Book Review: Patrick Diamond, The Crosland Legacy: The Future of British Social Democracy
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Author | Ben Whisker |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917713458 |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsBritain and Ireland |
Book Reviews 659
Equivocal, reticent and hesitant. These terms
capture Geoffrey Bell’s interpretation of the
British labour movement’s approach and atti-
tude to the Irish Revolution (1916–1921). The
opening chapters give an overview of the ‘Irish
Question’ and positions of organized labour,
the Labour Party, and the wider socialist left
prior to the Easter Rising. They also cover the
broader context of the First World War and the
Russian Revolution.
What follows is a detailed account of
the hesitance of the British labour movement,
be that in the form of the Labour Party,
the Independent Labour Party (ILP), the
Communist Party of Great Britain, trade
unionists, workers or Fabians. British labour’s
reticence in negotiating the changing tide of
debate over Home Rule or unconditional self-
determination, its limited comprehension of the
‘Ulster Question’, and its failure to provide
consistent and unequivocal support for the
Irish working classes under British rule is laid
bare. As is the theoretical conundrum facing
socialists brought about by the spectre of
nationalism. Less explicitly, Bell uncovers the
high degree of discontinuity within the British
labour movement as it flirted back and forth
over support for Home Rule, (un)qualified self-
determination or outright opposition to the
Irish cause.
A substantial body of documentary evidence
has been compiled which supports this overarch-
ing conclusion. To arrive at this position, Bell
carries out an in-depth content analysis, consist-
ing primarily of newspapers sourced from the
subgroups of the British labour movement. The
strength of this material rests in its ability to
elucidate the opinions and policy preferences
regarding Ireland of the leadership and press edi-
tors of the labour movement’s constituent parts.
Where this same evidence struggles is in provid-
ing compelling arguments around the thoughts
of individual workers or members, particularly
those outside the ILP. Additionally, save for a
handful of references, little is said of the role of
religious sectarianism in shaping the response to
the ‘Irish Question’ and whether – if indeed it did
lead to further hesitation – this was evenly spread
across the labour movement’s many parts.
The opinion of the author shines through as
one critical of the British labour movement for
its lacklustre support of the Irish cause, and
with the evidence amassed it is difficult to
refute this stance. The book’s length and the
absence of verbose or theoretical language
make Hesitant Comrades highly accessible to
anyone interested in this period of Anglo-Irish,
and indeed labour, history.
Scott Rawlinson
(University of East Anglia)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917714959
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
The Crosland Legacy: The Future of British
Social Democracy by Patrick Diamond.
Bristol: Policy Press, 2016. 425pp., £19.99 (p/b),
ISBN 9781447324737
Starting from the premise that debates about
social democracy in Britain have not moved
beyond Anthony Crosland’s writings, Patrick
Diamond seeks to explain the continuing rele-
vance of Crosland’s ideas. Diamond’s focus is
to evaluate Crosland’s impact on Labour’s
ideological direction, as opposed to discussing
Crosland’s contributions to socialist theory in
the abstract.
Diamond acknowledges that a lack of clar-
ity in Crosland’s conception of equality left a
vacuum in Labour thought which remains
unresolved. Diamond not only recognises
that Crosland was unduly optimistic about
socioeconomic trends but also suggests that
Crosland was too accepting of the Labour
movement’s traditions.
Yet Diamond contends that Crosland inte-
grated his emphasis on equality with strong sup-
port for freedom as understood in the New
Liberal tradition and that this created the ethical
foundations of post-war social democracy. In
pursuing this argument, Diamond analyses
Crosland’s approach to equality, positive liberty,
electoral strategy, and competing European and
American influences in turn. He then discusses
the relationship between Crosland’s ideas and
different efforts to revive Labour’s fortunes.
This study will be useful for scholars interested
in the history of the Labour Party. However, the
work is also explicitly aimed at a wider array of
political activists and thinkers contemplating
the challenges facing the British left today.
While carefully distinguishing between how
Crosland’s ideas have been received during
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