Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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Martin Shaw compared the book unfavourably with Goodwin's work a decade earlier, arguing that whereas he was previously working with "serious scholars, helping to produce some real research", in Values, Voice and Virtue "he’s finally gone solo and it shows." Shaw called the book "a debasement of social-scientific elite theory." [19] 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] An excellent book for understanding the current state of play in British politics. Matthew Goodwin argues that the economic liberalism of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government combined with the cultural liberalism of Tony Blair's New Labour regime has created a political culture in the United Kingdom that is now just as polarised as that of America or continental Europe. The divide is now mainly between the university-educated, socially liberal, and pro-mass immigration elite on the one hand and the culturally conservative national populists on the other. The latter group tend to be more right-wing on cultural issues, but more left-wing on economics. The analysis was clear, underpinned by sufficient statistics to support the analysis. Further forward looking projections would have enhanced my enjoyment.

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At the same time, Goodwin sidelines the most pressing issues that face ordinary people today, according to the people themselves. The latest release from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey shows the five biggest issues are the cost of living (92%), the NHS (85%), the economy (78%), climate change and the environment (62%) and housing (55%). They are all very material issues and have little to do with the “culture war” that is Goodwin’s primary concern. They have more to do with the neoliberal, right-wing policymaking that has shaped British society over the past few decades. Goodwin pays lip service to this (see 100), only to reemphasise culture as the key cleavage in British politics today. Why? Who benefits from deflecting away from material issues during the biggest living cost crisis in a generation? Having made all the arguments here for more than half a decade, he needed a new peg on which to hang them. He's plumped for a clear division between the 'old elite' and the 'new elite'. Apparently, the 'new elite' are different from the old because they have Oxbridge educations, have a 'loud and dominant' voice in institutions, and have a sense of moral righteousness that makes them believe they are superior to non-elites. This was compounded by geography. By prioritising the new graduate elite, as Jeremy Corbyn learned in 2019, Labour was left heavily dependent on voters who are simply too narrowly concentrated in the cities and university towns to win large majorities in a first-past-the-post system.The argument has it that the new progressives have formed a technocratic elite that dominates the public conversation through their assertion of their values in public institutions, such as broadcasting, the Civil Service, and the metropolitan business elite. These institutions are used to amplify their voice beyond their membership to the exclusion of all other voices. And they are used to parade their virtue to the detriment of all other strands of opinion throughout society. Daniel Lavelle spoke to people who have decided, or been forced, to live in caravans as rising rents and section 21 evictions make housing increasingly precarious for many. Nimo

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

Rachel Aroesti welcomes the inclusion of Elton John in the V&A’s celebration of the diva, regrets the exclusion of Kendall Roy, and hopes the whole thing won’t ruin what makes divas great. “The diva is not supposed to be a wholly serious – or virtuous –proposition,” she adds. “She really doesn’t need to be reframed as an emblem of societal progress.” Archie

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I found this analysis of the breakdown in traditional voting patterns both fascinating and comforting. Fascinating in that it brought into focus the conditions which can give rise to populist political figures and comforting in that it shed light on my feelings of political dismay about political discourse and my changing relationship to politics and how we are governed. Matthew Goodwin, acclaimed political scientist and co-author of National Populism, shows that the reason is not economic hardship, personalities or dark money.