Prog rocks?

Rick Wakeman: Progressive and a Conservative

If you still associate the word "progressive" with "prog rock" - all 20 minute keyboard solos and long-haired men in capes - then you probably haven't been paying attention to the news much lately.

Progressive is everywhere.

As he faced his final hours in Downing Street, it seems Gordon Brown tried to reach out to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as a fellow "progressive".

"I have studied history," the former prime minister is said to have intoned.

"I know that the future of our country is a progressive alliance between two progressive political parties."

Mr Clegg agreed - but, unfortunately for Mr Brown, it was the Conservatives, traditionally seen as anything but progressive, that he formed the "progressive alliance" with.

Explaining his logic, in a speech on Wednesday, he claimed Labour were now "old progressives", while the Lib Dem/Conservative coalition were "new progressives".

David Cameron, meanwhile, has been busy rebranding himself as a "progressive Conservative" since well before the general election.

So what is going on? Why are British politicians from all sides so keen to be seen as progressive (it is a different story in America, where the right tend to use "progressive" inter-changeably with "liberal" as a term of abuse)

And what exactly does it mean?

It does not help that there are two separate, but related, meanings in circulation for the same word.

When applied to taxation, progressive simply means hurting the rich more than the poor by taking a progressively bigger slice of their earnings.

For days after the government's spending review, debate raged over whether the cuts to public services and welfare payments were "progressive" or not.

Coalition ministers were keen for their policies to be seen as progressive because it made them seem kinder and not bent on wiping out jobs and services for the fun of it.

They want to be seen as - to use another increasingly worn-out political buzz word - "fair".

The other meaning of "progressive" is harder to define.

It is often used as shorthand for a vaguely left-wing way of looking at the world, even though those who describe themselves as "progressives" insist it is not an exclusively left wing club.

The first progressive movement emerged before the First World War, when followers of the philosopher Hegel promoted the idea of history as progress out of ignorance and division towards peace and prosperity.

But the term began to gain currency again in British politics during the Blair years - when many Labour politicians felt uncomfortable about describing themselves as "socialists" or even "left-wing".

These progressives tend to see themselves as people who believe in reform, in changing society for the better, as opposed to conservatives, who they believe want to keep things the same or even turn the clock back.

They are socially liberal - favouring more rights for women, gay people and minorities. They believe in "modernisation" and technological progress. They also believe in the redistribution of wealth.

But a new breed of liberal and conservative thinkers is challenging this - much to the irritation of the traditional keepers of the progressive flame on the left.

It is getting pretty heated out there.

Former Lib Dem media chief Mark Littlewood, who now runs the free market think tank The Institute of Economic Affairs, argues that "progressive taxation" is quite separate from being a "progressive".

He is evangelical about low taxes for all - including the rich - and reducing the power of the state.

Pressed for a definition of what "progressive" means to him, Mr Littlewood, who briefly ran a think tank called Progressive Vision, said: "Support for reform and modernisation, a cynicism about entrenched institutions and an open mindedness about changing those institutions - and a belief that new technologies are beneficial to mankind, if they are properly harnessed."

David Cameron has latched on to the word, he adds, because "it smacks of modest, moderate modernisation, not particularly of the radical right - a counterbalance to the word conservative".

One of Mr Cameron's favourite think tanks, ResPublica, says redistribution of income can play a part in being progressive but adds: "A more robust view includes functioning communities, social networks, civic groups, families and other institutions amongst the proper means and ends of progress."

But the idea that you can describe yourself as "progressive" without backing progressive taxation is met with ridicule by Labour supporters.

Richard Angell, of Blairite think tank Progress, says it is not necessary to be left-wing to be a progressive but you do have to believe in wealth redistribution - as well as a basket of other causes such as electoral reform, gay rights and more rights for women, on which he claims Mr Cameron does not measure up.

Asked for his definition of "progressive," he says it is a "combination of fairness, equality, democracy and modernity".

Mr Cameron, he argues, only passes one of those tests: "He doesn't look like a traditional Tory, so in that sense he is modern."

He adds: "They (Cameron's Conservatives) are desperate to try and get on New Labour's territory. They want the centre ground for themselves and they know that the British public are more progressive than just about anybody in the Conservative Party."

When he made a speech in January on "progressive conservatism", Mr Cameron said he shared the same "progressive" goals as Labour and the Lib Dems to build the "good society" and the "good life" - but he wanted to use "conservative" means, such as shrinking the state and handing power to individuals, to achieve them.

“I prefer the word progressive (to liberal), which has a real American meaning, going back to the progressive era at the beginning of the 20th century”

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, speaking in 2007

Nick Clegg has yet to describe himself as a "progressive conservative" but his definition of what it means to be a "new progressive" sounds suspiciously familiar.

Old progressives, he argued in a speech on Wednesday, "emphasise the power and spending of the central state", while new progressives "focus on the power and freedom of citizens".

Labour and its new leader Ed Miliband he argued, risk becoming the "new conservatives of British politics" as they obsess over income tax distribution, while ignoring the wider social picture, such as access to good public services and life chances.

"For old progressives, reducing snapshot income inequality is the ultimate goal. For new progressives, reducing the barrier to social mobility is," said Mr Clegg.

But the real mark of a "new progressive", he added, was that they believe in coalition governments.

And that, ultimately, is the problem with a word with no fixed meaning - it can be made to mean anything you want.

As Mr Clegg's former Lib Dem colleague, Mark Littlewood, says "progressive" is an example of the "rather vacuous language that has infected modern politics" and "it begs as many questions as it answers".

But if all this has left you yearning for a simpler time when "progressive" really did just mean a long-winded form of rock music, even that movement was not quite the anti-materialistic, hippy enclave that it seemed.

"Touring with Yes was generally great fun and I got on well with the rest of the guys but we were like chalk and cheese in many respects," prog rock keyboard legend Rick Wakeman recently revealed.

"I was unique in the band as a card-carrying Conservative."

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