{jcomments on}It appears that Maurice Glasman - Lord Stoke Newington - is in danger of turning to the right in his ideological view of the world. In the most recent New Statesman (a once fine magazine and now increasingly boring and Westminster-centric), he considers Edmund Burke, the intellectual father of modern conservatism, and by extension of England's one-nation Tories, who are gradually withering away under Cameron's self-seeking bunch of bank-loving Etonian apologists.

Glasman writes approvingly of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France 'in its rejection of revolution as a violation of tradition and its defence of institutions as a facilitator of virtue.' This book was written in 1790, and therefore it is difficult to apply Burke's views to Lenin's Russia, Mao's China, Castro's Cuba and Vietnam's post-US rebirth, or to these 'revolutions' under way in the Arab World, and particularly Libya (which, incidentally, appears to have disappeared from today's UK broadsheets). These most recent uprisings are approved by our government and are most certainly a 'violation of tradition', a tradition of crushing of dissent, murdering of the opposition, filling the pockets of the wealthy (and soon to fill the pockets of Western oil and construction companies). How about praising the virtues of Romania's crushing of the Ceausescu regime and Iran's overthrowing of the Shah, with plenty more besides. And what's going on in Chile at the moment (no reporting in our newspapers). What sort of 'virtuous traditions' did they violate? Again, Burke's 'defence of institutions' Does this include the big banks, the church, the Royal Family, public schools and all the rest of our 'traditional values'? More to follow from Glasman. He argues for 'a democracy that could renew the ancient institutions of the realm'. This reads more and more like some Tory, 'Daily Mail'-reading saloon bar bore.

Burke's book is an interesting read, if a bit turgid and something of a period piece, but let's not forget he was writing essentially about the overthrow of the monarchy, particularly in France. The Stoke Newington connection here is again of interest, in that Burke's book was a response to Dr Richard Price, then minister of the Newington Green Unitarian Church, who took a vigorously positive view of the French Revolution and argued in writing that he approved of the events in France.

So, over two hundred years, we have regressed politically in the views of our Stoke Newington spokespersons. I suggest that we replace Glasman in the House of Lords with an empty seat, that of the ghost of Richard Price who, if he could speak, would bring a more compassionate and sensible voice to the Chamber.

By Rab MacWilliam