The Overton Window
From Owen Jones’s The Establishment, Location 774. According to this biography of George Osborne, which I’m amazed at myself for having read, the window of political acceptability is a key factor in Osborne’s strategic thinking: What the corporate-backed outriders have achieved is this. They have helped shift the goalposts of […]
Owen Jones – The Establishment And How They Get Away With It
I still think he should have called the book Toffs but I’m nontheless looking forward to reading it:
What would a viable left-wing populist agenda for the UK look like?
Quite a lot like this I’d imagine. I’ll never understand the contempt with which some on the left regard Owen Jones. I think this is great: 1) A statutory living wage, with immediate effect, for large businesses and the public sector, and phased in for small and medium businesses over a […]
If America has a communist President then perhaps Britain could have a socialist Prime Minister?
I’m morbidly fascinated by the political culture of the American right and someday hope to do work on it, though I’m not sure what form that might take. In the 10 years or so I’ve been keenly following American politics, it’s got progressively weirder and shows no signs of abating. In fact […]
The strange passions of ex-leftists
There is a breed of ex-leftists who can’t stand the left more than anyone. They have the zealousness of the convert and the bitterness of ex-lovers. Cohen is one; another is Bloodworth, who he describes as a “genuine leftist rather than a poseur”, who has gone from being a member […]
Chavs, Feral Youth, Moral Panics, #UKRiots
I’ve been reading Chavs by Owen Jones all day and I’m surprised by quite how broadly thought-provoking it is. From the reviews I was certainly expecting a good book but not such a sensitive and wide ranging engagement with the culture and politics of modern Britain. One thing that particularly piqued […]
