Britain's Left Turns Right

Britain's Left Turns Right
How Labour Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Nationalism
David Runciman
July 22, 2013

via mozu

イギリスの左派の右傾化、というのだが、

In the United Kingdom, however, politicians on all sides, including Labour, have been competing to sound tougher on border controls, health tourism (visitors to Britain taking advantage of free health care), and limits on the issue of student visas.



She represented the sort of voter they feared they were losing: white, working-class, brought up with the welfare state, and now feeling that politicians had allowed immigrants to abuse the system while failing to protect the interests of local people who needed help



“Blue” was meant to denote a tragic view of politics, inspired by the ideas of the German sociologist Max Weber. The sunny banalities of New Labour had to give way to some hard truths: as Weber said, politics is drilling slowly through hard boards. In 1895, Weber had warned about the dangers posed to German identity by an influx of cheap agricultural labor from Poland; the interests of the German nation needed to take priority over economic concerns.



In 2011, Glasman gave an interview in which he suggested a temporary freeze on all immigration except for a small number of highly skilled workers. He also indicated a willingness to engage in dialogue with supporters of the English Defence League, a far-right group whose anti-immigration rhetoric is often overtly racist (anti-Muslim, pro-white)



In 2011, Glasman gave an interview in which he suggested a temporary freeze on all immigration except for a small number of highly skilled workers. He also indicated a willingness to engage in dialogue with supporters of the English Defence League, a far-right group whose anti-immigration rhetoric is often overtly racist (anti-Muslim, pro-white)




The upstart party currently benefitting from anti-immigrant sentiment is the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which is polling above the Liberal Democrats, Britain’s traditional third party and the coalition partner of the Conservatives in government. UKIP is not overtly racist. Its rhetoric is targeted at the European Union. But since it was EU membership that opened the door to the mass influx of workers from Eastern Europe -- the figures are contested, but it seems likely that over a million have arrived since 2004 -- UKIP is well placed to exploit the issue.


His views on immigration have given him an appeal in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, where parties of the left are facing similar challenges from rising anti-immigrant sentiments




Blue Labour resembles the early version of Thatcherism, which was also pro-German but anti-EU. As prime minister, Margaret Thatcher’s original goal was to promote a homegrown “ordoliberalism,” which could graft German-style economic productivity onto native British culture. Her problem was finding a way to do this without seeming to Europeanize the British way of life.




While Glasman is increasingly detached from the parochial demands of British politics (his most recent high-level contacts have been with the Pope), Miliband’s team has ditched the Blue Labour label in favor of a softer slogan: “One Nation.”

　むしろ、白人の声を聞き届けて、反移民に舵をきりたいのだが、大きな支持は得られない、といったところではないか？

　ウエーバーがポーランド人の流入でドイツらしさがなくなる危機を感じていた、とか、サッチャーの大陸的欧州化しないで、ドイツのように生産性を上げようとしていた、といったところはおもしろい。