Patriot games
Labour must like the country it is seeking to run
One can speculate over why Jeremy Corbyn lost the general election at the end of 2019. But part of the reason must be that the Labour leader didn’t seem to like the country he was seeking to run.
Readers will be familiar with the evidence. Not singing the national anthem was an early charge, albeit an unfair one for a republican (or anyone with working ears). A disinterest in remembrance events was another. There was also a certain cosiness with terrorists.
Perhaps it was all media conspiracy that stitched Corbyn up, but the perception was there. And in the spirit of fighting the last war, the Guardian has unearthed plans to make Labour patriotic again. These have not been universally well received.
According to a news report yesterday, an internal strategy recommended the party make “use of the flag, veterans, [and] dressing smartly at the war memorial etc [to] give voters a sense of authentic values alignment.” This follows Labour leader Keir Starmer’s emphasis on patriotism at the party conference in September.
It’s been widely known for years that leftwingers are less patriotic than those on the right. As one Yes Minister sketch has it, while Daily Telegraph readers worry that Britain is run by another country, the Morning Star – which Corbyn has written for – reckons this would be a good idea.
The reaction to the news shows the sketch still holds true. “The Tory party has absorbed Ukip and now Labour appears to be absorbing the language and symbols of the Tory party,” was the response of Clive Lewis, a leftish Labour MP. Referencing the storming of Capitol Hill in Washington DC last month, a Labour staff rhetorically asked the Graun, “are you really so blind to what happens when you start pandering to the language and concerns of the right?”
Labour probably has some distance to travel between sticking the flag in the background of party broadcasts and inciting insurrection. But it is interesting that the historic queasiness on the left about attachment to one’s homeland remains so strong.
Partly it is in the nature of the left-right division. Rightwingers are kneejerk patriots, with defending the status quo going in hand with tradition and a rosier view of the past. As the reformers, lefties are innately more sceptical of what came before and alert to historic injustice. There is also a tendency to think the national interest should be subordinated to international goals.
This distinction is sometimes exaggerated by hysterical accusations of antipatriotism from the rightwing press. Corbyn was justly slated for his instinctive hostility to British interests, but shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry’s resignation for merely tweeting an image of a house covered in English flags shows how the worst is often assumed of Labour politicians.
Such incidents have not converted Labour’s left to patriotism. When Rebecca Long-Bailey discussed “progressive patriotism” in last year’s leadership election, she was widely derided. For some attachment to country can never be reconciled with progressive politics.
More tactically, some argue that Labour cannot hope to win ground that defaults to the Conservatives. Guido Fawkes has already tried to leverage scepticism about Labour’s patriotism by posting an interview from 2005 where Starmer mentions his opposition to the monarchy. More attacks will follow.
The problem for patriotism’s critics is that hostility to your country looks to be incompatible with winning elections. When Tony Blair walked into Downing Street in 1997, Labour staffers greeted him while holding little Union Jacks. The same year New Labour was linked with Cool Britannia and the Britpop movement. Such trends coincide.
Polls also indicate most Britons like being British, despite Brexit sharpening distinctions between the citizens of somewhere and nowhere. The takeaway for Labour is that if a job requires you to stand in front of the flag, it helps to like what it represents. But they already know that.
Out of ideas. One attempt to make patriotism more palatable is to recast the United Kingdom as an ‘idea state’ as opposed to a ‘nation state’, reflecting American thinking in the British worldview. Although the distinction is not binary, this strikes me as mostly rubbish.
Fringe concern. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Although in its heyday it challenged Labour as the natural party of opposition, the group has mostly been a case study in the difficulties of usurping Britain’s political duopoly.
Cruel to be kind. Demands on our kindness and other nice emotions have been a consistent feature of the lockdown, and increasingly prevalent throughout politics. Sarah Ditum has written a thorough rebuttal of such demands, which I’ve followed with my own more petulant objections.
If you’re reading this you’ve survived the most depressing month of the year – though it has lately been hard to tell them apart. Should you wish to make the next 11 more bearable for your acquaintances, please forward this email on.
Jimmy