ABSTRACT
‘The ethical basis of socialism is the only one that has stood the test of time’, argued Tony Blair in 1995. 1 The emergence of New Labour has been characterised by two rhetorical moves found in this utterance. To begin, social democracy is equated primarily with moral values as opposed to public policies. Next, the relevant values are held up as the enduring core of social democracy so defined. An interpretive approach suggests that these rhetorical moves are contingent, historical acts. A survey of Labour Party Members of Parliament in 1906 found that the authors and books that had influenced them most were John Ruskin, The Bible, Charles Dickens, Henry George, and Thomas Carlyle. By 1962 these influences had changed to George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, G. D. H. Cole, and Karl Marx, a list indicating a more economic and less religious outlook. The direction of change continued through 1975, when Marx topped the list, followed by R. H. Tawney, Shaw, Nye Bevan, and Wells. Then a survey in 1994 indicated a return to religious and ethical influences. Robert Tressell’s, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist was mentioned by 20 per cent of respondents, after which there came Tawney, The Bible, Marx, and John Steinbeck, with George Orwell making a first appearance. As the commentary on this last survey observed, ‘some notion of a new ethical socialism is clearly the answer that an increasing number of Labour MPs have begun to turn to in response to the political malaise of the left in the late 20th century’. 2
