Tuesday 30 June 2009

Who is Demos' new Tory recruit?

Next Left has it on good authority from a neck-crickingly senior (and indeed tall) source that the think-tank Demos remains fully committed to fleshing out the ideological paradox that is "progressive Conservatism" after the departure of Red Tory thinker Phillip Blond, which we discussed this morning.

Indeed, we are told to look out in the next few days for the unveiling of a big Tory political "name" to head up the project.

Who might it be? Perhaps Messrs Isaby and Montgomerie would be able to open a book, or at least speculate, about who might make this audacious career move. (Next Left's nomination would, naturally, go to Mr Dan Hannan).

With James Purnell playing a similar thought leadership role on a parallel Demos project, it seems clear that Demos believe it is possible to ride lib-lab and lib-con horses simultaneously in the cause of the liberal republicanism.

So expect a liberal retooling of the ProgCon project - perhaps more 21st century and less 14th - as deep political thinker Phillip Blond goes elsewhere to publish on what the communitarian and anti-liberal Red Toryism might entail. (Faber are to publish the book in January).

Anybody who thinks there are not nearly enough ProgCons to have already developed an ideological split needs to watch Life of Brian again.

Meanwhile Demos promise a great outpouring of research and pamphlets to flesh out their agenda. That is good news. As pledged at the Compass conference, then I remain very much ready to hold up one end of the "Recapitalise the Poor" banner to march on HM Treasury and the Shadow Chancellor's office if the Demos idea of a ProgCon agenda is to demand an irreversible shift in wealth, power and opportunity to the asset-poor in our society,

We might yet together persuade Mr Osborne to change his mind - even if it his regressive plans to recapitalise the rich which have so far proved a hit with the Tory grassroots.

2 comments:

Robert said...

Here we go again, the poor old poor, when Labour start to sink and the shit is all around them they remember the poor the sick the disabled, the last twelve years of kicking the shit out of us scroungers work shy lay abouts or what ever, now we are seen as the poor.

Lets me tell you after forty years being in Labour I'd not vote for you if Christ came back and became an Labour MP.

_______ said...

Philip Blonde is actually trying to turn the centre-left (and Labour) into a private property championing, anti-state, anti-democracy movement... In the name of unenlightened individualism and 'modern liberalism'. This can be seen in Liberal Republicanism, Progressive conservatism, and Blonde's rhetoric.

Perhaps James Purnell will help Demos shift away from this asinine, private property loving sentiment at Demos, as Purnell is clearly enlightened enough to realize the private property has virtually no potential to create an egalitarian distribution of Liberty, and that a democratic welfare state is the best way to redistribute power from Capital to Labour, and de-proliterianize the preliterate and create a socially liberal society where the diseased have an equal stake in society as the non diseased.