Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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The analysis was clear, underpinned by sufficient statistics to support the analysis. Further forward looking projections would have enhanced my enjoyment. Many are unlikely to trust again in the two party system that offers very little in terms of true democratic alternatives. Goodwin concludes by expressing his frustrations with Boris Johnson’s wasted time in power. His personal failings around Partygate and the subsequent neoliberalism of Liz Truss leave him bemused.

Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics by Matthew Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics by Matthew

These ‘hyper-globalists’ have lost touch with the electorate they purport to represent and cater to. The values from unfashionable non-urban regions are undesirable and excluded in the voice of institutions such as academia, media, creative cultural institutions. Virtues of certain groups are upheld as desirable, honourable and rewarded with high status while others are slammed as ignorant ‘Karens and Gammons.’ update - a brief bit of Googling reveals that at least a part of the ‘what’s happened’ bit is: he’s aligned now with Toby Young’s Free Speech Union, the very existence of which makes me want to combust with embarrassment. I found this to be a fascinating and determinedly objective analysis of the changing political alignments in Britain today. It examines the widening gulf between the ‘new elite (typically liberal progressive graduates with left leaning views)that runs the country and its institutions and the ‘Traditionalist’ majority (mostly non-graduate, patriotic, culturally conservative). It charts the rise of this new elite over the past 60 years as they supplanted the old land owning, aristocratic elite of the previous era.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. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. 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? He attributes this dissent to the huge gap in values during an age of identity politics. A cosmopolitan elite sits in opposition to the traditional Labour voter and as such the so called red wall was broken. The traditionalist favours leftwing politics and a slower rate of social change while the neoliberal economists push through rapid, scorched earth measures. The dissatisfaction has been fermenting for decades. There is little public trust left in social media so Russian bots aren’t to blame either. Rather there is a distinct period (begun under Margaret Thatcher|) that has culminated in a paper thin difference between the two political parties and leaves little in the way of traditional left/right democratic alternative.

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

And at root, that's what he's driving at: the raw populism of the moment. It's the same force Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn both wanted to harness: he doesn't really want to improve how politicians engage with the wider populace - oh no, that would be too hard. Instead he wants to recycle leftover political rhetoric from the last ten years or so. The elite the cosmopolitans, the few, these people who have rigged the system, who think they're better than you. He wants to harness your resentment in the service of something that, you can be sure, will be a thousand times worse than what we have now. I honestly believe that this situation will only get worse as the Labour party rides off over a cliff on its high horse - careless of who it mows down it's way and the Tory's level the playing field using a combo tank and battering ram forged by private enterprised and manned by cheap labour (of course it will breakdown and a replacement will be bought in from China).Ok so I started writing a llllllooonnnnnngggggg review here and realised that those who ought to read this book would not be swayed - after all I am not too far removed from the demographic that they have been ignoring or demonising for over three decades now. Goodwin rounds up many right leaning perspectives in one book, which is good. I particularly liked the inclusion of McWhorter’s work. There’s not clearly much new stuff here though, and I found the pace a bit dry. I’m left wanting a deeper exploration of the moral frameworks uniting these perspectives; but perhaps that’s a credit to the book. Not a bad read, but I’m not rushing to recommend it to all my friends. Forceful ... 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 Times Towards the end, Goodwin laughs at people who continue to see class as important in British politics. He must have forgotten some of his earlier chapters. This working class used to see people like themselves in parliament, representing them from within their own communities; but now is there no true diversity. The roles are being filled by those of a very similar class, who also hold very similar values.

Labour is doing well, but it could still lose the election

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. Other disproportionate harms are reflected in statistics on suicide, family breakdown, depression and the abuse of drink and drugs. Cast aside by a new elite that promotes “alternate families” they are increasingly seeing single parent households. The elites meanwhile maintain secure family units, favouring marriage and similarly minded spouses. The crux of this analysis is the counter-revolution being waged by the ‘traditionalists’ who feel that they have no say in the running of Britain and are looked upon with contempt by the ‘new elite’ who see themselves as morally and cognitively superior to the traditionalists and are embarrassed/ashamed of Britain and its history. The new elite cleaves to supra-national (and undemocratic) institutions such as the EU and cannot accept any rejection of their preferences further alienating the ‘traditionalists’ by labelling them racists, bigots, homophobes, Nazis and whatever else is available to them in the pejorative lexicon of the left.For Goodwin is no extremist, he makes clear early on that he is no fan of populists such as Le Pen or even Farage and Orban. Rather he sees populism as an inevitability when elite powers disregard the public will. He will present us with ‘big picture’ statistics in hope of reaching all interested parties across the polarised divides.

Values, voice and virtue : the new British politics Values, voice and virtue : the new British politics

Where might the real centre ground of British politics lie? “We love our NHS, hang the paedos” — that was a tongue-in-cheek formula sketched out in 2018 by Jeremy Driver, a tweeter who might just be the most influential political philosopher you’ve never heard of. His viral tweet came at the height of the excitement about a new centrist party, but little did Driver know that Boris Johnson would soon seize his mantra as the ideological path to power. Goodwin accepts that Corbyn was certainly a singularly unelectable candidate but asserts that he is not to blame for the gradual shift in attitudes, nor can the results be attributed to gullible idiots being misled by fear and propaganda. Ugaz’s case is all too familiar in Peru, where powerful groups regularly use the courts to silence journalists by fabricating criminal allegations against them.’Matthew Goodwin, acclaimed political scientist and co-author of National Populism, shows that the reason is not economic hardship, personalities or dark money. I enjoyed reading this book. Being written by a university professor I thought it might read like a glorified text book but it definitely did not. When I finally finished I felt that I had actually grasped what was going on in the crazy world of today. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. I read Values, Voice and Virtue book after reading Douglas Murray's The Strange Death of Europe, which I read a few months ago and came away from with the sense that immigration means something different in Europe than it does in the United States, and I went into the reason for that in my review of that book.