Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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Le Pen hovers ambiguously in the middle of the national populist spectrum, fusing nationalism to social democracy and an aggressive defence of western values. Her brand-washing, gender and comparatively youthful support do important work in Eatwell and Goodwin’s narrative, providing a face of national populism that convincingly defies the prejudices of liberal elites. In their characterisation, Le Pen is a hybrid of cultural conservative and social liberal, and Muslims are unfortunate to fall foul on both counts. It would be hard to come up with a better line-up of analysts to dig into both the long- and short-term drivers of Britain's decision to leave the EU. Whether you're a Leaver or a Remainer, the vote for Brexit needs explaining - and this is just the book to do it.' Tim Bale, Queen Mary University of London and author of The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron At the time, we almost invariably find something to argue about which seems, and may even be, a matter of life and death. In 1972, the worst year of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, 479 people, including 130 British soldiers, were killed.

National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy

Just as Rishi Sunak tries to calm things down, Goodwin wishes to persuade us that “British politics is coming apart”. He says a “New Elite” consisting of university graduates with “radically progressive values” has taken control of our institutions and looks down on “the morally inferior masses”, whom it dismisses as racists and xenophobes. The duty of the Opposition is to oppose, and within each party is found an awkward squad which scorns the path taken by the leadership and campaigns for a change of direction.has taken full control of the political institutions, the think tanks, the civil service, the public bodies, the universities, the creative industries, the cultural institutions and much of the media.” When Eatwell and Goodwin engage in social science, rather than market research, the implications are striking. They identify a nub of the problem as one of major, long-term demographic shifts, in which the population of Africa could be 10 times that of Europe by 2100, with numerous forces driving migration northwards. “The questions that are being asked by national populists about immigration and its associated problems will become even more important,” they assure us. Eatwell and Goodwin like to believe that they and their associates are the only ones facing up to this “uncomfortable” reality, but it is little short of fantasy to claim that, when Salvini demanded a “mass cleansing, street by street, quarter by quarter”, he was just asking a “question”. She with prudent boldness tamed the unions, and the country was by the 1980s ready, albeit under protest, to accept the high price of doing so. Although one cannot know what disasters are about to occur, the hysteria provoked by Boris Johnson does not seem any greater than the hysteria provoked, in their different ways, by Enoch Powell, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson or Margaret Thatcher. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) was the most significant new party in British politics for a generation. Its rise set the stage for the later vote for Brexit. The first serious study of UKIP and its supporters, Revolt on the Rightdrew on an unprecedented amount of survey data and interviews with party insiders to explain its rise and impact. Winner of the2015 Political Book of the Year and long-listed for the Orwell Prize, Revolt has since been selected by academics as one of the most influential twenty books in modern Britain.

This obsession with a ‘new elite’ hides the real roots of

The trade unions founded the Parliamentary Labour Party, and for generations provided political education for working-class organisers and negotiators who went on to become MPs, and in Callaghan’s case Prime Minister. We do sometimes learn from our mistakes. One would not wish to overstate this, and should note that any really serious problem is likely to take generations to sort out.

The working class had a stake in the country, not just because by going on strike they could bring it to a grinding halt, but through such brilliant figures as Ernest Bevin, who had started life in rural poverty, left school at the age of 11, created the Transport and General Workers’ Union, became an indispensable member of Churchill’s War Cabinet, and as Foreign Secretary helped create NATO and West Germany. a clearly visible section of the New Elite [my capitals] believe Western nations such as Britain are institutionally racist, see their British identity and history as a source of shame, feel much less pride than others in the nation, and feel much less attached to their national identity and the wider national group.”