UK politics | More senior Conservatives have hit out at Suella Braverman’s “racist rhetoric”, accusing her of undermining the party for the sake of her own leadership ambitions. A former senior minister from Boris Johnson’s government told the Guardian they believed Braverman was a “real racist bigot”. Hassan also criticised the book' failure include even a single sentence on Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland: "Goodwin, it turns out, is not really talking about “British politics” on populism. Rather he is talking about English populism. Critically and unstated, Goodwin poses this English populism as speaking for and representing Britain, without once noting the fissures and tensions that brings forth." [15] Both these books opened my world view to an entirely different way of thinking, helping me not just to understand the patriotic/populist argument but (to my amazement) find myself agreeing with large portions of it. The national, public funded broadcaster the BBC is experiencing record levels of distrust. At a time when Britain could be said to be one of the most tolerant countries in the most tolerant era of western history (discrimination by most metrics is at an all time low) a manic agenda is being pushed on the public. 60% live in fear of contravening the latest speech codes and see “political correctness” as undermining their free speech. The analysis was clear, underpinned by sufficient statistics to support the analysis. Further forward looking projections would have enhanced my enjoyment.

Values, Voice and Virtue - Penguin Books Australia Values, Voice and Virtue - Penguin Books Australia

That isn't an issue in itself, obviously. My own politics are pretty similar to his in many respects. But he lets them into his work, making the book less effective as an argument. Funnily enough, he mentions 'confirmation bias' in his introduction and this is exactly what happens in this book. In my new book, I refer to these divides as values, voice and virtue, and argue that whichever party gets on the right side of them will dominate British politics in the years ahead. Matthew Goodwin, acclaimed political scientist and co-author of National Populism, shows that the reason is not economic hardship, personalities or dark money. I have never fully understood what Brexit was about, i.e., why it caught the attention of British voters when it did, why it was such a polarizing issue in 2016 when ten years earlier it had not been forefront in the minds of British voters, and what the British national dialogue has really been talking about when they say they are talking about Brexit. I have thought about MAGA in the same context, i.e., why did it happen when it did? What does it say about the United States that Trump was able to capture some component of the American population that he probably would have not been able to do a decade earlier? That there are such echoes across the decades should not surprise us. The image of a distinct, new elite, defined by its education and values, and standing over the common people, has a long history, popping up throughout the 20th century. The roots of the contemporary debate about the new elite lie in the 1970s. The late Barbara Ehrenreich published with her husband, John, an essay in 1977 in which they coined the term “ professional-managerial class” (PMC). There had developed, they argued, a new class of college-educated professionals, from engineers and middle managers to social workers and culture producers, that was distinct from the middle class of old but essential to the functioning of capitalism. The Ehrenreichs were hopeful that this class could be mobilised for progressive causes. They warned, however, that it could also give rise to “what may at first sight seem to be a contradiction in terms: anti-working class radicalism”.A] cleavage around cultural rather than economic issues is, according to Goodwin, what drives “the new British politics”. If the political right wishes to win a large share of votes from these people, it needs to emphasise issues relating to immigration and the culture wars - rather than make the mistake of Trussonomics in thinking that we can return to Thatcherism. While the author recognises that some of Mrs Thatcher's reforms were good and necessary, the key fault of Thatcherism is that it prioritises the market over the country, which, in turn, creates the conditions for greater globalization and feeds the demand for mass immigration. Figures such as Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson were able to appeal to this constituency by emphasising issues such as national sovereignty, limiting immigration, and levelling-up parts of the country outside of London. This point ought not to be lost. Although the progressives are certain of their correctness, they have failed to persuade many of their fellow citizens. This closes the democratic avenue to change because few people would vote for their agenda. Instead, the progressives rely on increasingly autocratic means. The DRS in Scotland, the brainchild of the governing Green Party, is a case in point. But just as new scrutiny has been applied to that rarified economic class, others have argued that other kinds of elite wield power of their own. One influential broad definition, from the American sociologist Shamus Khan: elites are anyone who has “vastly disproportionate control over or access to a resource”. The fundamental thrust of Goodwin's argument is right ... a new centre ground of British politics is being formed - even if both parties have yet to fully comprehend it' The TimesWhat has caused the recent seismic changes in British politics, including Brexit and a series of populist revolts against the elite?

Values, Voice and Virtue By Matthew Goodwin | Used - Wob Values, Voice and Virtue By Matthew Goodwin | Used - Wob

And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until Monday. A key area in which the British public feel unheard is on immigration, the main driver of UK population growth. Against the wishes of voters the UK population is predicted to hit 72 million if immigration continues as predicted, equivalent to adding five new cities of Birmingham. The ramifications on culture, green spaces, housing, the NHS, traffic, agricultural capacity, water resources etc are obviously huge. Now, what Evans and Tilley say here is very interesting but the elisions of context made by Goodwin as well as his own contextualisation and obfuscating citation, mean a very misleading use of their work. This is just an example of the way he argues and cites. It's not academic (perhaps that's too new elite?) but it's also incompetent. It's what you'd expect from a lazy first year student at university, rushing out an essay. Not some leading academic, modern political philosopher.Other reviewers have pointed out that education has been used as a differentiator for the elite for hundreds of years yet Goodwin identifies university education as the main marker of this new elite. The old Britain used to be run by the toffs but the significance of this new elite is that they are, well, toffs. And over the past decade, many of these voters have felt pushed away from Labour by their growing awareness of the third big divide over virtue, how some institutions and activists today have simply come to see some groups in British society as more virtuous, more morally worthy, than others.