Goodwin was the director of the Centre for UK Prosperity, itself an offshoot of the Legatum Institute, a pro-Brexit, libertarian think-tank funded by a New Zealand-born billionaire. He has had support for his thesis from fellow anti-elitists Lord Frost, the former diplomat and civil servant who was Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator; Melanie Phillips, a newspaper columnist since 1987; and Piers Morgan, a television presenter.

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. Tony Blair’s speechwriter Andrew Neather confirmed that this rapid sprint towards “Hyper diversity” was seen as a punishment for the conservative British public, rubbing their noses in something they didn’t want or vote for. Thus doing, New Labour alienated the interests of traditional voters who live on the front line and feel the effects first hand. The example of Sports Direct undercutting British workers is given when they moved out of town and then imported 3500 foreign workers to staff the premises. Each of these revolts won considerable support from ex-Labour voters who wanted less immigration, slower social change and more political influence, while no longer believing Labour represented “people like them”. Yet, too often, they were labelled racists, “ gammons” and “ Karens” for thinking this way. 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.Bland, Archie (14 April 2023). "Friday briefing: Has a 'woke aristocracy' really taken control of British society?". The Guardian . Retrieved 26 August 2023. Many people disagree with Goodwin – and we might think that the ease with which his ideas have spread is evidence against his claim that progressives are exercising such an iron grip on what is “acceptable … within the national conversation”. But he claims that his critics are simply in denial about the fact that they are part of the same elite that he says has cut ordinary voters adrift from a say in how the country is run. Today’s newsletter, with the London School of Economics sociologist and expert on elites Mike Savage, is about how much of this is true, and what other elites might also have a say. Prashant, this is true, but needs the addition that these flows of Ideas are almost entirely from the West. The West basically created Philosophy and Psychology and individualism and Marx, existentialism, Feminism, and on and on..

Values, Voice and Virtue is certainly a work of sociological insight. But it’s also a much-needed corrective. It gives voice to those whose values are scarcely heard or represented by the media. As Goodwin writes of these members of the devalued majority, ‘they no longer feel their voice is represented in the institutions; and they no longer feel that, relative to others, their group is recognised as having the same amount of social status, prestige, dignity and moral worth’. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference after signing the ‘Stop Woke Act’. Photograph: Miami Herald/TNS Stacey Dooley and a Ukrainian recruit in Ready For War. Photograph: Blanca Munoz/BBC/True Vision East a b Bortun, Vladimir. "Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics ⁠–⁠ review". LSE Review of Books . Retrieved 25 August 2023. He loves to use 'only' and 'just' to present survey data in a way that makes it APPEAR to more closely reflect his argument. Sometimes the data doesn't really show what he wants it to, and so he uses this to make you think that it does.Football | Premier League clubs have agreed to ban gambling sponsors on the front of shirts from the start of the 2026-27 season. But while campaigners welcomes the move, they also said it was “incoherent” as gambling brands will still be able to advertise on sleeves and pitch side hoardings. 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. Many would also agree with his view that this group was blind to the evidence that a majority would vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, arguably Britain’s defining anti-elitist event of the 21st century. Who benefits from deflecting away from material issues during the biggest living cost crisis in a generation?