About the Author

Phillip Blond is a political thinker, writer and journalist. He was senior lecturer in theology and philosophy at the University of Cumbria until he left to take up a career in politics and public policy. He founded and now directs the think-tank ResPublica. He writes for the Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, the Daily Mail, the Independent and the Sunday Times. He appears regularly on the BBC.

Review

'An essential pre-election read.' --GQ Magazine

'Such is the bland predictability of British politics, the territory of managerialised soundbite, that the appetite continues for Blond's intellectual equivalent of a firework display.' --Madeleine Bunting, Guardian

'His thesis makes a potent read as he tracks the history of our modern complacent society, its will crushed between markets and state. It makes sense of Cameron's mantra that there is such a thing as society, it's just not the same as the state.' --Benedict Brogan, Daily Telegraph

Book Description

Set to be the most controversial, hotly debated and provocative political book of 2010

Product 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 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.