Gerry Hassan: Matthew Goodwin’s take on Britain is flawed

One explanation of our current quagmire which is making a lot of waves comes from academic Matthew Goodwin in his latest book, Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics.

Goodwin analysed the rise of the populist right in Britain in his first two books – Revolt on the Right on the emergence of a right-wing populism which predated Brexit, and UKIP, which addressed Faragist Eurosceptic populism.

The new book should be taken seriously as Goodwin is seen by many as a sage of the current state of the UK, its broken politics, economy and society, and the revolt against this.

Goodwin opens the book by stating: “British politics is coming apart. The symptoms of this crisis are all around: widespread disillusionment with politicians in Westminster, a growing sense of despair with the direction of the country, a fragmented UK …” – the latter is one of the few references to the multi-national nature of the UK.

He charges that a new elite – very different from the old – have seized control of the UK, writing: “Britain’s new ruling class look and sound very different from the old elite who dominated the country during the 20th century.”

He continues: “Decades ago, the country was run by upper-class aristocrats, landowners and industrialists who were united by their hereditary titles, their wealth, and importantly, their instinctively conservative values.”

While conceding that this group still exists, he believes they have been superceded by a “new elite” bound by their Oxbridge or Russell Group university education, cultural power and control of key public institutions such as the BBC.

This is where problems with Goodwin’s analysis begin.

For a start he conflates a “new elite” with a “ruling class”, never offering a definition of the latter, or how this class supposedly rules when faced with successive right-wing Conservative governments.

Liz Truss was only in power briefly but her economic policies were maybe the most right wing since Thatcher (Image: © Archant Norfolk 2014)

As seriously, he conflates the dominant UK political trends of the past five decades with its capture by the “new elite” who have “imposed on the rest of the country a political revolution which has completely changed Britain”.

He writes of three major trends over this period – hyper-globalisation, mass immigration and the hollowing out of national democracy as power shifted to supernational bodies; of Thatcherism’s “radical economic liberalism” and Blair’s “radical cultural liberalism”; which has then resulted in “left and right converged on the same political territory, becoming indistinguishable.”

This sweeping account of recent times is despite the dominance of Conservative governments the product of a “radically progressive” elite. Thatcherism is critiqued for the economic dislocation it created; similarly, Trussonomcs is given a short shift.

But Goodwin lacks any subtlety about differing elite perspectives – lumping Thatcherism, New Labour and Cameron-Sunak Conservatism as embodying the “new elite”, ignoring that a period so dominated by Conservative governments and ideas can hardly be described as “progressive”, while different priorities and changes in that elite are mostly unexplored.

Missing in the Goodwin analysis, apart from the dismissal of Trussonomics, is an understanding of the uber-right-wing ideological offensive to take Thatcherism onto the next stage – privatisation, marketisation and the hollowing out of the state – which so excites them.

Hence Goodwin’s “elite” includes “newspaper editors” and “think-tankers”, but you will not find a mention of Paul Dacre, Murdoch or the Barclay brothers.

Nor the increasingly hysterical right-wing press or right-wing think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs or Taxpayers’ Alliance – despite their role in the disaster of Trussonomics and the fact that they have not gone away.

There is a curt rejection of concerns about forces threatening democracy. He cites Peter Geoghegan’s view that: “We know that millions and millions of pounds were spent on Facebook ads in the 2016 Brexit referendum” and describes this as about “the supposed role of dark money” which he dismisses as a “fashionable narrative”, and hence not worthy of serious consideration. How suspiciously “elitist” of Goodwin!

The selectivity of Goodwin’s take undermines his case, but it is true that UK politics did experience a dramatic realignment which fed and then brought about Brexit and the post-Brexit Conservative 2019 victory.

But as Sunder Katwala points out, Goodwin is talking about a Britain already in the past – the realignment of 2016-19 which Boris Johnson’s personal shortcomings and the inherent contradictions of Toryism and Brexit blew apart.

Goodwin does mention in passing the “backlash against the backlash” – the rise of Keir Starmer’s Labour, LibDems, Greens and SNP, but that is all mentioned without any analysis. And certainly, Green politics, environmental causes and climate change do not figure at all.

READ MORE: Scottish Greens ignite rage from Fergus Ewing and Alex Massie

That is not the only omission in a book with the subtitle: The New British Politics. In its 240 pages, it contains not one single sentence on Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Hence it excludes Scotland’s 2014 indyref, or the rise of Sinn Fein and the issue of Irish reunification – both amplified by Brexit and the right-wing populism he has addressed over years.

Goodwin, it turns out, is not really talking about “British politics” on populism. Rather he is talking about English populism. Critically and unstated, Goodwin poses this English populism as speaking for and representing Britain, without once noting the fissures and tensions that brings forth.

Such serious oversights have not stopped Goodwin elsewhere from weighing in and commenting on Scottish politics – alongside numerous other commentary pieces.

In The Sunday Times, he itemised the failings of the SNP and called their dominance “a one-party state”.

This was oblivious to Scotland having a PR-elected Parliament, the SNP’s lack of an overall majority, or their agreement with the Greens in government.

READ MORE: Humza Yousaf is just one part of Next Generation Independence

Itemising a list of deep-seated policy issues which scar Scotland such as poor life expectancy and health inequalities, Goodwin puts all the blame for this on the SNP “because only one party has controlled the country since 2007.”

All aided by “no serious opposition, a largely compliant media – including a supine BBC” and “a left-leaning chattering class.” Clearly he hasn’t read the “Scottish Daily Mail” or some of the many right-leaning chattering classes!

Similarly, he chides the SNP for their “populism” – the very characteristic he has spent his time studying and expressed admiration of its right-wing English articulation around Farage and Boris Johnson.

Double standards abound here as Goodwin is silent in all his writings on the Tories winning the 2019 election on 44% of the vote giving them a parliamentary majority of 80 seats – and the perils of “one-party state” politics at Westminster.

The Goodwin analysis matters because we are living in an age of disruption which shows no sign of ending, while alongside this the forces of right-wing populism will not go away anytime soon.

British society is not a happy place, but a land marked by anger, bitterness and disappointment, alongside betrayal.

Goodwin’s perspective offers one account of this: informed by lots of data, but it is deeply suspect, partial and partisan.

He, for example, has little of substance to say on the state of the economy and poor wages, employment conditions and endemic poverty as contributors to dissatisfaction.

Rather, it suits his validation of right-wing populism to prioritise “culture war” issues and charge that an out-of-touch liberal elite does not care about working-class or north-of-England concerns.

Goodwin has gone from an observer to a participant.

As Sunder Katwala’s Literary Review assessment of the book noted this is “more in the style of a prosecuting barrister than a dispassionate judge, for this is a book as much of advocacy as analysis” and in Will Hutton’s similar take, Goodwin has become “an active right-wing advocate.”

In the UK as across the West, there is a right-wing assault on democracy, social and human rights, and an attempt to hijack how public conversations happen and what can and cannot be discussed by attacking traditional institutions such as the BBC and creating new ideological media platforms such as GB News.

READ MORE: GB News: Ofcom investigates Tory MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies

Hutton commented that a “coup needs useful intellectuals” and Matt Goodwin is one of the leading advocates for the trashing of what is precious about democracy and the values people care about.

It is not hyperbole to call this a “coup” – not in the Trumpian sense of violently assaulting democracy, but in slowly eroding, then destroying, the way politics and power are undertaken to aid the uber-right.

We need to wake up fast, start addressing and taking action on the big issues and challenge the ideological assault of the right and its apologists.

The new authoritarians are coming to undermine fundamental rights and if we let them they will ultimately destroy democracy itself.