Are we witnessing the strange death of liberal Britain? After the “flag, faith and family” speech of prime minister Theresa May this week, it certainly seems so. The most politically-effective proponents of the metropolitan liberal creed in the modern age – former Labour leader Tony Blair and Tory ex-chancellor George Osborne – are now relegated to making speeches and writing books. Neither turned up to their intensely tribal conferences. Since the vote to exit the European Union, wider liberal values have been in retreat. May’s address cleverly painted the EU as representing something that was deeply unfair in society, tying Europe into a cosmopolitan rootlessness that was abroad in this country. Brussels, so the thought runs, promotes the idea that values are universally valid rather than varying across cultures. It was something to be resisted. She emphasised that in a Britain that was part of the EU individuality came at the expense of social attachments, and focused on the high cost of the pursuit of personal fulfilment. Yet Britain – the land of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill – converted the world to liberal values. Not the other way round.
In part May was responding to the nation and her party, which has gained 50,000 new members since the Brexit vote. There’s no doubt the mood of the country was much darker than many winners in the winner-take-all society constructed since 1979 had previously conceded. That was the shock: populism defeated capitalism in its country of origin. Research released this week shows that voters who plumped for Brexit felt marooned from wider society, psychologically powerless, and nostalgic for the past. This perhaps was best typified by the finding that the death penalty, which was not part of the EU referendum vote, was possibly the best indicator of how people voted: those in favour of capital punishment wanted out.
This cultural divide will define politics in the years that come. It is already here in the rhetoric of responsibilities and rights. It is also true that a form of this politics has been with us for years. In policing, it amounts to zero tolerance. In schools, it is about instilling a regimented discipline. With employment, it is workfare. All revolve around the idea that popular opinion backs placing obligations to wider society above an individual’s freedom. Corbyn’s Labour is a reaction to this thinking. It rejects the liberalism that tempered previous incarnations of the party and has opted to mobilise a rainbow coalition of identities: ethnic minorities; young urbanites; graduates; gay people; greens. This is the heart of the 48%. Labour sees itself as the champion of the working classes but counts on shrinking trade unions to get out that vote. Tellingly, this week Labour lost a council seat with a large swing in its working class heartland to Ukip, which appears more a party of punch ups than grown ups.
Fermenting the chaos are more saurian forces. In America the alt-right, the loose far-right movement that exists largely online, overlaps with the Trump campaign. We have echoes of that racist misogyny in our own Twittersphere. For Britain the question is how to balance Enlightenment values with those found in society today. Economic liberalism left wastelands in our country, and reckless social hedonism went too far. Liberalism must learn its limits. But culture is not static: we are glad to be rid of oppressive marriages and repressive institutions. In leaving Europe we must ask who will protect consumer and worker rights. To be free from constraint and allow people to act to take control of their lives, liberalism will have to be remade for a post-liberal age.
.png?w=600)
