Phillip Blond's "ResPublica" think tank and Radical Orthodoxy

One of the hundreds of people who participated in events organized by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) is Phillip Blond.

Those living in the UK may by now be familiar with that name. In 2007, when Phillip gave a presentation in the Section "Political Theology as Political Theory" that I organized and chaired at the Fourth General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), he was but a lowly Senior Lecturer in theology and philosophy at what had only just become the University of Cumbria.

Phillip also participated in the Second Annual International Symposium of SCIS on "The Resurgence of Political Theology". Both events took place in September 2007 in Pisa, Italy.

Then, Phillip worried about how he was going to continue paying his mortgage on a meagre academic salary and he and his frequent collaborator and journalistic co-author, Adrian Pabst, talked about starting an online newspaper. This year, Phillip has been hailed as Tory leader (and possible prime minister come May 2010) David Cameron's "philosopher king", and been able to raise 1.5 million pounds to launch his own think tank, called (rather unimaginatively) "ResPublica":

www.respublica.org.uk

ResPublica was launched on 26 November in the presence of Cameron, but the financial backers behind it remain anonymous. It stands to reason, though, that they are in support of the ideas associated with what Phillip calls "Red Toryism". Already in Pisa, if memory serves correctly, he carried notes toward the manuscript of a book on this subject in his bag, but only in February 2009 he published an article outlining his ideas in the magazine "Prospect".

The book, "Red Tory", will not be published until April 2010 – and I should not be surprised if it won't be published at all before the UK general elections likely to take place in May 2010. (After all, Phillip's only previous monograph, "Eyes of Faith", was scheduled for publication in 2006 and has still not been released.)

Faber and Faber, who are to publish "Red Tory", have meanwhile issued a book description: "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 [of] 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."

There is a lot of hype. And that alone should give reason to be wary. As an academic, in Pisa, I found Phillip both unimpressive and unprepared. In fact, I am still waiting to receive the full text of the paper he was accepted to be giving and which I should have got prior to the conference. Phillip turned up with nothing but notes and extrapolated from those. Of the two, I always found Adrian Pabst, also a participant in Pisa (and in 2008 in a panel on "Comparative Political Theology" I organized at the Second Global International Studies Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia), intellectually sounder and more stimulating.

Of course, David Cameron, on becoming leader of the Tories, had as little to offer in terms of his CV as Phillip has now. It all seems to be more about connections and being at the right place at the right moment with the right set of vague ideas and attitudes. Does anyone know what Cameron stands for after having been Tory leader for four years? It is hard to believe – though of course entirely in the nature of democracy – that the UK electorate would fall for a David Cameron after having rid themselves of the vacuum that was Tony Blair.

"Red Toryism" may be in 2010 what "New Labour" was in the late 1990s. Red Toryism is an ideology that came to bloom in the financial crisis, when all former boundaries between left and right, economy and state became finally blurred, and it was helped by the blurring that economy-friendly New Labour had done earlier. In fact, Red Toryism is not imaginable without New Labour preceding it.

Both Adrian Pabst (University of Nottingham) and Phillip Blond, along with Graham Ward (University of Manchester), represented the Anglican Radical Orthodoxy movement in Pisa. Radical Orthodoxy set out, hardly ten years ago, from Cambridge's Peterhouse College to renew the Church of England. Already the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and head of the Anglican community, Rowan Williams, is said to be an adherent of Radical Orthodoxy. And now the movement has gained influence over Tory policy and the likely next prime minister.

Of course, the ResPublica website does not openly refer to Radical Orthodoxy, and Phillip is not saying much about it in his interviews. The only clear reference to it is that John Milbank (University of Nottingham), "founder of the Radical Orthodoxy Movement" and Phillip's PhD supervisor (and himself a student of Williams), is listed as a Fellow of ResPublica. Radical-orthodox political theology has a chance to become for the UK what black liberation theology arguably has become under Barack Obama in the US.

One reason why the influence of Radical Orthodoxy on Red Toryism may be downplayed is the confusion of religious identity that embroils Radical Orthodoxy. While Phillip converted as an adult from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism, one gets the impression that the Radical Orthodox consider themselves to be Catholics within the Church of England (in the "High Church" or "Anglo-Catholic" tradition). They are the very people, it would seem, the Vatican now wants to attract into its fold by offering them a separate structure within the Roman Catholic Church. Radical Orthodoxy, however, rather aims at "taking over" the Church of England. Either way, such Catholic sympathies remain suspicious in the UK, as Tony Blair demonstrated when converting to Catholicism only after having left public office.

Papers not written, books not published ... Philipp continues to work from notes. While there are many introductions to Radical Orthodoxy, all anyone knows about Red Toryism is still schematic, a fragment. It may remain so until after the UK general elections, and afterwards Phillip may be too busy to actually write the book. On the other hand, his think tank now provides him with people who may well write it for him. Very little about Tory policy is worked out and now Cameron got Phillip to work it out for him. Very little about Red Toryism is worked out and now Phillip got others to work it out for him ...

May we hope that the book (maybe helped by others) will clarify at least some of the confusion ResPublica and Phillip's writings still show? For instance, is he now against capitalism, or for capitalism – as his "mutualism" concept seems to be an extension of capitalism to the public sector (much as "New Public Management" extended New Labour's economy-friendliness to the public sector with public-private partnerships, etc.): as I understand it, public sector employees are to get shares in mutually-owned public service-providing companies, giving employees more control. But will that not mean that managers of such entities will be under less control from above and from the public?

Phillip's stepbrother is the current incarnation of James Bond, the actor Daniel Craig – already in Her Majesty's (Secret) Service. As Phillip may turn out to be soon.

Or then, his fall may be as quick as his unlikely rise.