillip, and John Milbank. 2010 “No Equality in Opportunity.” Guardian. 27 January. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2010/jan/27/inequality-opportunity-egalitarian-Tory-left.
Blond, Phillip, and Adrian Pabst. 2005a. “The Roots of Islamic Terrorism.” New York Times, 28 July. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/opinion/27iht-edpabst.html.
———. 2005b “Why the West Gets Religion Wrong.” New York Times, 8 July. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/opinion/07iht-edpabst.html.
———. 2006a “Benedict's Post-Secular Vision.” New York Times (29 November). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/opinion/29iht-edblond.3711406.html.
———. 2006b“The Problem With Secularism.” New York Times , 21 September. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21iht-edblond.3974655.html.
———. 2007 “No Room For Gay Rights at the Adoption Agency.” Church Times . 2 February. http://www.churchtimes.co.United Kingdom/content.asp?id=32689.
———. 2008 “Shariah II: Integrating Islam Into the West.” New York Times, 4 November. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/opinion/14ihtedpabst.1.10050495.html.
———. 2010. Red Tory: How Left and Right have Broken Britain and How we can Fix It. London: Faber and Faber.Boer, Roland. 2007. Criticism of Heaven: On Marxism and Theology. Leiden: Brill
———. 2010 Criticism of Theology: On Marxism and Theology III. Leiden: Brill.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loic Wacquant. 2001. “Neoliberal Newspeak: Notes on the New Planetary Vulgate.” Radical Philosophy 105: 1-6.
Cheyette, Bryan. 1993 Constructions of 'the Jew' in English Literature and Society: Racial Representations 1875-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coombs, Nathan. 2009. “The Red Tories’ True Colours.” Guardian , 4 November. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/04/Red-tories-phillip-blond-conservatives.
———. 2010 “The Political Theology of Red Toryism.” Unpublished article.
Crabtree, James. 2009. “Phillip Blond, David Cameron and the Big Society: Just how Red will the Tories be?” Prospect Magazine, 26 November. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.United Kingdom/2009/11/phillip-blond-steve-hilton-and-the-big-society-just-how-Red-are-camerons-tories-going-to-be/.
Derbyshire, Jonathan. 2009. “NS Profile: Phillip Blond.” New Statesman , 19 February. http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2009/02/Red-Tory-blond-liberal.
Leopold, David. 2007 The Young Karl Mark: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marx, Karl. 1843a. “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law.” In Marx and Engels Collected Works, 3-129. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975.
———. 1843b. “Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie. Kritik des Hegelschen Staatsrechts.” In Marx Engels Werke, 203-303. Berlin: Dietz, 1974.
———. 1844a “On the Jewish Question.” In Marx and Engels Collected Works, 146-74 Moscow: Progress Publishers.
———. 1844b. “Zur Judenfrage.” In Marx Engels Werke, 347-77. Berlin: Dietz.
Mathews, Race. 2009a. Jobs of Our Own: Building a Stakeholder Society: Alternatives to the Market and the State. Irving: Distibutist Review Press.
———. 2009b. “Mondragon.” Arena Magazine 102: 16-22.
Milbank, John. 2009 “Liberality Versus Liberalism.” Scribd. http://www.scribd.com/doc/18176980/Milbank-liberality-versus-liberalism-.
2010 “The Big Society Depends on the Big Parish.” ABC Online Religion and Ethics, (30 November). http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2010/11/30/3080680.htm?topic1=&topic2=
Mussolini, Benito, and Giovanni Gentile. 1935. “The Doctrine of Fascism.” In Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions. Rome: Ardita. http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm
Pabst, Adrian. 2010. “The Spectacle of Power.”Telos 20 January. http://www.telospress.com/main/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=355.
Raban, Jonathan. 2010. “Cameron’s Crank.” London Review of Books 32: 22-3.
Rose, Peter W. 1992 Sons of the Gods, Children of Earth: Ideology and Literary Form in Ancient Greece. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Ste. Croix, G. E. M. de. 1972. The Origins of the Peloponnesian War. London: Duckworth.
———. 2006. Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stout, Jeffrey. 2004. Democracy and Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Surin, Kenneth. 2009. Freedom Not Yet: Liberation and the Next World Order. Durham: Dukee University Press.
White, Michael. 2009 “David Cameron and the 'Red Tory' Philosopher.” Guardian , 26 November, http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2009/nov/26/michael-white-david-cameron-thinktank.
Womuth, Philip. 2010. “Through a Glass Darkly.” Economist, 4 February, www.economist.com/opinion/displaysTory.cfm?sTory_id=15452867.
Wood, Ellen Meiksins. 1997. Peasant-Citizen & Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy. London: Verso.
———. 2008., Citizens to Lords: A Social HisTory of Western Political Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. London: Verso.
Žižek, Slavoj, and John Milbank. 2009. The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.
Blond, Phillip.2005.“The Politics of the Eye: Toward a Theological Materialism.” Theology and the Political: The New Debate, edited by ICreston Davis, John Milbank and Slavoj Žižek, 429-62. Durham, N.C.: DUnited Kingdome University Press.
———. 2008a“Allow Me to Suggest, George.” Guardian, 27 September. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2008/sep/27/conservatives.Toryconference.
———/. 2008b “David Cameron Needs a Fourth Way.” The First Post , 7 May . http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/33518,news-comment,news-politics,cameron-needs-a-fourth-way.
———. 2008c “A Deeper Shade of Blue.” Guardian . 21 August. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/aug/21/conservatives.economy.
———. 2008d “Labour's Right-Wing Immigration Policy.” The First Post. 1 April. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/26488,news-comment,news-politics,labours-right-wing-immigration-policy.
———. 2008e “Medieval Thinking.” Guardian, 30 September. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/Toryconference.conservatives.
———. 2008f “A New Political Landscape: A Winning Formula for the Next Election.” The First Post. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/44918,news-comment,news-politics,a-new-political-landscape.
———. 2008g “On the Right Road.” Guardian (6 October). http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/oct/06/conservatives.labour.
———. 2008h “Red Tory.” In Is the Future Conservative?, edited by Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford, 79-90. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
———. 2008i “Start of a Beautiful Friendship?” The First Post, 14 January. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/12287,news-comment,news-politics,europe-and-the-us-must-unite-or-be-hisTorys-losers.
———. 2008j “Thatcher is Back.” Guardian, 20 November. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/nov/20/comment-thatcher-economics-conservatives-spending.
———. 2008k “The True Tory Progressives.” Guardian, 30 May. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/2008/may/30/davidcameron.welfare.
———. 2008l “What Would the Tories Do?” Guardian, 19 September. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/economics.marketturmoil.
———. 2008m “Why David Davis is a Hero.” The First Post,13 July. http://www.thefirstpost.co.United Kingdom/41929,news-comment,news-politics,why-david-davis-is-a-hero.
———. 2009a “Let's Get Local.” Guardian, 30 January. http://www.guardian.co.United Kingdom/commentisfree/belief/2009/jan/30/davos-religion.
———. 2009b “The New Conservatism Can Create a Capitalism That Works for the Poor.” Guardian, 2 July. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2009/jul/02/new-conservatism-cameron.
———. 2009c “We Are the New Radicals.” The Daily Mail, 21 August. http://www.dailymail.co.United Kingdom/debate/article-1206855/PHILLIP-BLOND-We-new-radicals.html.
———. 2009d “Without a Concept of Virtue Our Banks Are Doomed.” Guardian (1 June). www.independent.co.United Kingdom/opinion/commentators/phillip-blond-without-a-concept-of-virtue-our-politics-and-our-banks-are-doomed-1693855.html.
———/.2010 Red Tory: How Left and Right Have Broken Britain and How We Can Fix It. London: Faber and Faber.
Blond, Phillip, and John Milbank. 2010 “No Equality in Opportunity.” Guardian. 27 January. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2010/jan/27/inequality-opportunity-egalitarian-Tory-left.
Blond, Phillip, and Adrian Pabst. 2005a. “The Roots of Islamic Terrorism.” New York Times, 28 July. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/opinion/27iht-edpabst.html.
———. 2005b “Why the West Gets Religion Wrong.” New York Times, 8 July. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/opinion/07iht-edpabst.html.
———. 2006a “Benedict's Post-Secular Vision.” New York Times (29 November). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/opinion/29iht-edblond.3711406.html.
———. 2006b“The Problem With Secularism.” New York Times , 21 September. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21iht-edblond.3974655.html.
———. 2007 “No Room For Gay Rights at the Adoption Agency.” Church Times . 2 February. http://www.churchtimes.co.United Kingdom/content.asp?id=32689.
———. 2008 “Shariah II: Integrating Islam Into the West.” New York Times, 4 November. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/opinion/14ihtedpabst.1.10050495.html.
———. 2010. Red Tory: How Left and Right have Broken Britain and How we can Fix It. London: Faber and Faber.Boer, Roland. 2007. Criticism of Heaven: On Marxism and Theology. Leiden: Brill
———. 2010 Criticism of Theology: On Marxism and Theology III. Leiden: Brill.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loic Wacquant. 2001. “Neoliberal Newspeak: Notes on the New Planetary Vulgate.” Radical Philosophy 105: 1-6.
Cheyette, Bryan. 1993 Constructions of 'the Jew' in English Literature and Society: Racial Representations 1875-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coombs, Nathan. 2009. “The Red Tories’ True Colours.” Guardian , 4 November. http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/04/Red-tories-phillip-blond-conservatives.
———. 2010 “The Political Theology of Red Toryism.” Unpublished article.
Crabtree, James. 2009. “Phillip Blond, David Cameron and the Big Society: Just how Red will the Tories be?” Prospect Magazine, 26 November. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.United Kingdom/2009/11/phillip-blond-steve-hilton-and-the-big-society-just-how-Red-are-camerons-tories-going-to-be/.
Derbyshire, Jonathan. 2009. “NS Profile: Phillip Blond.” New Statesman , 19 February. http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2009/02/Red-Tory-blond-liberal.
Leopold, David. 2007 The Young Karl Mark: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marx, Karl. 1843a. “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law.” In Marx and Engels Collected Works, 3-129. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975.
———. 1843b. “Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie. Kritik des Hegelschen Staatsrechts.” In Marx Engels Werke, 203-303. Berlin: Dietz, 1974.
———. 1844a “On the Jewish Question.” In Marx and Engels Collected Works, 146-74 Moscow: Progress Publishers.
———. 1844b. “Zur Judenfrage.” In Marx Engels Werke, 347-77. Berlin: Dietz.
Mathews, Race. 2009a. Jobs of Our Own: Building a Stakeholder Society: Alternatives to the Market and the State. Irving: Distibutist Review Press.
———. 2009b. “Mondragon.” Arena Magazine 102: 16-22.
Milbank, John. 2009 “Liberality Versus Liberalism.” Scribd. http://www.scribd.com/doc/18176980/Milbank-liberality-versus-liberalism-.
2010 “The Big Society Depends on the Big Parish.” ABC Online Religion and Ethics, (30 November). http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2010/11/30/3080680.htm?topic1=&topic2=
Mussolini, Benito, and Giovanni Gentile. 1935. “The Doctrine of Fascism.” In Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions. Rome: Ardita. http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm
Pabst, Adrian. 2010. “The Spectacle of Power.”Telos 20 January. http://www.telospress.com/main/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=355.
Raban, Jonathan. 2010. “Cameron’s Crank.” London Review of Books 32: 22-3.
Rose, Peter W. 1992 Sons of the Gods, Children of Earth: Ideology and Literary Form in Ancient Greece. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Ste. Croix, G. E. M. de. 1972. The Origins of the Peloponnesian War. London: Duckworth.
———. 2006. Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stout, Jeffrey. 2004. Democracy and Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Surin, Kenneth. 2009. Freedom Not Yet: Liberation and the Next World Order. Durham: Dukee University Press.
White, Michael. 2009 “David Cameron and the 'Red Tory' Philosopher.” Guardian , 26 November, http://www.guardian.co.UnitedKingdom/commentisfree/2009/nov/26/michael-white-david-cameron-thinktank.
Womuth, Philip. 2010. “Through a Glass Darkly.” Economist, 4 February, www.economist.com/opinion/displaysTory.cfm?sTory_id=15452867.
Wood, Ellen Meiksins. 1997. Peasant-Citizen & Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy. London: Verso.
———. 2008., Citizens to Lords: A Social HisTory of Western Political Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. London: Verso.
Žižek, Slavoj, and John Milbank. 2009. The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.
Published
2011-03-23
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Boer, R. (2011). Thin Economics, Thick Moralising: Red Toryism and the Politics of Nostalgia. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 40(1), 26-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v40i1.004
