anthony painter

The obvious take on the latest British Social Attitudes is that Britain is becoming more socially liberal. But as we become more tolerant of life choices – homosexual relationships and cohabitation – we seem less tolerant of attempts by the state to help those in hardship.
 
So does this amount to a newly economically and socially liberal Britain? The anti-state Right will try to see it that way. But they would be sorely mistaken to do so. Half of people see tax and spending levels as about right: a warning to anyone who is looking to take an axe rather than a scalpel to public spending. This is not a spontaneous emergence of new Thatcherite consensus (without the petit bourgeois Grantham moralism.) So where does it leave the Left?
 
Over a decade of a Labour government has had a dynamic impact on attitudes in modern Britain. In part, the party was responding to shifts in social attitudes that are taking place largely independent of politics. But political leadership also shapes attitudes. Let’s not dismiss the impact that socially liberal legislation- such as the Civil Partnerships Act 2004- has had on the moving the liberal curve further and faster.
 
It is the attitudes towards welfare that are, on first glance, more concerning. In a society where 2.9 million children still live in poverty there still major injustices to be addressed. Yet it is clear that an abstract appeal to equality and poverty, combined with a sometimes mechanistic argument about redistribution, has limited political purchase. Read more...