Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics

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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 cover displays a political schism and Goodwin hits us with stats on how many of the public consider Britain to be broken, seven in ten feel misunderstood and points to the three big revolts; namely the rise of UKIP, Brexit and Boris Johnson breaking down ‘the red wall’ in his crushing victory over Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. In its details, it’s a portrait that Mills would recognise. “Their very identity as high-flying, highly accomplished graduates of elite institutions,” Goodwin observes, “gives them a profoundly important and highly collective sense of unity” and “shapes their values and collective loyalties”. This sense of collective identity is “strengthened by their social networks, which are usually filled with other elite graduates from other elite universities. More often than not, people from the new graduate elite marry other members of the graduate elite.” The image of a distinct new elite, defined by education and values, standing over the common people, has a long history

Shouldn’t social scientists welcome this kind of critical interrogation and debate? Isn’t history a science to be rewritten in the light of new evidence and arguments? 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’. Goodwin, Matthew (3 August 2020). "How universities shut out conservative academics". UnHerd . Retrieved 21 August 2023. Rachel Aroesti welcomes the inclusion of Elton John in the V&A’s celebration of the diva, regrets the exclusion of Kendall Roy, and hopes the whole thing won’t ruin what makes divas great. “The diva is not supposed to be a wholly serious – or virtuous –proposition,” she adds. “She really doesn’t need to be reframed as an emblem of societal progress.” ArchieSeven new Social Mobility Commissioners appointed". Government Equalities Office . Retrieved 2 September 2022. Former prime minister Liz Truss, who is not part of Britain’s elite. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP Either Goodwin doesn't understand that the groups he talks about overlap, or he doesn't want to dig into the nuance. He talks about the working class as if it is only made up of white and straight people. There's no recognition that many people of colour/LGBT+ people are also working class. Freedland, Jonathan (26 October 2018). "Don't normalise the far right. But sometimes we must take it on". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 12 July 2023.

People who study cults sometimes end up joining them. Has this fate befallen Matthew Goodwin, one of Britain’s most visible scholars of the hard right? Since the release of his debut monograph on Ukip, Revolt on the Right (2014), Goodwin has scaled the heights of academic stardom: a professorship at Kent, a fellowship at Chatham House, advisory roles with the UK government, regular media appearances and lucrative after-dinner speeches. Shot to prominence by the boom in “populism studies”, he has joined the crop of political scientists who counsel mainstream policymakers on defusing challenges from the margins. Yet, while mapping the contours of Farageism over the past decade, he has steadily mutated into an advocate for its most crankish tendencies.Goodwin and his National Populism coauthor Roger Eatwell have argued about the USA that political polarization has been caused by "an increasing fixation or near-total obsession among Democrats and the liberal left with race, gender and ‘diversity’". [41] Goodwin’s book is the best we know in analysing the strong tides in current politics and we offer the following paragraphs as brief guide to his ideas. For those who want a longer introduction Goodwin’s speech at the National Conservative conference last week is a good place to start.

Party politics this isn’t, his argument is that the two leading political parties in the UK are virtually indistinguishable in their service of a new elite and have failed to serve the values, voice and virtues of the British electorate. As such he follows in the footsteps of commentators such David Goodhart, John Gray and Eric Kaufmann. Hassan, Gerry (14 May 2023). "It's time for a long and hard look at the state of the UK's democracy". The National . Retrieved 21 August 2023.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.”

Payne, Sebastian. "Values, Voice and Virtue by Matthew Goodwin review — has the Tory party bungled the post-Brexit realignment?". According to Huw Davies and Sheena McGrae, Goodwin's "concerns about wokeism are a recurrent theme in his output". Goodwin has described "wokeism" as "a pseudo-religion". He has acted as an adviser to the Conservative Party and in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest supported "anti-woke campaigner" Kemi Badenoch, referring to her as ‘one of the most interesting Conservatives in British politics for a very long time’. He supports the Conservative government's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, [11] and has advised the party to raise “the salience of cultural issues”. Malik argues that Goodwin now advocates a politics that a decade earlier he would have described as "toxic". [46] As of September 2022 [update] he serves on the Social Mobility Commission. [2] Early life and education [ edit ] Zoe Williams writes about the iconic, 83-year-old plastic storage container brand Tupperware as it teeters to the brink of insolvency. Nimo If you believed academics are no longer relevant beyond their own professional bubble, Matthew Goodwin’s latest book has come to challenge that perception. Although it has been passionately praised and criticised across mainstream and social media, one shortcoming of most reactions has been to treat the book as a scholarly work.

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Given all of that, it might seem bold to argue that it is the sneering cognoscenti who rule the roost. But Goodwin and his allies argue that these developments are all part of a rearguard action to defend traditional values against an agenda driven by a shadowy minority. If anyone disagrees, that is simply proof of their original thesis: that the new elite is out of touch. It used to be argued that the main problem of British democracy was the large incoherent mass of irrational voters. Today it is the elite. Increasingly those who have assumed power in British politics and institutions have lost touch with the majority of voters in three respects: Good Point James, I was just being provocative for fun – the troll in me is something I must always try to keep restrained. This group “creates, filters and determines what is or what is not acceptable or desirable within the national conversation”, Goodwin writes. “The new elite watched the prevailing culture be completely reshaped around their far more socially liberal values, tastes, political priorities, and interests.”