Tony Blair’s former political secretary claims there is “no such thing as British nationalism”, but New Labour was in reality itself a radical British nationalist movement.

Thread 1/x https://twitter.com/johnmcternan/status/540566140582658049

In 1995 Tony Blair argued that, “People want to be proud of Britain, but they have lost confidence. They want us to be strong, but they sense we are losing an old identity without finding or developing a new one.” 2/x

Blair’s solution was to turn the UK into what he called ‘a new nation-state’: “A new Britain for a new world. Britain as one nation. Britain as a young country again.” 3/x

In his 1995 party conference speech, Blair set out his vision to make Britain “a great country *again*”. (Nationalist populism didn’t begin in 2016.) 4/x

Blair (1995): “Feel New Britain come alive! Feel the vitality than can course through this country’s veins and make it young again!” 5/x

The following year, Blair looked forward to Downing Street in a speech that described the Labour Party as the political arm of the British people: “There will be just one thousand days until the new millennium. A thousand days to prepare for a thousand years!” 6/x

To Blair, devolution was a question of British unity: “To us, devolution is essential if the unity of Britain is to be maintained and strengthened… Let me be absolutely clear about one thing. I would never agree to anything which threatened to break up the United Kingdom.” 7/x

Blair: “People can be British and Scottish, or British and Welsh. They can even be British and feel a close identity with the North-East or with London.”

The North-East of where? The elephant in the room was Englishness. 8/x

Englishness was a stick to beat the Tories. He accused them of being a “Little Englander” party, which he contrasted with his own vision of Britain asserting a strong role in world affairs, echoing the insults directed at anti-imperialists during the Boer War. 9/x

To Blair, Europe was just about adding ballast to Britain’s global role: “Britain’s historical role has lain in its unique ability to be a global player… Once we could project our global role through our empire. Now we should exercise it through Europe.” 10/x

Blair believed that the relationship with the US was crucial to having influence in Europe: “It is only if we have a new, strong, post-Cold War relationship with the US that we will have the same degree of influence in Europe.” 11/x

Blair (1996): “The UK will always be the country the US turns to when it needs military support. The relationship between Britain and the US […] must play a crucial role in binding together Europe and America.” 12/x

Blair’s militarism was already apparent at this stage. After his election, he said he wanted to make Britain “pivotal” in the world and “to use the superb reputation of our armed forces, not just for defence, but as an instrument of influence.” 13/x

By 1999, Blair held a position of unassailable power, but he saw enemies everywhere in the form of “the forces of conservatism” who stood in the way of his vision to “renew British strength”. 14/x

The list of “the forces of conservatism” was long: the Tories, Old Labour, the separatists, the elite, the establishment, the critics. Shamefully, he implicated their beliefs in the murder of Martin Luther King and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. 15/x

(NB: The above clip contains three separate excerpts from the speech.)

Blair concluded his 1999 speech with a messianic call to ‘set our people free’: “To every nation a purpose. To every party a cause. And now, at last, party and nation joined in the same cause for the same purpose: to set our people free!” 16/x

To Blair, anything opposed to his vision of making Britain great again was an obstacle to be crushed. The failure of his political project is not just a failure of liberal imperialism but of British nationalism: the UK is not a nation-state, let alone a new one. 17/x

Any attempt to build a progressive politics that disregards English nationhood will ultimately fail in the same way. The Labour Party needs to deal with its problem with British nationalism. 18/18 https://twitter.com/EnglandInEurope/status/1255183172477825025