Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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There are several premises in Goodwin’s argumentation that, albeit not original, one would struggle to disagree with. For one, he is right to point out the erosion of significant differences between the two main political parties, Conservative and Labour, which have coalesced around the liberal consensus set up by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. He is also correct in linking that to the relative reduction in social mobility (from accountancy to architecture to acting), coupled with the rise of a new middle class that has benefitted from that liberal consensus and that has been increasingly detached from other social groups. Indeed, a significant part of this social group displays a broad liberal orientation on both economic and cultural matters. However, Goodwin uses these widely accepted observations to perform a series of logical and empirical leaps in the attempt to push a very transparent political agenda. So you would have to be pretty ignorant of the wider, well-known literature on the New Elite to think that what I’m arguing in Values, Voice and Virtue is particularly unique or outrageous. And yet, based on their reaction over the past week, many members of the New Elite clearly do think this about my argument. Their reaction has been very revealing. What has caused the recent seismic changes in British politics, including Brexit and a series of populist revolts against the elite? Why did so many people want to overturn the status quo? Where have the Left gone wrong? And what deeper trends are driving these changes? Universities are also a target. As Will Davies wrote in 2020, disdain for the humanities is a useful feature of contemporary conservatism since it helps “free marketeers to find common ground with nationalists … The figure of the publicly funded humanities graduate, whose cultural privilege grants them access to the London elite, fuels a paranoid fantasy that is now central to conservative ideology.” Funder reveals how O’Shaughnessy Blair self-effacingly supported Orwell intellectually, emotionally, medically and financially ... why didn’t Orwell do the same for his wife in her equally serious time of need?’

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A really key driver of populist politics is how you construct this notion of a cultural elite,” said Savage. “You say: they’re out of touch, but they’re very influential, and they’re working to thwart the will of the people. To be sure, there are people in universities, and journalism, and other places who have a degree of power – but they are not as cohesive or as dominant as that view suggests.” a b "Gerry Hassan: Matthew Goodwin's take on the current state of Britain is flawed". The National. 2023-04-11 . Retrieved 2023-07-12. 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. The analysis was clear, underpinned by sufficient statistics to support the analysis. Further forward looking projections would have enhanced my enjoyment. By prioritising the new graduate elite, as Jeremy Corbyn learned in 2019, Labour has been left dependent on voters concentrated in cities and university towns.’ Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty ImagesHe suggests that the majority might once again be treated with respect but Labour isn’t trusted, seemingly hitching its wagon to demographic shifts (47 out of the 50 regions with the highest muslim populations voted Labour) which has led to conflicts of interest such as covering up the industrial scale grooming gang activities that target British girls. An uneasy alliance indeed when these newcomers tend to be most conservative of all on issues such as gay/trans. Matt Goodwin ridiculed over bizarre claim in new video". Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate. 2023-07-04 . Retrieved 2023-07-12. On values, the blunt reality is that for too long Labour has routinely prioritised the worldview, the tastes and the priorities of the new middle-class graduate minority in the big cities and the university towns, while losing touch with much of the rest of the country.

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

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.’ It has been 26 years since the British children’s television show Teletubbies aired on TV for the first time, with its infamous grassy hill, Sun Baby and 10ft tall aliens capturing the hearts of children all over. Like with so much TV aimed at infants, Teletubbies made no sense, but its saturated colours and catchy songs made it a mainstay in children’s entertainment. 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. Rather than reflect on why so many of our institutions do not adequately reflect the full range of values and voices in British society, or attempt to grasp why so many voters are still so utterly disillusioned with political parties of the mainstream left and right, many in the New Elite prefer to put their fingers in their ears instead, or to silence and stigmatise anyone who disagrees with them. They want to pretend that the last decade in politics did not happen. In the last 20 years, as the gap between the group shorthanded as the 1% and everyone else has grown, academic studies of elites have grown with it. “It’s quite an old tradition,” said Mike Savage. “But it fell away in the 1980s. Recently, after Thomas Piketty and other economists starting talking about the 1%’s wealth, sociologists have started to look again for answers about who these people are.”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. 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.’ Universities have proven to be a hotbed of ideological indoctrination and are generally monocultures in which marginalised voices are silenced or discriminated against. 75% of rightwing academics feel they must hide their views and one third admit they would openly discriminate against a Brexit voter. Two thirds are positive about leftwing voters, with only 10% feeling the same about the right. This western trend for Frankfurt School-style echo chambers has seen political enfranchisement become a preserve of wealth and status.

Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics - Wikipedia

Goodwin replies to Cummings over new political party". Reaction. 16 August 2023 . Retrieved 26 August 2023. 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.

It has to be said that, whilst the author is an academic, this is not an academic book. It is more in the nature of informed journalism. So if the reader is looking for full citations and all of the other paraphernalia of an academic text, they will be disappointed. Of course, this makes it a good read and accessible to those who are not part of the academic priesthood. I see that as a plus point. Now, what Evans and Tilley say here is very interesting but the elisions of context made by Goodwin as well as his own contextualisation and obfuscating citation, mean a very misleading use of their work. This is just an example of the way he argues and cites. It's not academic (perhaps that's too new elite?) but it's also incompetent. It's what you'd expect from a lazy first year student at university, rushing out an essay. Not some leading academic, modern political philosopher. Members of the old elite derive their social status from wealth, income, holidays and leisure time. Members of the New Elite increasingly derive their status from their luxury beliefs and their allegiance to radical ‘woke’ progressivism (a worldview that some of them try to claim does not even exist). They rally behind the leading advocates of this new religion and deride those who are critical of it. They claim to be committed to liberalism and pluralism, while simultaneously avoiding or shutting down debate with anybody who might hold different beliefs to their own. Who benefits from deflecting away from material issues during the biggest living cost crisis in a generation? In Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics, Matthew Goodwin claims that recent upheavals in British society (like Brexit) have emerged in response to the rise of a liberalised, globalised ruling class, or “new elite.” Goodwin’s emphasis on “culture wars” over empirical evidence fails to convince Vladimir Bortun.