Blond, Hobsbawm but not Glasman

Better than any of the election debates on TV by far – Phillip ‘Red Tory’ Blond, Julia Hobsbawm and others at the Royal Festival Hall this evening.  Only wished Maurice Glasman, whom I first met at St Ethelburga’s years ago, was also there.  The left-right way of looking at politics seemed inadequate and all were agreed that the role of civil society (Blond talked about faith communities – hadn’t realised he was an Anglican theologian) was crucial.  He is happy that his ideas have underpinned much of the thinking in the Conservative manifesto; Hobsbawm wonders who has time to go to PTA meetings, let alone start up a school.  The Guardian had a piece on how the Big Society or John Lewis-style local government was, or wasn’t, going to work out in practice.  Hobsbawm was also good on mentoring=nepotism; I’d say the same for internships.  It’s election night, so I’ll be following the results until dawn, I expect.