Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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one of the most important books on British politics to have appeared for many years." Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Kings College London Ford and Goodwin haven’t just talked to everyone who counts and crunched all the data that’s out there. They’ve produced a really approachable book on a party which, by providing disoriented and disillusioned voters with the alternative they’ve been looking for, may well make a big impact at the next election and beyond." Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London, author ofThe Conservative Party: From Thatcher to Cameron 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. Lee Anderson, recently interviewed on ConHome, is a Tory Democrat, never happier than when teasing the New Elite.

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This book presents an insightful and highly informative analysis of the most significant independent challenge to the existing party system in England. It is a must read for anyone interested in the future of British politics."John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University and a research consultant for ScotCen Social Research 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. National Populism is a self-styled myth-buster. In particular, it aims to disabuse hardcore liberals of any lingering hope that the last three years have been but a blip, after which transnational, elite-led politics will return to normal. This message is less iconoclastic than the authors appear to believe, as any glance at doom-laden Economist op-eds or the latest non-fiction book releases will attest. Remainers and Brussels technocrats are taking up the fight against Brexiters and “illiberal democrats”, precisely because they now recognise that they have a formidable opponent on their hands. Nevertheless, Eatwell and Goodwin hammer away at their prophecy of a populist future, as if they don’t trust the reader to grasp it at the first 18 attempts. National populism is only distinguished from nationalism and racism in that its supporters do not see themselves in these terms 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.But Matthew Goodwin contends that “the new British politics” of the last decade “is far more volatile, chaotic, divisive, and unpredictable”.

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More usefully, they provide copious evidence that rightwing populism has been a long time in the making. They organise this evidence into four Ds: distrust in elites, destruction of national culture, deprivation in the economic sphere and dealignment in political identification and voting behaviour. Their review of postwar political and economic history is informative and often compelling, providing clarity around a number of key debates within political science and political theory for the uninitiated. The EU is presented, not unreasonably, as a fundamentally elitist and undemocratic project, while neoliberal globalisation (implausibly described as “the most significant change in terms of its impact” to have afflicted capitalism in more than 400 years) is explored as a basis of rising resentment, not so much due to its material effects as its psychological ones. Rising inequality and immigration produce a feeling of relative deprivation, that one is getting unfairly overtaken by others. This book begins with the strange suggestion that British politics used to be considered “stable, boring, moderate and consensual”. Only in retrospect, when the alarms of the moment have faded, can such a complacent judgement be reached. Goodwin only refers in passing to the Establishment, a term coined by Henry Fairlie in 1955, and instead describes, in his opening chapter, the “Rise of the New Elite”, which according to him No doubt many of them do, but Goodwin is Professor of Politics at the University of Kent, and does not think the same as every one of his colleagues.This is a canny and deceptive intellectual move. It would be strange to define socialism in terms of the hopes and fears of trade unionists, or liberalism in terms of the worldview of a free rights-holding individual. And yet national populism is only really distinguished from nationalism and racism by the fact that its supporters do not see themselves in these terms. Inversely, Eatwell and Goodwin’s insistence that Le Pen or Wilders are not racist politicians rests on the PR efforts these figures have made to detoxify their images as racists in the eyes of the public and media. Ultimately, the category of national populism is stretched in so many directions that it obscures more distinctions than it illuminates. It starts with an eminently understandable desire to be listened to and recognised, but then extends to demagoguery, violent threats and wall-building. If the language of racism, nationalism and fascism is really not adequate to distinguish between the desire for stable community and Salvini’s vicious hatred of refugees, between alienation from unelected elites and Orbán’s dismantling of the rule of law, then find a language that will. The book’s timing (completed in summer 2018) rescues them from having to stretch national populism to accommodate Brazil’s new president-elect. 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 But if one does so, one sees that the New Elite is nothing like as new as Goodwin supposes it to be. It has existed in various insufferable forms for a long time, and it led Disraeli to develop a form of politics attractive to newly enfranchised members of the skilled working class: