Conventional politics is at crossroads. Amid recession, depression, poverty, increasing violence and rising inequality, our current politics is exhausted and inadequate. In "Red Tory", Phillip Blond argues that only a radical new political settlement can tackle the problems we face. Red Toryism combines economic egalitarianism with social conservatism, calling for an end to the monopolisation of society and the private sphere by the state and the market. Decrying the legacy of both the Labour and Conservative parties, Blond proposes a genuinely progressive Conservatism that will restore social equality and revive British culture. He calls for the strengthening of local communities and economies, ending dispossession, redistribution of the tax burden and restoration the nuclear family. "Red Tory" offers a different vision for our future and asks us to question our long-held political assumptions. No political thinker has aroused more passionate debate in recent times. Phillip Blond's ideas have already been praised or attacked in every major British newspaper and journal. Challenging, stimulating and exhilarating, this is a book for our times.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Phillip Blond is an academic, writer and journalist. He was senior lecturer in theology and philosophy at the University of Cumbria, and was head of the new Progressive Conservatism project at the thinktank Demos. He writes for the International Herald Tribune, Guardian, Independent and Prospect and is frequently on the radio.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Red Tory takes what's best of both the Left and Right. Blond calls it a "red Tory" communitarianism, socially conservative but sceptical of neoliberal economics.
Basically, like the Right, they uphold family, traditional values but also seek true social justice.
The only real power today is in the State and the Market, but Red Tories say both ought to be subservient to the community.
So, like the Right, it seeks to decentralize the Sate; but like the Left, it tries to counter the tyranny of the Market.
Instead of a welfare state or a market state it promotes strengthening local communities with local economies.
It draws on an old conservative tradition with the goal of an egalitarian distribution of private property with participatory economics; shared assets and modernized mutualism coupled with genuinely free markets.
Red Tories are against monopoly capitalism but believe in a true free market; capitalism with a small 'c'.
They think the market should be subservient to the communities needs.
Red Tories prescription is to `recapitalise the poor' and share the capitalist means of wealth production so there's "no proletariat upon the one side, and no monopolising capitalist upon the other," as Belloc says in The Servile State, which inspires much of what Blond has to say.
Blond clearly lays out his program with down to earth practical solutions using real world examples.
He is an Anglican theologian and the Red Tory movement is causing quite a bit of excitement in the Christian communities.
Although Blond aims much of this book specifically at the UK, it is coupled with American politics as well, so he talks about Thatcher/Regean, Bush/Blair.
Also included is a very erudite chapter on the economic collapse, its deep rooted causes, and a real paradigm shift for evaluating what needs to be done.
I never do reviews, but this book is the future of politics. No kidding, highly recommended!
Basically, like the Right, they uphold family, traditional values but also seek true social justice.
The only real power today is in the State and the Market, but Red Tories say both ought to be subservient to the community.
So, like the Right, it seeks to decentralize the Sate; but like the Left, it tries to counter the tyranny of the Market.
Instead of a welfare state or a market state it promotes strengthening local communities with local economies.
It draws on an old conservative tradition with the goal of an egalitarian distribution of private property with participatory economics; shared assets and modernized mutualism coupled with genuinely free markets.
Red Tories are against monopoly capitalism but believe in a true free market; capitalism with a small 'c'.
They think the market should be subservient to the communities needs.
Red Tories prescription is to `recapitalise the poor' and share the capitalist means of wealth production so there's "no proletariat upon the one side, and no monopolising capitalist upon the other," as Belloc says in The Servile State, which inspires much of what Blond has to say.
Blond clearly lays out his program with down to earth practical solutions using real world examples.
He is an Anglican theologian and the Red Tory movement is causing quite a bit of excitement in the Christian communities.
Although Blond aims much of this book specifically at the UK, it is coupled with American politics as well, so he talks about Thatcher/Regean, Bush/Blair.
Also included is a very erudite chapter on the economic collapse, its deep rooted causes, and a real paradigm shift for evaluating what needs to be done.
I never do reviews, but this book is the future of politics. No kidding, highly recommended!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If this country's bipolar political discussion has left you numb, then read on here, brother.
Many American Anglophiles do not realize what a Clockwork Orange landscape much of modern Britain has become. After a survey of his "shattered society," Phillip Blond then argues for an older and radical conservatism in this manifesto packed with striking formulations and insights that inspire the dispirited American reader.
The wholesale collapse of British culture and the disappearance of its civil society over the last two generations is due to a fearful combination, Blond argues: that of a failed welfare state on the one hand and a failed "market state" on the other, both of them hollowed out by an implicit libertarianism. (Echoes of Chesterton and Belloc here.) The result is an extreme degree of social isolation and disconnectedness with neighbors and community. (Remember "Bowling Alone"?)
His vision is that of a renewed civil society, a remoralized market and a recapitalized poor--notions that are wholly absent from what passes for "conservative" (and much "liberal") thought today. By harnessing our forgotten powers of mutualism and association, Blond believes that a politics of virtue can be rebuilt from the ground up--largely free both from statism and from the monopoly capitalism which has made the market unfreer than ever.
Unlike most philosophers, Blond is in the extraordinary position of watching his ideas become reality, as in the case of the UK's recently passed Localism Bill.
Moreover, David Brooks' enthusiastic NY Times column about Blond's Red Toryism last year sparked a flurry of interest that now has a US version of his ResPublica thinktank, called ResPublica America, in the works and launching in the fall 2011. A radical--and necessary--vision.
Many American Anglophiles do not realize what a Clockwork Orange landscape much of modern Britain has become. After a survey of his "shattered society," Phillip Blond then argues for an older and radical conservatism in this manifesto packed with striking formulations and insights that inspire the dispirited American reader.
The wholesale collapse of British culture and the disappearance of its civil society over the last two generations is due to a fearful combination, Blond argues: that of a failed welfare state on the one hand and a failed "market state" on the other, both of them hollowed out by an implicit libertarianism. (Echoes of Chesterton and Belloc here.) The result is an extreme degree of social isolation and disconnectedness with neighbors and community. (Remember "Bowling Alone"?)
His vision is that of a renewed civil society, a remoralized market and a recapitalized poor--notions that are wholly absent from what passes for "conservative" (and much "liberal") thought today. By harnessing our forgotten powers of mutualism and association, Blond believes that a politics of virtue can be rebuilt from the ground up--largely free both from statism and from the monopoly capitalism which has made the market unfreer than ever.
Unlike most philosophers, Blond is in the extraordinary position of watching his ideas become reality, as in the case of the UK's recently passed Localism Bill.
Moreover, David Brooks' enthusiastic NY Times column about Blond's Red Toryism last year sparked a flurry of interest that now has a US version of his ResPublica thinktank, called ResPublica America, in the works and launching in the fall 2011. A radical--and necessary--vision.
By Dean
Format:Paperback
If you want to gain a better understanding as to why people disliked Margaret Thatcher then read this book. Phillip Blond provides excellent examples all through the book. He makes authors like Naomi Klein look like whingers who seek popularity amongst the lazy 'tear it down' mob rather than put forward realistic alternatives like Blond does. My imagination and spirit has been reignited by this book and has spurred me in to action to be a contributor towards a better world direction. Thank you Phillip.
