Covenant: The New Politics of Home, Neighbourhood and Nation

by Danny Kruger

Contemporary conservatism can easily be seen as a hollowed-out creed. Combining heartless free-market individualism with an unthinking social liberalism – or else simple authoritarian populism - it offers little to those whose sense of meaning is securely rooted in their families, communities and country.

In Covenant, Danny Kruger, one of parliament's leading thinkers, argues that we must restore the sources of virtue and belonging that underpin the good life. Our urgent task is to repair the covenantal relationships of love and partnership that our families, local communities and ultimately our country depend on. We must, he contends, go beyond a politics based purely on individual autonomy, social atomisation and self-worship. By examining the most fundamental questions of love, sex, life and death, ranging from marriage to assisted dying, Kruger charts a course towards a conservatism that can respond humanely and wisely to the social, environmental and economic crises that face us.

This riposte to both liberal orthodoxy and the authoritarian right is unmissable for anyone interested in British politics. It's a key contribution to the debate on how the Conservative Party can respond to its current crisis.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

149 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2023

About the author

Danny Kruger is a writer and politician, currently serving as the British Conservative Party’s Member of Parliament for Devizes in Wiltshire since 2019. Before this, he was a speechwriter for former Prime Minister David Cameron, a columnist and writer for The Daily Telegraph, and was employed by the centre-right think-tank Centre for Policy Studies, among other roles including co-founding the charity Only Connect, a youth crime prevention charity. He was born to South African parents in London, educated at Eton, and received his doctorate in history from the University of Oxford in 2000.

Reviews

[ROL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly disappointing. The author has some really interesting points to make, and I can't really say that I disagree with most of the book, but the approach is a mile wide and an inch deep.

As a result, there aren't really any actionable takeaways from the book and in parts it reads as wistful longing after a utopia, rather than a manifesto for political action.

Perhaps more space or deeper focus would have helped, but even so this is a really thought provoking book coming from a political party which has otherwise run out of ideas.

[Alex Hobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this take on where society has gone wrong. So much resonated. Not a facile “back to the good old days” approach, but an inspiring sense of what we’ve lost in terms of responsibility for one another. A really good analysis of the costs of expecting the state to do everything. But it leaves us with the question of how exactly to change all this. How is it possible to reinvigorate civil society and the “little platoons”. Or is it too late?

[Cal Davie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of this was relatively decent, he gives an account of conservative values which I find largely agreeable. But delving into practicalities it was beyond nonsensical. Danny definitely missed that pragmatism is a key ingredient in the conservative cocktail.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important book of only 144 pages, dealing with some fundamental issues. However, I struggled to read it as the language is somewhat that of a history graduate and doesn’t flow well. It needs an editor to knock it into shape, and reduce the introduction to a reasonable size, from 20% of the total book. This book is too important to leave in its current state. I would give it 5 stars if it was well edited.

Kruger deals with “The Idea and the Order”.

“The Order was the arrangement of society around a common conception of the way to live, and around the practices of common worship. ..the Order organised the life of the individual to be ‘other-facing’: it stipulated and ensured that you lived for other people. My sense of myself derived from people other than me, with whom I was linked by the ties of love, service and dependence.”

“The Order has given way to an idea, whose authority is the new power in our lives. ‘The Idea’ is simply this: that there exists autonomous agents, called individuals, who both self-determine and self-moralise. ...and they decide for themselves what is right and wrong.”

He goes on to describe the many problems that our society has. He suggests a “covenantal economy”, which should exist in ‘a place’ not in some abstract like ‘the city’. He finishes with a hopeful note on how this can all be changed for a better country, but in rather abstract terms.

[cypher · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's useful as a perspective, but it felt very manipulative...i guess it depends on who you support.
i need to be honest, i did not know who the author was before i randomly saw the book on a shelf, and i only managed to get through about 50% of it, since it was not mine and i only had access to it for a couple of days, so it will remain a DNF for me...i decided to just finally write the review, since every time i looked for a copy of it in the shops, i could not find one...so i'll blame this on the universe, but i would have finished it otherwise.

[Ben Hegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A coherent, well thought through book. Idealistic yes but also realistic I think. As a self confessed skeptic, I'm not sure if we'll see the kind of society that this book envisages anytime soon. Having said that, I really appreciated this first class book and it has deepened my appreciation for its author. We need more Members of Parliament like Danny, who are deeply thought through and can present a vision like this in an engaging manner. Highly recommended.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

very prescient review of the state of play of our society. Kruger suggests that Hobbes' social contract should be replaced with a sense of tradition, stewardship and responsibility through a social covenant through marriage, community and nationhood. the UK seems to be waking up to this need. interesting that he parallels the thinking of Iain McGilchrist and the need to escape the over technocratic world we have created and to let the right aspect of the brain return and flourish.

[Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a convincing analysis... There are better books (some of them referred to in the footnotes) explaining the way the UK has become more secular in the last 50 years and the effects this is having. Can you really expect people who abandon Christian orthodoxy to comply with Christianity's call to self sacrifice? I don't think so but Kruger seems to.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleased that this did not argue for a society like 'the good old days' and instead offered alternative ideas. Some I agreed with, some I would question however sadly none could be explored in any depth in such a concise book. Overall slightly disappointing

[James Kellahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d vote for him.