We all turn left

British politicians, commentators and the public like to believe in their sturdy autonomy. We have arrived at our decisions as freeborn men and women. We debate our ideas furiously in pubs, on radio phone-ins or via letters to the editor. We read the opinion pages. We elect a sovereign parliament that passes the laws and regulations that we mandate. The truth is more subtle. We dance to another country8217;s tune. It is the United States that makes the political, cultural and intellectual weather. It is the rich American institutes that develop ideas8230; Which is why the election of Barack Obama matters so much. In the tidal wave of tears of joy, analysis of county by county results, the 8220;were you awake to hear the speech8221; conversations, naming the puppy and the critiques of Michelle8217;s wardrobe8230; one thing has been underplayed. Obama8217;s success will transform British politics. The centre ground will move significantly to the left.

No account of the rise of Thatcherism or the character of new Labour is possible without acknowledging the force and impact of the 30-year ascendancy of American neoconservatism8230; No country 8211; from communist China to the Nordic social democracies 8211; held out8230;It went very deep. Editors of the top US social science journals published articles in this idiom because they had secured their jobs by conforming to it; ambitious British academics soon learned what was accepted and what was not. Young British investment bankers training in New York learned about the value of securitisation. Treasury officials on secondment to Washington bought into the consensus that privatisation and deregulation were the only ways forward. From social policy to 8220;light touch8221; financial regulation, and from a belief in labour market flexibility to distrust of public service broadcasting, the cultural and intellectual backdrop was conservative. Obama8217;s election ends that. American conservatism is now in profound disarray.

Here is a checklist of areas where the discourse is going to move left 8211; intelligently and moderately because that is part of the Obama DNA. Firstly, trade unionism8230; I have found it odd to have been pro-BBC, pro-multilateralist Europe, pro-moderate trade unions, a City of London sceptic, pro-public service, pro-fairness and pro-redistribution for more years than I can remember. Now the leader of the world8217;s hegemonic power, in control of its political, intellectual and cultural levers, is making this cluster of views the mainstream.

From a comment by Will Hutton in the 8216;New Statesman8217;